The government should help SMEs to reward their advances with quicker mass adoption by the NHS, according to Andy Mears, Managing Director of Deltex Medical Group plc (LON:DEMG)
Companies can seek grant funding or tax breaks ranging from R&D credits to the Enterprise Investment Scheme for risk investors. The Department for International Trade has helped us at Deltex get exports going in many countries. However, the great unmet challenge comes in getting theNational Health Service to actually adopt innovative products even when they know how good they are.
The NHS has long been committed to driving the uptake of innovative medical technologies. Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and the NICE Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme (MTEP) were primarily created to help companies, especially the United Kingdom’s SMEs, who have clinically supported innovation, achieve implementation at pace and scale.
Sequential innovation ensures that each clinical generation can improve standards of care for their patients. Many solutions address the very problems that healthcare systems face: more and older patients stretching limited financial resources. Innovations that improve outcomes and shorten length of hospital stays combine to deliver reduced total healthcare costs. Theoretically, then, it’s a no-brainer, but in truth it’s really not that simple.
Deltex exemplifies the innovation versus adoption challenge. Deltex has pioneered Oesophageal Doppler Monitoring (ODM), a haemodynamic monitoring technology which enables anaesthetists to ensure that surgical patients benefit from accurate, real-time management of parameters that directly influence the outcome of the procedure. ODM reduces length of stay by halving post-operative complications which are expensive to treat and knock years off patients’ remaining lifespans. ODM saves money, it frees beds, and it improves the patient experience. It’s the definition of win-win and the independent evidence agrees.
