A view on Smart Healthcare

Smart Healthcare, the exhibition which took place this week at Earls Court, could have been blessed with a little more fortune in these still turbulent economic times. Attendance at the central London venue will doubtless have been reduced by the 48 hour tube strike that hit the capital this week. London on tube strike days is not, sadly, a particularly smart place to be.

There were over 50 exhibitors at the show, ranging from household names like Dell and Panasonic , to industry specialists like iSOFT and System C Healthcare and emerging forces such as BlueWare and Differentia Consulting.

As befits a PR man I read through the exhibitor profiles. Many seemed rather rushed shall we say. There were plenty of ‘leading providers’ and ‘specialists’, even some ‘global specialists’ and ‘one stop shops’. From what I read, however, it didn’t seem that many of these ‘healthcare specialists’ were addressing, well, healthcare.

I’m sure they are all doing great work in healthcare really. My point is this. Too much corporate information has become bland PR speak. I know I’m part of said industry, and I’m sure I’ve referred to a ‘leading provider’ or two in my time too, but we need to do better. We need to demonstrate how technology is helping clinicians to boost the patient experience wherever we can. I didn’t get much feel for this at Smart Healthcare.

One company referred to healthcare as being ‘quite unique’. It either is or it isn’t. For me, it summed up the slight lack of conviction on display at the show. Sure healthcare IT has taken a battering in this country of late, but that’s even more reason for the industry to communicate in a robust manner. Lets hope everyone came away inspired by John Humphrys, the Radio 4 Today programme presenter, who is the very definition of robust. His talk on current challenges facing the public sector stole the show.

Back to the top

Andy Burnham new Health Secretary

The recent cabinet reshuffle has seen a change at the Department of Health, with Andy Burnham, MP for Leigh, replacing Alan Johnson, who is the new Home Secretary. The former secretary for culture, media and sport was appointed as Johnson backed embattled prime minister Gordon Brown and was rewarded with a promotion to the Home Office.

In addition, Mike O’Brien and Gillian Merron have been named as new ministers at the DH, replacing Ben Bradshaw and Dawn Primarolo, according to the Health Service Journal. The government has also confirmed that Phil Hope will continue as a minister at the department following the reshuffle.

Burnham served as a health minister between 2006 and 2007, when he was responsible for kick-starting debate on reforms to the minimum practice income guarantee for GPs. Before his election in 1997, he also worked as worked as parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation, a body that welcomed the appointment.

Niall Dickson of the influential health policy think tank the King’s Fund, said “This move has nothing to do with what is best for the health service. However, if a change had to be made we welcome the choice of Andy Burnham.”

Back to the top

Smoking – NHS pays the price

The cost of smoking to the NHS has previously been estimated between £1.4 billion to £1.7 billion according to Tobacco Control. New research from the British Heart Foundation and the University of Oxford has established that the figure is actually much closer to a staggering £5 billion, representing 5.5% of the total NHS budget, the BBC reports.

The new findings are based on data collected from 2005 whilst previous estimates are from almost a decade earlier. Oxford researchers have established that nearly 1 in 5 deaths and a significant number of disability cases are smoking-related.

Such a vast spend on smoking-related illness is shocking, considering these health issues are entirely within our control. Moreover, the £5 billion is likely to be an underestimate as it does not include a range of smoking-related indirect costs. Dr Steven Allender, the study leader stated: “The story is not so much the five-fold increase but that £5 billion is an enormous number regardless. There are two different ways of looking at this – one is if nobody smoked we would save £5 billion but the alternative view is this is an enormous health problem and should be moved back up the policy agenda.”

The Oxford research group also uncovered that the NHS spends over £3 billion per year on alcohol-related illness. Taken together, their findings suggest that Britons have the power to curb NHS spending in this area.

Back to the top

Darzi champions robotic keyhole surgery

Health minister Lord Ara Darzi, perhaps better known for his recent espousal of the polyclinic model of healthcare provision, has been busy innovating in his day job. The world-leading cardiac surgery specialist is developing technology that will enable a surgeon to work on a beating heart without the need for a bypass procedure, according to Sam Lister, health editor at the Times.

Darzi is working on a range of high-tech methods of “minimal access surgery”, which reduces physical and psychological trauma. With cardiac surgery e.g., a coronary bypass, the heart is stopped and a heart-lung bypass machine is used to oxygenate and circulate blood during the procedure. However, operating on a beating heart helps to reduce risks linked to reperfusion — when the surgeon has to restart the heart and reintroduce blood to the tissue.

The minister is working with a team of computer scientists from Imperial College to build in motion compensation to track the movement of the beating heart, while cameras trained on the surgeon’s eyes will enable them to readjust to the rhythm of the contracting tissues. It is hoped that the technology will be in clinical use inside 18 months.

The Department of Health also plans to create a £220 million fund to support unorthodox developments that transform clinical care, culminating in an Innovation Expo for key NHS and social care staff to learn more about dynamic approaches to science, technology and management.
 

Back to the top

Four Pharma giants invest in Aileron

The venture capital arms of GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche and Eli Lilly are to invest in a $40 million series D financing round for Aileron Therapeutics, a Massachusetts based biotech company. Kevin Grogan in Pharma Times reports that such an arrangement is rare, with only four of 426 recent biotech financing deals involving more than one partner. Aileron specialises in producing ‘stapled’ peptides, which are particularly stable molecules protected from breakdown in the body.

The company says that the funding will help move its lead candidate into clinical trials next year. It will also be used to expand the platform in oncology, immunity and inflammation, metabolic disorders, and infectious diseases. In previous rounds of financing Aileron had raised a total of $20 million.

Michael Diem, partner at SR One, the VC arm of GSK, said, “…we believe that stapled peptides could represent a ‘fourth estate’ in therapeutics, emerging as a major class akin to small molecules, antibodies and vaccines.”
 

Back to the top

Improving quality of life for stroke victims

Improving the quality of life of patients recovering from stroke is challenging. Recently, however, new tools such as the PowerKnee (Tibion Bionic Technologies) have been shown to greatly reduce mobility problems commonly associated with strokes. The Daily Mail this week described the PowerKnee as designed especially to address the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular needs of stroke patients.

Sensors within the device are programmed to detect the movements a patient is trying to make and helps them to complete these movements. Sitting down, standing up, or climbing stairs can be easily improved with the PowerKnee. Not only does this device support the patients through key movements that facilitate recovery, but it gives the patients a greater sense of independence.

The Times has also reported the successful use of Botox injections to restore mobility to a paralysed patient, Russell McPhee. After several years in a wheelchair following his stroke, Mr McPhee was given botox injections to treat his muscle stiffness and he is now able to walk unaided most of the time. Although botox had been used as a treatment in stroke patients for several years prior to its adoption for cosmetic purposes, its ability to restore gait in paralysed patients had not been readily observed.

Such advances in treatments and rehabilitation techniques can undoubtedly turn a negative prognosis into a more optimistic outlook for recovering physical abilities.

Back to the top

AxiCom Cohn&Wolfe is a pan-European Consumer and B2B Technology and Healthcare PR consultancy, with offices in London, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Milan and Madrid.

Click here to contact us or call AxiCom UK on +44 (0)20 8392 4050.

If you would prefer not to receive further information from AxiCom, please unsubscribe. Thank you