Innovation spread

In addition to the approved innovations identified in national adoption programmes such as the Accelerated Access Collaborative and NHS Innovation Accelerator, we have also delivered programmes created locally to respond to the needs of our system partners.

Wessex AHSN is the national AHSN lead for the FeNO programme, delivering improved health through increased use of devices measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide concentration to diagnose asthma. This year, we've worked in partnership with the AAC team and all other AHSNs, building a large online deployment toolkit to embed FeNO testing across local frontline clinical settings and supporting the award of £961,000 of Pathway Transformation Funding across 33 projects in England.

What was delivered in 2021-22? 

• An estimated additional 102,704 patients benefited from FeNO testing across England; more than 8,000 of these patients receiving improved asthma management are in the Wessex region. Hear from Emma, an expert member of the FeNO working group.

• We more than doubled the Wessex target for FeNO devices - 27 against a trajectory of 12 – and almost quadrupled the target for mouthpieces, achieving 13,900 against a target of 3,546.

• The FeNO toolkit was launched across England, and over 1500 hours of training completed during 2021-22. This toolkit is now in use by the national Rapid Update Products (RUP) team as a template for future activity.

• In Wessex, two successful bids were made for Pathway Transformation Funding to support FeNO implementation, to the value of £179,465.

• A new respiratory (pharmacist) network was created across Hampshire & Isle of Wight ICS to achieve sustainability and wider FeNO implementation.

• We established the FeNO Learning Collaborative to encourage successful innovation adoption through shared learning and new professional connections amongst those already using or planning to use FeNO. The first two national webinars were delivered to 390 delegates.

• We reached 98.2% of our target to recruit new patients onto asthma biologic therapy.

• We explored new ways to deliver our programmes; for example, bringing together eight local NHS trusts for a Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) round table event to discuss adoption challenges.

• We worked with local NHS commissioners and providers to facilitate discussions and adoption of the NICE-approved technologies in the 2021-22 MedTech Funding Mandate; Placental growth factor-based testing (PlGF) – a blood test to rule out pre-eclampsia in pregnant women; SecurAcath – for securing percutaneous catheters; HeartFlow, which creates a 3D model of a patient’s coronary arteries to assess blockages; and gammaCore – a handheld device which alleviates the symptoms of severe cluster headaches.

• The 12 innovators comprising the 2021-22 NHS Innovation Accelerator cohort have been supported to raise their profile in the region, and we’ve used our network of healthcare contacts to invite interested parties and facilitate the spread of their innovations in Wessex.