Are you a start-up, small business or established company developing medical technologies to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs to the NHS? You may have identified a real day-to-day problem, and developed a great product to address it, but without clinical evidence obtained within our health system, it’s impossible to demonstrate the value of your proposition. And without evidence, NHS buyers and NICE have nothing to evaluate, so progress is stalled. Sound familiar?
In response to this need, Wessex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and Wessex Clinical Research Network (CRN) Industry teams have joined forces to create a new Technology Support Programme (TSP), which will help commercial innovators gather NHS evidence on their products, and help get effective innovations to patients faster. In our current round we are collaborating with the Applied Research Collaborative Wessex (ARC Wessex) to target an unmet clinical need in inspiratory flow resistance measurement.
To be eligible for the Technology Support Programme (TSP):
- You will be a UK registered company
- The innovation of interest will be at a late/final stage of product development
The TSP targets specific clinical themes in rounds:
• Round 7: Inspiratory flow resistance, rate, and speed suitable for remote consultations – Open, deadline 20 August 2021. Further information on this call can be found here
- Round 6: Targeted population solutions for improved Diabetes control (closed in 09/2019)
- Round 5: Diagnostic and Monitoring Technologies in Cardiology (closed in 05/2019)
- Round 4: Management solutions for Urological disorders (closed in 01/2019)
- Round 3: Technology enabled Mental Care and Mental Ill Health Prevention (closed in 11/2018)
- Round 2: Innovative Diagnostic or Monitoring tools for Reproductive and Women's Health (closed in 08/2018)
- Round 1: Innovative Rapid Diagnostic Testing and Point-of-Care Testing for Infectious Diseases (closed in 01/2018)
The TSP journey is divided into four stages:
- Completion of an application
- Applications will be scored by Wessex AHSN, Wessex CRN and ARC Wessex and a shortlist of companies will be selected
- All selected companies will be invited to present their innovation to an expert panel at a TSP workshop. All presenters will get expert feedback, advice and, where appropriate, signposting to other opportunities
- The panel will then select a maximum of three companies to join the TSP. Companies will be informed of the panel’s decision within five working days of the workshop
The approved companies will then be part of the TSP and will benefit from the following offer:
- Engagement with a TSP theme-expert Clinical Lead who will guide and support the development of the clinical study
- A fully funded associate will co-design the clinical study proposal, support ethics approval, prepare timelines and cost templates, and liaise with the chief investigator
- A fully-funded bid specialist will help identify sources of grant funding, and will support the revision of funding applications
- Once funding is secured, a clinical study will be initiated, recruitment managed within the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) by the Wessex CRN, and results evaluated, shared and published in a timely manner.
