Embracing innovation and entrepreneurship in the NHS is a key way to help the NHS achieve its ambitions as set out in the Long Term Plan – unlocking the potential for great ideas and new technologies to both improve patient outcomes and enable more efficient use of NHS resources.

Today (5 March 2020) the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) announced its 2020 programme introducing a new cohort of 11 high impact evidence based innovations.

This programme – a partnership between the NHS and the AHSN Network (the collaboration of England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks) is to support the uptake and spread of innovations into the NHS for patient benefit, ensuring that new technologies reach patients faster.

I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the latest cohort of NIA ‘fellows’ and hosted a session during which each of the 11 fellows pitched their innovation.

This was a fantastic experience and it brought home to me that innovation is going from strength to strength, with a range of technologies that are helping streamline NHS services and supporting patients to take more control of their own care.

In particular, I was thrilled that another innovator supported by the East Midlands AHSN – the fourth since the NIA scheme was launched in 2015 – has been announced.

Tony Doyle is the inspirational Managing Director of a flourishing start-up called Qbtech, which has developed the QbTest. It is a CE-marked, FDA approved medical device that simultaneously measures attention, impulsivity and motor activity that has been proven to reduce the time taken for a child to be given a diagnostic decision as to whether they have ADHD.

We have supported Tony since 2015, enabling the rollout of this innovation into community paediatrics and CAMHS services, focusing on reducing the time to diagnosis of ADHD in young people.

England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks are uniquely placed to broker relationships and provide expert support to health innovators.

We provided Qbtech with a range of advice and assistance through the stages of the Innovation Pathway – supporting from the very early stages through to adoption and spread across the region and England. It’s been great to be a part of Tony’s innovator journey and to see the impact the QbTest is having on young people, families and also the clinicians using the technology.

The impacts of this innovation speak for themselves: between 2017 and 2019 with our support it has spread to one in five of all acute and mental health NHS trusts in England and has cut the average time to diagnosing ADHD (or ruling out) by five months – both a significant improvement in outcomes for children and their families and also a big cost saving for the NHS (representing a £5.41 saving for every £1 invested).

I’m incredibly proud to see the wealth of innovators representing the East Midlands.

The NIA is now in its fifth year and since its inception the region has seen four successful fellows who have all benefited largely from NIA.

Tony’s success follows on from - Jimmy Endicott – who developed ChatHealth– and who was announced as an NIA fellow in 2019. Jimmy is a great example of NHS entrepreneurship, working within Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. ChatHealth provides a safe and secure messaging service for young people and new parents.

Making sure everyone gets the best start in life is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan and expanding services and investing in young people’s mental health is a high priority for the NHS. It has been brilliant to see two consecutive years of NIA success coming from the East Midlands and we feel very proud to support them and make a difference to people’s mental health.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the new NIA fellows with the backing of the programme look at scaling and deploying their innovations to benefit more patients.

Find out more about the NIA programme here. To learn more about the support EMAHSN can offer to innovators visit our website.

Find out more about how the East Midlands AHSN has supported QbTest here