Leeds innovators chosen by national healthcare programme
Two healthcare innovators who are part of the growing innovation community at Nexus, based at the University of Leeds, have been selected as Fellows of the prestigious NHS Innovation Acceleration (NIA) Programme.
Chosen by an expert panel of clinical, patient and commercial assessors, Dr Adrian Brown, CEO of Itecho Health and Giles Tully, CEO of PinPoint Data Science, will join a select group of less than 100 NIA Fellows across the country, whose innovations offer solutions to key issues for the health service in England.
Dr Adrian Brown, CEO of Itecho Health
“This appointment is a huge honour and I’m so grateful to the Itecho team and wider Nexus community for their vital support to achieve this. I’m looking forward to working with the NIA as they help businesses who are making a big difference to issues such as waiting lists and health inequalities in the NHS, to scale up and grow,” said Adrian Brown.
“Our digital platform, Ascelus, was co-designed with patients specifically to address those issues and improve patient care management for people with long-term conditions including cancer. We are working closely with patients, clinicians, carers and support groups to ensure the process is as accessible and inclusive as possible.”
Itecho’s platform enables patients who need regular monitoring to input and track their own symptoms, allowing doctors to access their blood and pathology results online, review them and send on to their patients with any messages and advice.
Giles Tully, CEO of PinPoint Data Science
Giles Tully adds: “This is a very prestigious programme and all the businesses involved are seeking to improve patient care – something which is at the heart of our operation.
“PinPoint Data Science is a totally virtual company operating across the UK – we have no real place, but the place we always come back to is Leeds. Nexus and the wider innovation community in the city have given us tremendous support and we’re looking forward to accelerating our growth plans with them and the NIA Fellowship.
“Our PinPoint Test is currently being evaluated by the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance and we’re hoping to roll it out with NHS Trusts and GP practices across the region.”
The PinPoint Test was developed in collaboration with the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, using data collected over the past decade from hundreds of thousand of patients in the Leeds area. An AI-driven blood test for cancer, it enables doctors to prioritise patients at high risk for further investigation.
Itecho Health and PinPoint Data Science are exploring a future collaboration project to use data to enable clinicians to triage patients more effectively and improve patient care.
Dr Martin Stow, Nexus Director and Chair, said: “We’re incredibly proud that two members of the Nexus community have been selected as Fellows of such a prestigious national accelerator programme and wish both Adrian and Giles all the very best as they continue to grow their businesses and tackle vital issues for the NHS and patient care.”
The NHS Innovation Accelerator Programme has supported the scaling of 85 healthcare innovations to date, across England, creating over a thousand jobs and 60 NIA-supported innovations have gone on to be successfully marketed internationally.
