Media release
Unique ‘living lab’ to test innovative healthcare is heading to Surrey
A consortium guided by Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSS AHSN) has successfully bid to make Surrey an officially designated “test bed” for innovative new healthcare.
It will see some of the most innovative organisations and companies test leading edge technology with the potential to transform care for patients across the world. Surrey residents will be among the first to benefit from this dynamic new approach and from the expertise in Europe’s first 5G Innovation Centre.
The concept of “test beds” comes from the “Five Year Forward View”. Published by NHS England in 2015, the Five Year Forward View is a blueprint for how the healthcare system will meet rising demand.
The project in Surrey, along with six others from around the country, is being unveiled by Simon Stevens, Chief Executive, NHS England, at the World Economic Forum in Davos today (Friday 22 January 2016).
It is part of the first wave of NHS “Test Beds” - collaborations between the NHS and innovators which aim to harness technology to address some of the most complex issues facing patients and the health service. Successful innovations will then be available for other parts of the country to adopt for their local populations.
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These collaborations between the NHS and innovators aim to harness technology to address some of the most complex issues facing patients and the health service.
The Surrey bid was led by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Consortium partners include KSS AHSN, the University of Surrey, The Health Innovation Centre of Southern Denmark, and Danish entrepreneurs Public Intelligence.
Guy Boersma, Managing Director, Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network, said:
“Congratulations to everyone involved in putting together the test bed bid and bringing this exciting opportunity to Surrey patients, residents and staff.
“KSS AHSN has aligned its work with delivery of the aims of the Five Year Forward View. The test beds are central to the Five Year Forward View and I’m delighted that Surrey is among the successful bidders.
“With our 65+ age group projected to rise by over 33% in the next 15 years and our working age population projected to rise by only 3%, it’s clear that technology is going to have to play a major part”.
“The Surrey test bed will be at the forefront of work with leading edge technologies that can help solve this huge challenge.
“I’m delighted that our strong relationship with colleagues in the Region of Southern Denmark means that we will benefit from invaluable Danish expertise as we take this project forward.”
Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, said:
“Our new NHS Test Beds programme aims to cut through the hype and test the practical benefits for patients when we bring together some of these most promising technologies in receptive environments inside the world's largest public, integrated health service."
The Surrey bid is known as “Technology Integrated Health Management” (TIHM) –a collaboration between Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and an array of health technology providers which will help people with dementia to live in their own homes for longer. Individuals and their carers will be provided with sensors, wearables, monitors and other devices, which will combine into an 'Internet of Things' to monitor their health at home.
The successful bid will see the creation of a Living Lab at the University of Surrey.The challenges in the English and Danish health care sectors are very similar and innovation is one of the ways we can create the health care of the future.
Peter Julius, Partner and Senior Consultant at Public Intelligence, said:
“The ambition is to bring forth a living lab that is unique to the world. It is a high class, full power, working living lab and will attract companies from all over the world who will be involved in co-creating new products and new services that will help make future health services even better.”
University of Surrey are harnessing the possibilities of modern wireless technology for the health and social care sector and is thehome to Europe’s first 5G test centre which was brought in to the consortium by KSS AHSN. This will all empower people to take more control over their own health and wellbeing, as well as enabling health and social care staff to deliver more responsive and effective services.
These projects are part of IoTUK, an integrated £40 million, three-year, Government programme that seeks to advance the UK’s global leadership in IoT and increase the adoption of high quality IoT technologies and services throughout businesses and the public sector.
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For more information
Rick Fell
Press office
KSS AHSN
07827 369797
Notes to editors
The core tenets of the NHS England vision for test beds are:
•To enhance the nation’s health and wellbeing, by preventing disease and poor health in people in the first case and restoring them to autonomous and fulfilling lives as quickly as possible when they do fall ill
•To improve health and care services, resulting in better patient outcomes and experience of care, which can be evidenced
•To improve integration between primary, secondary and social care
•To identify ways of reducing health and social care costs at scale
•To increase the NHS’ learning capability, accelerating its ability to conduct pragmatic yet robust trials initially in limited sites, and spreading those with the greatest benefits more widely
•To lay the foundations for boosting economic growth, aiming to lead the world in the development and implementation of digital care systems, innovative care pathways and precision medicine.
•To pioneer new models of reimbursement on the basis of proven effectiveness of reducing disease costs.
The ‘Internet of Things’ is a term used to describe how everyday objects and devices are increasingly linked to each other and to networks in order to deliver more value for their users. The terms means both hardware and software technologies; the hardware consists of the connected devices – which range from simple sensors to smartphones and wearable devices – and the networks that link them, while software components include data storage platforms and analytics programmes that present information to users.
A joint programme between NHS England,the Office for Life Science, the Department of Health and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, NHS Test Beds bring together local health and social care bodies including CCGs, hospital trusts, primary and community care providers with a wide range of innovators from home and abroad.
Hundreds of innovators from home and abroad and dozens of NHS organisations applied to be part of this programme – demonstrating the clear desire in the NHS to embrace new ways of doing things and the wealth of ideas out there to improve services..
Each Test Bed will use a different combination of innovations, from both large and small organisations, to address a locally-identified clinical challenge. The changes made will be rigorously evaluated, with the aim to provide evidence which will give more areas the confidence to adopt the innovations over the coming years.
Test beds are a key strand of the NHS Five Year Forward View, and will help realise the ambition of reforming the NHS so that it is fit to face the challenges of the 21st Century - particularly an ageing population and an increase in patients with long-term health conditions – while remaining financially sustainable.