SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, has awarded £3m for the progression of four innovations that help improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
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.
Reducing health inequalities amongst children and young people is a key aim outlined in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach for reducing health inequalities for Children and Young People.
The innovations help support children and young people who have asthma, epilepsy, and/or diabetes. Initially four of nine projects awarded Phase 1 funding for six-months to demonstrate technical and commercial viability, this second phase enables 12 months of development and prototype evaluation prior to real-world implementation.
Verena Stocker, Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and Chief Executive Office, Accelerated Access Collaborative, said:
“The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the most pressing healthcare challenges facing society. These innovations were selected because they have the potential to make a big difference to improving the health and wellbeing of children. 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 HealthTech Research Centre in Paediatrics and Child Health, 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 these innovations awarded further funding to help children and young people to manage their healthcare in the long-term conditions of asthma, diabetes and epilepsy. By harnessing AI and the latest technologies and evidence-led approaches, we can help ensure all children and young people have access to the highest quality of care available.”
The SBRI Healthcare Competition 23 –Child Health, Phase 2 awarded projects are:
TidalSense – awarded £794,543 - Tidal Breathing High Resolution Capnography to Quantify Obstructed Airflow in Wheezy Children including children <5years old
TidalSense has patented an innovative fast-response CO2 sensor embedded within a connected, handheld and battery-operated handset (N-Tidal Handset). This project will develop prototype AI-derived asthma diagnostic software to be combined with this hardware for children and determine how it could be used in clinical practice.
Neuronostics Limited – awarded £568,840 - Defining and validating a digital biomarker of epilepsy in children
BioEP revolutionises the way EEG contributes to epilepsy diagnosis by empowering clinicians with a robust, objective indication of epilepsy likelihood even when the EEG doesn’t contain clinical signals. This project will validate an updated version of BioEP that works on EEG from children and young people.
Tiny Medical Apps Ltd – awarded £799,725 - Digital Health Passport for Epilepsy: Smarter Accessible Epilepsy Support for Children, Young People & Carers
Digital Health Passport for Epilepsy transforms care for children and young people through an accessible self-management platform. Co-designed with Young Epilepsy, it will provide medication management, seizure tracking, and wellbeing support, with special focus on those with learning disabilities. Features include voice control and NHS system integration.
TRANSDERMAL DIAGNOSTICS LTD – awarded £799,935 - Non-invasive, and needle-free, continuous glucose monitor for children and young people living with diabetes
Transdermal Diagnostics introduces a cutting-edge, non-invasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring system. This biowearable device features disposable sensor patches and a rechargeable transmitter, offering continuous blood sugar monitoring via a user-friendly mobile app. Essential for managing diabetes effectively without pain and skin damage.
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 the 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.
About the 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.