Date: 18 March 2024, Cambridgeshire, UK
SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, has awarded £885,000 for the development of nine innovations that help improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The innovations include a platform that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse breath for biomarkers to predict asthma attacks, a tailored Augmented Reality app to enhance patient and carer understanding of their child’s epilepsy and a point-of-care test for micronutrient deficiencies in children with obesity.
Children and young people (CYP) represent almost a third of the UK population and improving their health and wellbeing is a key priority for NHS England, as reflected in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Reducing health inequalities amongst children and young people is also a key aim outlined in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach for reducing health inequalities for Children and Young People.
Funded by the AAC, SBRI Healthcare ‘Competition 23: Child Health’ was launched in August 2023 as a Phase 1 development funding competition in partnership with the Health Innovation Network.
The competition was open to single companies and organisations from the private, public and third sectors, including large corporates, small and medium enterprises, charities, universities and NHS providers. It focused on the management of long- term conditions in the priority areas of:
Asthma, the most common long-term condition among children and young people and one of the top ten reasons for emergency hospital admission of children in the UK.
Epilepsy, the commonest significant neurological disorder affecting children and young people.
Diabetes, which is becoming increasingly common among young people in the UK, the majority due to Type 1 but there are growing numbers of Type 2.
As well as the prevention of ill health, specifically:
Obesity, with obese children likely to become obese adults with an increased chance of developing a range of other health conditions.
Oral health, with early oral health promotion in childhood fostering healthy behaviours for life.
The projects will run for up to six months to demonstrate whether the innovations are technically feasible. Subject to funding, innovations that can prove their impact and potential will be able to apply for further funding for prototype development and evaluation.
Verena Stocker, Interim Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and Chief Executive Office, Accelerated Access Collaborative, said:
“The SBRI Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the biggest healthcare challenges facing society. We have selected these innovations because they have the potential to make a big difference to improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people. By supporting the most promising innovations, the NHS will continue to evolve, helping to meet more patients’ needs and encouraging more innovators to come forward with innovative ideas that benefit all.”
Prof Paul Dimitri, Professor of Child Health and Director of Technology and Innovation at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Director of NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative, and Vice President of Science and Research at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said:
“Ensuring the health and wellbeing of our children and young people has, and will always be, paramount. I’m delighted to see such a diverse range of companies awarded SBRI Healthcare funding. In a digital age, they are harnessing the latest technologies and evidence-led approaches to support the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of conditions. I look forward to seeing the positive impact their innovations will have on children, young people, their families and caregivers.”
The SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 23 – Child Health, Phase 1' awarded projects are:
TidalSense – awarded £92,283 - N-WATCH: Nottingham - assessment of Wheeze and Asthma in Children using a novel fast-response capnometer and machine learning.
TidalSense produces the N-Tidal device, a fast-response capnometer that delivers AI-driven insights for a variety of use-cases to clinicians, at the point of care, within minutes. This project will pilot use of the device in children with asthma/wheeze and determine whether and how it could be used in clinical practice.
Aseptika Ltd – awarded £99,802 - CYP asthma: Reaching underserved and undertreated CYP with PUFFClicker3, a newly developed, 5G connected, universal smart inhaler tracker (Core20PLUS5).
PUFFClicker3 is an Internet-of-Things-connected universal Smart Inhaler Dose Tracker for metered dose and dry powder inhalers. Children and Young People from Core20PLUS groups will be asked how this new product could be used to help them better manage their asthma.
Neuronostics Limited – awarded £96,519 - Defining and validating a digital biomarker of epilepsy in children.
We have developed a tool called BioEP, to help clinicians diagnose epilepsy. BioEP helps to analyse brain signals. So far, we have developed BioEP for use in adults with epilepsy. This project aims to develop a version of BioEP that can be used to help diagnose children with suspected epilepsy.
Tiny Medical Apps Ltd – awarded £99,225 - Digital Health Passport for Epilepsy: Smarter Accessible Epilepsy Support for Children, Young People and Carers.
The Digital Health Passport is broadening its reach to support more young people with long-term conditions and improve accessibility for young people with mild to moderate learning difficulties. This exciting project brings together Tiny Medical Apps, the Young Epilepsy Charity and the Caribbean and African Health Network to develop ground-breaking technology for people with epilepsy.
Applied Nanodetectors Ltd – awarded £98,152 - Point of care (POC) breath test to accurately predict asthma exacerbations in children.
Exhale-Dx is a diagnostic breath test platform that predicts asthma attacks and monitors asthma control. It utilises AI to analyse breath samples for biomarkers, offering a non-invasive and early-detection solution for respiratory conditions. In this project, we're adapting Exhale-Dx for paediatric use to address health inequalities and expand its reach globally.
Transdermal Diagnostics Ltd – awarded £99,991 - Non-invasive and needle-free, continuous glucose monitor for children and young people living with diabetes.
Transdermal Diagnostics’ medical device aims to revolutionise diabetes management in children and young people by creating a low-cost, non-invasive, calibration-free, wearable technology. The innovation is designed to enhance health and quality of life. We want to develop a CGM system that is painless to use, accessible, user-friendly and affordable.
Neurotech Ltd – awarded £99,986 - IMMERSE project.
Augmented Reality app for children and young people in the first year following diagnosis with epilepsy tailored to each individual to enhance patient and carer understanding of epilepsy, provide safety advice for greater confidence in managing epilepsy at home and enable greater communication with clinicians to improve patient outcomes.
William Oak Diagnostics – awarded £99,710 - A point-of-care test for micronutrient deficiencies for children with obesity.
The innovation is a point-of-care in vitro diagnostic allowing at-home/primary care testing of micronutrient levels. This project will demonstrate technical feasibility and commercial potential in childhood micronutrient monitoring.
Family Mental Wealth Ltd – awarded £99,814 - Tackling childhood obesity through digital tools that address the underlying psychological drivers for Emotional Eating, physical inactivity and unhealthy eating.
Emotional Eating, where lowered mood or raised anxiety leads to eating superfluous, often unhealthy, food, is a significant contributor to childhood obesity. This feasibility study will plan and design innovative, positive and empowering digital tools to help children recognise and overcome Emotional Eating, increase physical activity, and eat more healthily.
–Ends–
Aseptika Ltd began developing Activ8rlives in 2010 and is currently developing its fourth generation of integrated systems, which can be used by consumers and their healthcare service providers using a wide range of platforms or devices to better enable effective and easy self-monitoring. Incorporating sensors and monitors ranging from consumer accessories to in vitro diagnostics (IVDs). Our focus is: respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, promoting physical activity and weight management. Aseptika Limited has been certified by BSI to ISO 13485:2016 under certificate number MD691414.
About SBRI Healthcare
SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Healthcare provides funding and support to innovators to develop solutions that tackle existing unmet needs faced by the NHS. The programme aims to improve patient care, increase efficiency in the NHS, and support the UK economy. The programme provides funding and support to early-stage projects enabling testing for business feasibility and technology development, as well as to more mature products to support real world implementation studies. SBRI Healthcare is funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative and delivered in partnership with the Health Innovation Network.
About Accelerated Access Collaborative
The Accelerated Access Collaborative is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and the NHS. It delivers ambitious programmes to ensure the NHS is in the best place to improve patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities through research and innovation. It does this by identifying the best new medicines, medical devices, diagnostics and digital products. It supports providers and integrated care systems to make them available to patients as quickly as possible. In addition, the AAC supports increasing participation in research and access to research trials. Over 1.6 million patients have benefited from its programmes to date, helping patients spend over 278,000 fewer days in hospital and saving the NHS over £185 million.
About Health Innovation Network
There are 15 health innovation networks across England, established by NHS England in 2013 to spread innovation at pace and scale – improving health and generating economic growth. Each health innovation network works across a distinct geography serving a different population in each region. As the only bodies that connect NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry, health innovation networks are catalysts that create the right conditions to facilitate change across whole health and social care economies, with a clear focus on improving outcomes for patients.