Accelerated Access Review published – well worth a read

October 24, 2016 | by

The Accelerated Access Review is published today. Readers with long memories will recall that it kicked off in the Spring of 2015 aimed at accelerating the uptake of innovation in to the NHS. It had three technical streams – pharma, medtech & digital health, plus a patient stream. This editor, as Managing Director of DHACA, was the digital health champion.

DHACA members were heavily engaged in the consultation, so it is gratifying to see that all DHACA recommendations were accepted. Most important were recommendations that:

  • NICE broaden its reach to include more medtech & digital health recommendations, and consider other means of funding;
  • there be closer alignment of regulatory and NICE data requirements and processes (currently, there can be duplication);
  • a strategic commercial unit is established in the NHS;
  • a small amount of funding is offered to support the commercialisation of disruptive innovative technologies that significantly change care pathways;
  • products not referred to NICE should be assessed only once by NHSE;
  • the route for digital products should build on the “Paperless 2020” simplified app assessment process;
  • the Crown Commercial Service, in partnership with NHS Digital, NHS England, the Department of Health and other system and technology partners, should consider how best to develop an accessible, simple and swift competitive process for procuring digital products from SMEs;
  • NHS England, working with NHS Digital, should develop a generic framework for app prescription.

When implemented, these and all the other recommendations in the report will go a long way to (more…)

The Accelerated Access Review – a personal journey

February 23, 2016 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AAR-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]The Accelerated Access Review (AAR) aims to speed up access by NHS patients to innovative medicines, medtech and diagnostics, and digital health. Of these, digital health is the newest, and because it enables care to be delivered in a far more efficient and patient-centric way, offers great hope for the future of improved patient outcomes and controlled costs.

As someone outside government who was drawn into the digital health stream of the AAR, this blog aims to capture key learnings from the experience.

Challenges

The initial list of obstacles to innovation in the NHS was depressingly long, until carefully differentiated. Top of the pile were items like the NHS’s asymmetric attitude to risk – successful innovations are forgotten, unsuccessful innovations are a life sentence for those involved – which are soluble only by those at the very top.

Then there were the surmountable challenges – for example the fear, uncertainty and doubt over digital health regulation was overcome by (more…)

What’s caught my digital health interest recently

September 30, 2015 | by

At the Royal Society of Medicine we’ve just announced our next medical apps event on 7th April next year, Medical apps; mainstreaming innovation in which we feature for the first time a presentation by Pam Kato, a Professor of Serious Games, so it’s intriguing to see the iMedicalApps review of a clinician-facing serious game, iConcur, for anaesthetists.

We also have a powerful presentation on mental health apps from Ieso Digital Health which doubtless will make the same point as has been made in previous events that online mental health services typically are more effective than face:face. The abstract to the recent Lancet paper by Dr Lisa Marzano et al, examining this topic in great detail, suggests that the academics are now a long way to working out why this is the case and offers further potential improvements; aspiring mental health app developers unable to access the full paper may consider it worth paying $31.50 (or join the RSM to access it for free).

A regular at the RSM’s Appday is Dr Richard Brady’s presentation on Bad Apps, which next year will now doubtless include mention of the FTC’s recent fifth action against an app provider, UltimEyes, with deceptively claiming they their program was scientifically proven to improve the user’s eye sight.

Moving to good apps (more…)

Accelerated Access Review – my blog

September 6, 2015 | by

As a member of the Stakeholder Reference Group of the Accelerated Access Review, this editor was recently invited to write a blog to encourage contributions to the review, the purpose of which is to identify actions necessary to accelerate the uptake of innovation into the NHS. It seemed a shame for the blog also not to be shared with TelecareAware readers, so here it is:

The Digital Health & Care Alliance (DHACA), of which I am Managing Director, has a strong interest in the success of the Accelerated Access Review, both because the majority of our 550-odd members work in SMEs whose very existence depends on the responsiveness of the health & care organisations in the UK, and because all of our members have a strong interest in improving patient outcomes & treatment efficiency.

One thing I’m going to be very interested in seeing emerge from the Review is the consensus on how innovators gather and use evidence to develop their product to meet the demands of the NHS and needs of patients. In DHACA we think we have a fairly clear idea about how our members go about this, however we can only claim to represent the digital health stream in the Review, and then only for small organisations. Allied to this is the much tougher question for many, particularly our smaller and more innovative members, of how to sell to the NHS. (more…)

Events dear boy, events: a roundup of UK digital health stuff this autumn

August 18, 2015 | by

This editor accumulated vast piles of notifications when on a two week holiday recently – here is the cream of the events notified. More to follow on resources shortly.

Between 4-6th September, SECC Glasgow is holding what it claims is the first ever medical education hackathon.

On the 14th September the free-to-attend London Health Technology Forum, organised by this editor, has an evening devoted to Exits (of the financially very lucrative kind). Baker Botts’ experienced lawyers will describe with examples the different exits available to the successful entrepreneur, why it’s important to plan ahead, and what the plusses and minuses are of each type of exit. Essential knowledge if you hope to become rich from your hard work & dedication.

On 17th September, KPMG are holding a free all-day event entitled ‘Information Protection in Digital Health’ at (more…)