£8.7m SBRI Healthcare boost for GP innovation

SBRI Healthcare has revealed the companies to benefit from £8.7 million funding to help develop novel technologies aimed at future-proofing primary care and GP services.

Run by NHS England and championed by 15 Academic Health Science Networks, the initiative recognises companies that have looked to revolutionise how future general practice will be delivered. The successful companies demonstrated best value and greatest technical feasibility to a panel of experts looking for game-changing technologies with the highest potential value to patients and the health service.

Among the winning technologies is: a low-cost test for the early diagnosis and subsequent therapy monitoring of sepsis; a point-of-care device capable of performing immediate bacterial infection diagnosis and antibiotic susceptibility testing on urine samples; a self-care asthma monitor to reduce the demands on primary care through improved management of asthma; a device that measures novel biomarkers in a patient’s breath to immediately distinguish a viral from a bacterial respiratory tract infection; and a technology that allows for automatic vital sign measurement whilst booking in with the receptionist.

Jo Roberts, of South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The SBRI Healthcare programme addresses challenges that those at the coal face of medicine are facing. It is a privilege to be involved and to see the evolution of technologies that could become the ground-breaking medical innovations of the future. I have been struck by the potential for revolutionary change to the management of patients and I particularly note those targeted at the ever growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. SBRI will help to provide the necessary acceleration to bring these technologies to market – I wish the innovators all the best.”