The Oxford AHSN supports innovators to carry out real world evaluation in partnership with NHS organisations. The aim is to gather information and evidence to support initial adoption, scale up and spread in line with NHS needs.
Our Strategic and Industry Partnerships programme is involved with 16 real world evidence (RWE) projects. These include:
- a blood test to rule out pre-eclampsia in pregnancy
- a cost-effective non-invasive alternative to liver biopsy for patients with autoimmune hepatitis
- a point of care flu diagnostic – see video below
A key area is in point of care diagnostic testing. A number of successful local and regional examples are highlighted in our ‘Opportunities for point of care testing’ brochure published in autumn 2021 – click on image, left, for downloadable pdf version.
A practical guide for innovators seeking to gather real world evidence (RWE) was published by the national AHSN Network in September 2022. Download a copy of ‘Real World Evaluation to facilitate adoption at scale’. It has been developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Office for Life Sciences (OLS), the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) and companies which have worked with the AHSNs on RWE projects.
These include Roche Diagnostics which was supported by Oxford AHSN to roll out a blood test which rules out pre-eclampsia to the vast majority of England’s maternity units – see link to case study above. Julia Eades, of Roche, said: “If we hadn’t worked with AHSNs, we wouldn’t have fully understood the barriers and how to overcome them.”