The NHS celebrates its 75th birthday this month, providing a service that is available to all, based on clinical need rather than on an individual’s ability to pay.
NHS England’s theme for the 75th anniversary year is innovation that is shaping and advancing modern medicine.
The East Midlands has a fantastic history of healthcare innovation: Dr Stewart Adams developed Ibuprofen at Boots in Nottingham, Sir Peter Mansfield was awarded The Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2003 for his work at the University of Nottingham to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Sir Alec Jeffreys pioneered DNA fingerprinting during the mid-1980s and is Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester.
EMAHSN is excited to be able to help build this reputation locally for research, innovation and transformation of services.
Since our launch, ten years ago, our innovation programmes have positively impacted 780,000 patients and added £153.7M of value to the East Midlands health and care systems. We have also helped bring in £63.4M of investment to the East Midlands economy. You can read more about our achievements in our latest Impact Report, published this week.
From October 2023, the AHSNs will enter their next five-year licence period. Our remit will stay the same – providing you with access to proven innovations and expert services. Our name is also very likely to change to better reflect our role as the innovation arm of the NHS for the East Midlands.– whilst not confirmed we think this will be ‘Health Innovation East Midlands’ .
In this blog, EMAHSN Managing Director, Nicole McGlennon discusses key learning from our programmes over the last ten years and how we can support ICSs, innovators and the wider health and care systems to adopt and spread innovations successfully.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the need to better support the mental health needs of young people.
Last month I presented at the Confed EXPO, with AHSN and national colleagues, on the topic of 'Using innovation to transform mental health services for children and young people'
One such innovation that has been supported by the AHSNs, has been our Focus ADHD programme, which began in the East Midlands as a demonstrator project in 2017, following research from the ARC East Midlands.
The research looked at integrating QbTest, a computer-supported objective test which measures attention, motor activity and impulsivity – the core symptoms of ADHD - as part of the diagnosis pathway.
Data suggests that many young people can wait over two years to be seen in a hospital setting and then an additional 18 months to be given a diagnostic decision (pre-COVID). This can vary significantly depending upon where you live in the country.
The research demonstrated positive impact of using the test and over the following five years, The AHSN Network facilitated adoption of the technology into the diagnosis pathway of 69 trusts over 137 sites. It has provided almost 90,000 assessments since the demonstrator project in 2017.
This was a great example of bringing together all our learning to help mental health service providers to adopt the technology into their pathways to support clinicians in coming to their diagnosis, and therefore provide a better service for patients and their families. In reducing the amount of time it took for a clinician to make their diagnosis, the programme also meant services could see more patients to help reduce their waiting lists.
Technology is also being used by clinicians to aid their decision making in our Digital Outpatient Appointment Follow Up project, which seeks to evidence the impact that the use of digital questionnaires can have on reducing unnecessary follow up outpatient appointments. Initially, we worked with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), but the learning has since expanded across the region, and is now playing a role in a national NHSE pilot.
Since their inception in 2013, Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) have harnessed significant expertise in the approaches and challenges to the adoption and spread of innovation.
We know that there is no single approach to getting healthcare innovation spread in the NHS and that success depends on several factors such as the complexity of the intervention, the system and the culture and circumstances of the environment.
Making change happen and making it stick takes time, AHSNs have a commitment to support the implementation of innovation for the benefit of patients.
Steps to embed change and innovation
Focus ADHD is just one example illustrating how technology and innovation can be beneficial. Linked to this and our experience, we have developed five steps to consider having the best chance of healthcare innovation adoption and spread in the NHS and ICSs.
This is useful if you don’t know where to start and what to consider, we would recommend using the questions to spark discussion and debate within your team.
How can AHSNs support the NHS and ICSs?
AHSNs have specialist expertise in understanding the conditions for healthcare innovation adoption and spread – but more importantly, have supported projects that have been sustained and contributed to new ways of working for the health and care system. We operate across all of our ICSs and welcome opportunities to support the adoption of transformative technologies and processes that address local challenges.
Contact your local AHSN for advice or if you are based in the East Midlands, contact us at
Resources and services
- Innovation scanning service - accesses innovation pipelines of all the AHSNs across England to match evidenced solutions to local challenges.
- Innovation Academy - access to on-demand resources designed for those who want a better understanding of how the NHS takes forward new innovations.
- Analytics and Evaluation Service - helps turn data into insight and support decision making – whether you are planning to introduce a new innovation or evaluate an existing one.
- Patient and public involvement resources – brings together a vast array of PPI resources, top tips and guides.
- Ignite - offers bespoke services to support health innovations no matter where they are in their development timeline. This service offers intensive support to bring innovations to the NHS market.