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Oxford AHSN supports partners in responding to Covid-19

The Oxford AHSN is supporting our partners in the NHS and social care in responding to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The AHSN senior team is carrying out daily reviews to ensure we’re supporting our local health and care system in the most effective way – focusing our skills, experience and expertise where they are most needed.

All AHSNs are working together to identify and spread innovations and technologies to support the NHS frontline and keep patients out of hospital when they don’t need to be there. Nationally, we are promoting a new platform supporting the drive to achieve 100,000 coronavirus tests per day and a Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) challenge.

An immediate priority was helping to source additional supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). We worked successfully with our NHS partners, Harwell, science parks and manufacturers. One example was a partnership with the University of Reading, Cisco and the UKAEA on 3D printing of protective visors. Read Cisco UK/Ireland Chief Executive David Meads’ blog about this unique initiative.

We have opened a call for innovations to help support the NHS in managing Covid-19. Julie Hart, our Director of Strategic and Industry Partnerships, is supporting diagnostics work nationally and regionally, for example around remote consultation and patient monitoring. We are pleased to see two digital innovations that we helped to roll-out being taken up nationally and offered free through the NHS – Sleepio, the sleep improvement programme, and GDm-health, the remote monitoring system for women who develop diabetes during pregnancy.

There has also been rapid progress in the spread of the Brainomix image-sharing platform across the South East region based on work by the Thrombectomy Innovation and Transformation (TITAN) quality improvement team chaired by Dr Guy Rooney, the Oxford AHSN’s Medical Director.

Tracey Marriott, our Director of Clinical Innovation, is leading on the Digital First collaboration, working with partners across South East England. Our Patient Safety Collaborative headed by Katherine Edwards is refocusing primarily on deterioration and tracheostomy.