Digitally Enabled Care in Focus as NHS selects Ampersand Health for DigitalHealth.London Accelerator

Posted on 09 Sep 2019

Ampersand Health one of twenty companies selected to revolutionise the way the NHS delivers care.

London – 09 September 2019 – Ampersand Health and DigitalHealth.London today announce Ampersand’s acceptance into the highly prestigious DigitalHealth.London Accelerator.

Among the key themes for the accelerator are:

• Patient facing innovation, like My IBD Care and My Arthritis, that are designed to improve care quality and the experience of using NHS services.
• Capacity building platforms which use technology to improve patient flow and increase the efficiency of care
• Improving NHS access for SMEs and digital health products and fast tracking their adoption

In selecting companies, the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator looked at the relevance of the problem being addressed to the NHS and the company’s readiness to scale. In the context of its recent Long Term Plan, programmes like the Accelerator demonstrate that the NHS is translating its will to modernise care into tangible programmes that encourage innovation and help address its objectives.

Like several of the companies on the Accelerator, Ampersand addresses more than one of its interlinked problems.

Patients with inflammatory LTCs routinely wait over 18 weeks for treatment and that is in part caused by the NHS’s continued reliance on a model of care built around routine outpatient appointments, which (especially for diseases of relapse and remission) rarely correlate with clinical need.

Ampersand’s apps arm patients with a personalised care plan, health analytics and custom recommendations, as well as acting as a locus for virtual interactions with their care team.

A patient management & analytics portal allows hospital teams to view real time data on symptoms, sentiment and adherence; manage their patients virtually, in a light touch but effective way; and intervene before their flares become clinical.

“People with long term conditions see huge value in building up a detailed and actionable picture of their health, and in clinical teams using their data to improve interventions and keep them out of hospital,” said Nader Alaghband, Co-Founder at Ampersand Health. “Our model allows clinicians to see 47% more patients with the same resources and is shown to result in 50% fewer out of hours A&E visits. Most importantly, 85% of patients would choose it over existing models of care.”

Sara Nelson, Programme Director at DigitalHealth.London Accelerator said ““This year, we received a record number of applications to the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, and are delighted to accept 20 companies, including Ampersand Health, onto the programme. Between them, they have great potential to make a huge difference to the lives of patients and staff – either directly, or indirectly, through improvements to the way the system runs behind-the-scenes. These innovations could help the NHS draw ever closer to delivering a truly digital, inclusive service for everyone.”

Ampersand’s intervention was developed with gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and patients at King’s College Hospital and The Royal London, with support from Innovate UK and national charities including Crohn’s & Colitis UK and the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society.

About Ampersand Health

Ampersand Health is a social impact company developing the first scientifically-validated digital therapeutic for people with long term inflammatory conditions.

It works with other impact focused organisations and subject matter experts to promote improved health and quality of life for people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Inflammatory Dermatitis.

Our intervention helps people better understand their condition and supports adherence to a personalised care plan. The solution was co-developed with clinicians and patients from Kings College Hospital and Barts Health with support from government, national charities and industry. It is CE marked, regulated by the MHRA and has been assessed by NICE and Orcha.

The company is recognised in the Digital Health Global 100, winner of the 2017 NHS Ideas Lab and the 2018 NHS Hackfest and an HSJ Award for Patient Participation; and was accepted into PWC’s 2018 Scale Health accelerator and the NHS’s 2019 DigitalHealth.London Accelerator.

Further Information

Explainer Video: https://vimeo.com/323725321

1 Minute Video: https://vimeo.com/300559453

Website: www.ampersand.health

Contact: Rawane Jabara (Head of Marketing) – rawane@ampersandhealth.co.uk, +44(0) 2071127100

About DigitalHealth.London

DigitalHealth.London is helping health and care professionals turn the idea of digital innovation into tangible improvements in experience and outcomes for patients. Our work is instrumental in giving health and care stakeholders across London insight into the best digital health interventions and tools on the market.

DigitalHealth.London is a collaborative programme delivered by MedCity, and London’s three Academic Health Science Networks – UCLPartners, Imperial College Health Partners, and the Health Innovation Network.

It is supported by NHS England (London) and the Mayor’s Office. The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is supported by the additional partner, CW+, and is part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund.