Innovation Zed Explores New Models of Healthcare With the NHS in England

Innovation Zed (www.innovationzed.com), an Irish medtech company, today announced that it has commenced working with the NHS in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, England.

The collaboration sees the company's novel insulin pen accessory used with diabetes patients as part of a national NHS Test Bed programme exploring new models of care.

InsulCheck Connect, a snap-on accessory for disposable insulin pen users, automatically collects and records pen usage and behaviour data 'on the go'.

The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed is one of 7 national Test Bed programmes in England, funded by NHS England to look at new ways of delivering care for patients by working with technology partners.

The InsulCheck Connect device is being offered to diabetic patients at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield as part of a programme designed to better support them to manage their condition. It is hoped the programme will involve up to 300 diabetes patients in total.

The expectation is that the data collected by InsulCheck Connect, when merged with other data such as sugar level readings, and as part of a new package of support for diabetic patients, will enable them and their medical professionals to improve the management of the condition and generate better health outcomes.

Once the new care models that are being looked at through the Test Bed programme are evaluated, any models and technology that are seen as successfully supporting patients to improve their care could be made available for other parts of the UK to adopt and adapt to the particular needs of their local populations.

Innovation Zed, headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin (UCD), was co-founded in 2009 by John Hughes and William Cirillo.

John Hughes, CEO, Innovation Zed, himself an insulin user, said, “I am delighted to have InsulCheck Connect incorporated in the Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed programme in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.”

He added, “Our research with insulin pen users highlights that, as with other conditions, injection compliance is significantly below what is prescribed. We firmly believe that this work will demonstrate that our insulin pen accessory can greatly improve injection compliance and generate better health outcomes for people with diabetes.”

Liz Howarth, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed Programme Director said, “The Test Bed programme is in place to see whether NHS patients can benefit from using new ways of delivering care, combined with new technologies. It’s very early days but we are looking forward to working with our partners, patients and the evaluation team to assess the impact of this particular project.”

Innovation Zed has been dedicated to proactively championing the cause of insulin pen users through academic research, scientific studies, clinical trials and developing innovative products.

InsulCheck Connect is the second in a family of connected products from Innovation Zed. It builds on the company’s popular InsulCheck Classic accessory and is the direct result of an intensive four-year research and development project in University College Dublin, Sweden and Taiwan.

John Hughes concluded, “We have already had significant interest in this family of low-cost, insulin pen add-on from private and national health insurance organisations globally as they seek to improve patient outcomes.”

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications Manager (Innovation), University College Dublin, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: + 353 1 716 3712 or John Hughes, CEO, Innovation Zed, e: info@insulcheck.com.

Editor’s Notes

Innovation Zed designs connected health solutions that support Drug Adherence and Condition Management. As technologies continue to evolve, it opens new and exciting possibilities for connected healthcare to deliver increased freedom and control to patients. That’s why Innovation Zed is actively developing and researching new ways to improve drug adherence and enable more personalised condition management. www.innovationzed.com 

The Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed will enable health and social care organisations across the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw region to share data and plan, in partnership and with patients, the best way to deliver care to people with long-term conditions based on their needs and wants and using the latest technology to support this. The Test Bed will initially focus on people with three or more long-term conditions across the Region. www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/peppa

At NovaUCD, the hub for new ventures and entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, we nurture and support new high-tech and knowledge-intensive companies as part of UCD’ s mission. At NovaUCD we provide purpose-built, state-of-the-art incubation facilities alongside a comprehensive business support programme for client companies such as Innovation Zed. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx. www.ucd.ie/novaucd