Innovation spread

What was delivered in 2020-21?

This year, we continued the spread of nationally approved innovations to our colleagues and partners in Wessex, within the context of the pandemic.

We established, and continue to lead, the AHSN Network’s national FeNO (fractional exhaled nitric oxide, a test used in asthma diagnosis and management) Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) programme.
Promoted and supported adoption of the nationally approved innovations identified by the AAC and promoted the promising innovations supported by the NHS Innovation Accelerator - to our colleagues in Wessex.
Wrote and published a special report describing the collective findings from five Innovation Adoption Reviews we produced, working with our NHS partners. We also hosted a webinar for 50 colleagues to present this work.
Supported the adoption of Heartflow at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Supported promotion of the new 'MedTech Funding Mandate' policy - developed by the AAC and NHS England and Improvement. You can see our briefing on this policy on the right-hand side, under 'Resources and Links'.

"Adam and Joe gave our clinicians significant assistance and expertise throughout this project which has just successfully concluded. Due to their hard work, HHFT Cardiac CT is in a completely different place, compared to where it would have been. This has translated into pathway improvements, better outcomes and reduction in unnecessary invasive testing for our patients, which would not have been possible without AHSN input."
- Alex Whitfield, chief executive, and Dr Lara Alloway, chief medical officer - Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

AHSN National Lipid Management and Familial Hypercholesterolaemia programme

Over the next three years, AHSNs will support the NHS to optimise lipid management in people at increased cardiovascular risk. The national AHSN CVD programme will help increase the numbers of those who have their cholesterol measured, and to identify those with conditions that increase familial risk of hypercholesterolaemia.

This is to reduce:

the risk for heart attacks and strokes
the risk of admissions and re-admissions associated with cardiovascular disease
health inequalities by ensuring a consistent, national approach to lipid management, using a NICE-approved clinical pathway

and:

to provide more treatment options to high-risk patients who remain at risk despite maximum tolerated statin therapy.

In Wessex, during 2020-21, we:

established working relationships with important CVD stakeholders across the region
produced data packs for local CCGs
are working with clinicians and commissioners to explore pathway improvements
are linking with our AHSN colleagues across the country to understand what is working well, to assist us in exploring these approaches within Wessex.

Cancer innovations

We have supported Behold.ai to apply for the AI in Health and Social Care Awards, for their Red Dot algorithm.
Red Dot analyses chest x-rays, marking appropriate images as either ‘high confidence normal’ or ‘high confidence tumour’. This has potential to reduce radiologist workload, and to speed up the diagnostic pathway for lung cancer by several weeks.
We also helped radiologists from University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust to join the bid team and provided application and interview support. As a result, UHS will be one of the sites benefiting from the £1.4m grant, and evaluating the impact on patient flow in this critical pathway.

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