News

Launched in 2015, the NIA is commissioned by the Accelerated Access Collaborative at NHS England and delivered by the Health Innovation Network with the support of its 15 health innovation networks across the country. The programme is designed to support exceptional individuals to scale and adopt mature innovations across NHS England for enhanced patient outcomes, staff benefit and to grow employment in the UK.

The new cohort for 2024 has just been announced and we are thrilled to see that some of the companies we have supported in the last few years are part of this group including Deep Medical, Pogo, C2-AI and DocAbode.

Selected from a competitive pool of applicants, these 12 new NIA Fellows bring a wealth of expertise and innovative ideas to the table. From digital health technologies to novel care delivery models, each Fellow offers a unique solution designed to address some of the most pressing challenges facing healthcare today.

“In a time of immense challenge, these innovations have demonstrated outcomes that show us a vision of a better NHS for both staff and patients,” says Jack Porter, Co-Director the NHS Innovation Accelerator. Joined alongside Mindy Simon, Co-Director, stating, “We are thrilled to welcome these exceptional innovators into our community and look forward to supporting their efforts to transform healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes.”

The NIA Fellows will receive tailored support and mentorship from a network of experts, enabling them to further develop and scale their innovations for maximum impact. Throughout the three-year programme, Fellows will have access to resources, guidance, and opportunities to collaborate with healthcare leaders and stakeholders across the NHS and beyond.

Read more about the NHS Innovation Accelerator’s 2024 cohort of innovations:

• Boost Breast Forms, Samantha Jackman
  A lightweight and comfortable solution for individuals post-breast cancer treatment. The 100% medical-grade silicone with a lattice-like rib structure provides natural shape and stability. An innovative approach which moves away from the ‘replacement’ of a body part, to deliver an attractive, comfortable, light breast form.
• Cognitant, Tim Ringrose
  Interactive, personalised digital programmes in multiple languages, empowering individuals with long-term conditions to self-manage their health, including offerings like the Kidney Essentials and My Kidney Assistant programmes. It is also integrated with healthcare systems for seamless management.
• C2-Ai, Steve Barnett
  Using Ai and Machine learning to provide granular risk stratification and prioritisation of the waiting list C2-Ai helps hospitals enhance patient safety, reduce mortality, and minimise clinical outcomes variation by using AI-backed insights. It conducts patient-specific risk assessments integrating factors such as ethnicity and social determinants of health.
• Deep Medical, Benyamin Deldar
  Missed appointments lead to worse health outcomes for patients and cost over £2bn in waste each year. Deep Medical’s AI tool identifies risk of non-attendance, and short notice cancellations enabling smarter scheduling decisions and connectivity with patients to get them off waiting lists and into care.
• Doc Abode, Taz Aldawoud
  Offering a real-time workforce scheduling tool, it enhances capacity and productivity in the community via a web portal and additional access through a secure smartphone app. It optimises system productivity, and improving staff experience, for example, linking patients to the ideal healthcare professional.
• Dr Julian Platform, Julian Nesbitt
  A flexible digital platform which offers a comprehensive suite of digital service functionalities, including patient consultation, management, Electronic Health Records, clinical supervision, staff management, performance analysis, capacity management, and invoicing, with the flexibility to integrate or replace existing NHS systems, improving patient care, clinician satisfaction, and service efficiency.
• Isla, Pete Hansell
  Enabling remote care and clinical decision-making at scale, this system enables clinical teams to run highly automated and efficient digital pathways using secure submission of multimedia and clinical data. Integrated into NHS technologies and used across Acute and Community care to support triage, caseload management, self-care and specific pathways like Epilepsy and Two Week Wait Cancer. Efficient pathways, empowered patients, scalable health systems.
• Kidney Beam, Sharlene Greenwood
  A digital health app providing personalised kidney-specific content and professional support for chronic kidney disease patients. It includes online exercise, education, and well-being classes led by kidney physiotherapists and exercise professionals, supported by clinical champions in participating kidney units, aiming to enhance patient engagement and outcomes.
• Remcare, Sandeep Konduru
  A web-based platform that automatically risk stratifies patients with chronic diseases and those on perioperative pathways into low to high-risk groups to allow early anaesthetic risk stratification of patients on waiting lists and regular monitoring of patients to increase productivity in NHS, improve patient outcomes and decrease staff burden.
• Sickle Cell Society, John James
  The UK’s national charity supporting individuals with sickle cell disorders partners with healthcare professionals and affected individuals to improve quality of life through programs like the Sickle Cell Children and Young People’s (CYP) Mentoring Programme. It empowers young individuals to manage their condition and reduce hospital reliance.
• Surgery Hero, Matthew Beatty
  A digital clinic transforming patient care by guiding individuals through surgical preparation and recovery at home, offering personalised programmes via a mobile app supported by health coaches for tailored support and accountability, and fostering peer support for an enriched surgical journey experience.
• Tailored Talks, Jack Francis
  A digital app and platform which streamlines patient care by personalising information based on self-assessment questionnaires, facilitating symptom tracking, and providing access to tailored advice, while fostering collaboration between public, private, and third sectors for integrated care pathways.

Verena Stocker, interim Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and interim CEO of the Accelerated Access Collaborative says:

“Since its launch, the NHS Innovation Accelerator has supported nearly one hundred innovators to test if their ideas can be successfully adopted by and across the NHS. The accelerator programme supports the development of promising innovations that address key priorities with the potential to transform the way the NHS delivers healthcare today and for future generations”.