England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) were set up by the NHS in 2013 to drive the uptake of health innovation and support economic growth.

We were relicensed this year to operate as the key innovation arm of the NHS, and one of the main ways we do this is by creating the conditions for collaboration between the NHS and industry.

The UK is home to some of the world’s best MedTech and digital entrepreneurs and the AHSNs are helping unlock the game-changing potential of innovation to transform health services – improving patient outcomes, driving down the cost of care and generating economic growth and investment.

With this in mind, we operate a wide range of initiatives to support SMEs - and one of these is our new Digital Health Accelerator programme.

Based on the successful DigitalHealth.London Accelerator which has supported 60 companies to date, the East Midlands is one of four sites to roll out this programme during 2018, alongside the AHSN areas in the South West, Manchester and Kent Surrey Sussex.

Through the programme the AHSNs provide in-depth knowledge of local NHS services to high potential digital companies to help them refine, develop, and scale their innovations

I’m delighted that today (12 September) we have announced the first two companies to be supported in the first wave of the East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator. They are:

• Spirit Digital who have developed the CliniTouch Vie digital solution to help patients manage their health conditions and prevent avoidable admissions to hospital. CliniTouch Vie is a locked-down tablet provided with integrated 3G providing intensive monitoring, patient education and empowerment. It features integrated direct messaging and video support. Dynamic care plans and evidence-based algorithms enable automatic triage for healthcare teams.
• Howz, made by the company Intelesant Ltd, provides reassurance and insights for older people and patients with long-term conditions or multiple conditions. It helps them to detect changes in their health early so they can take action before reach health crisis.

The accelerator is just one of the way we are supporting SMEs and one of the things that makes AHSNs unique is our ability to support UK industry to develop innovation.

Our track record speaks for itself: between 2013 and 2018 across the 15 AHSNs we facilitated £330 million of investment and helped create 500 jobs.

Other ways are helping SMEs are via ‘Innovation Exchanges’: these are processes funded by the Government’s Office for Life Sciences that bring together companies with the NHS to match proven solutions to existing challenges.

We have also created the ‘Innovation Pathway’ to provide advice and support from ideas through to testing, evaluating, developing strong business cases and successful commercialisation.

To find out more about what we do and how we can support you to realise the potential of your innovations, get in touch with our industry experts.

For more about the East Midlands AHSN visit www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk 

Tel: 0115 82 31300

For updates on our support, event and funding opportunities follow us on Twitter @EM_AHSN and sign up to our newsletter at www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk/updates 

For more about the work of the AHSNs across England visit www.ahsnnetwork.com and for examples of AHSN innovations visit www.atlas.ahsnnetwork.com 

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Mike Hannay is Managing Director of East Midlands AHSN and Chair of the AHSN Network