Publications

The Innovation Agency created a North West Coast Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Collaborative to enable GPs to better identify patients with AF and improve management of the condition.

A team of volunteers has been recruited in the North West Coast to help spot friends, colleagues and relatives at risk of a stroke. They are the Innovation Agency’s AF Ambassadors, who are using portable ECG devices to identify people who may have atrial fibrillation (AF) – an irregular heart beat which can lead to a life-threatening stroke.

PATIENT ACTIVATION & SELF-CARE Products and services that support people with an existing diagnosis to manage their condition - providing information, support and advice to maximise wellbeing.

The Innovation Agency is supporting the adoption and spread of innovation and improvement in each of the two health and care partnerships in our region, Lancashire and South Cumbria; and Cheshire and Merseyside.

This independent report was commissioned by the six academic health science networks (AHSNs) responsible for spreading health innovation in the East Midlands; Kent, Surrey and Sussex; the North West Coast (the Innovation Agency); South London (Health Innovation Network); the West of England; Yorkshire & Humber. The views and conclusions in the report are the author’s own

Growing our network by Dr Liz Mear and Gideon Ben-Tovim It is a time of expansion for the Innovation Agency, which befits springtime as we see the first shoots of the new season.

The Patient Safety Collaborative ambition is for improvement to extend across the entire healthcare system in England, so that care is safer for all.

EiSIT has been commissioned by NHS England and was developed by the Innovation Agency (the Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast). The work was also supported by the Good Governance Institute. EiSIT is accompanied by an infographic, developed by Bayzian, an Economic Intelligence Unit, which is designed to promote the use of research evidence in NHS commissioning decisions and ‘signposts’ commissioners to relevant NHS and other evidence resources.

It is four years since the Berwick Report made a pledge on behalf of the NHS of ‘a promise to learn, a commitment to act’ on patient safety. One of the outcomes of that report was the establishment by NHS Improvement of the Patient Safety Collaborative programme, the biggest patient safety initiative ever undertaken in this country

We have five goals to achieve our core purpose, which is: To transform health, generate economic growth and advance technology

2014/2015 was a very successful year for the North West Coast Academic Health Science Network (NWCAHSN). We are often asked about our Unique Selling Point (USP) as an AHSN, and this year has shown this to be our ability to build strong partnerships and take a trusted partner role, forge collaborations to overcome barriers to innovation, enable action and support system integration

This has been a year of establishing the systems, procedures and entity of the North West Coast Academic Health Science Network. We have focussed very much on working in partnership with members and stakeholders to ensure that we meet their needs and the needs of our residents, patients and service users across our wide geographical footprint, which includes Cheshire, Merseyside, South Cumbria and Lancashire - beautiful coastal, vibrant city and countryside regions, which lead to the enhancement of physical and mental health.

Over 8 in 10 stakeholders (82%) recommend working with the Innovation Agency (slide 42). This is significantly higher (+19 percentage points (pp)) than 2015. Only 1 in 10 say they would not recommend working with the AHSN, and a further 9% say they are unsure.

This has been a year of building on the work we started in 2013/2014, establishing systems and supporting the development of strong partnerships. We believe that the unique selling point of our region is its ability to work in partnership and collaborate. This has been evidenced by the successful bidding of five of our areas to become Vanguard Sites.

The NICE Implementation Collaborative (NIC) was established in 2012 as a partnership between the NHS, the life sciences industry, healthcare professional bodies, and key health organisations, including NICE and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, which have committed to work together to understand, analyse, and overcome the challenges and tensions to implementation and widespread adoption of NICE recommendations. NHS England is one of the founding partners of the NIC and provides some of its core funding. The NIC underpins NHS England’s commitment to work in collaboration with industry to address challenges and tensions to adoption and variations in uptake.