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Source: https://impactreport2024.innovation.ox.ac.uk/outcomes/enabling-people-to-lead-longer-healthier-lives/ Parent: https://ibme.ox.ac.uk/news-archive/
Impact
Enabling people to lead longer, healthier lives
Impact Case Study
Revolutionising stroke care through AI
This year, around 12 million people globally will have a stroke – 100,000 in the UK alone. AI algorithms developed by digital health trailblazer Brainomix are ensuring that more of those patients will receive better care and better outcomes.
Formed by researchers in Oxford’s preclinical stroke lab in 2010 with support from OUI’s startup incubator, Brainomix has raised more than £30 million in funding. The company’s Brainomix 360 Stroke platform, which analyses images from brain scans, has been adopted by healthcare systems worldwide. To date, the technology has supported 1.5 million patients by helping doctors make quick, accurate decisions about their diagnosis and treatment.
A major new study involving 83,000 stroke patients found that use of the platform was associated with a 50% additional increase in the number of patients receiving life-changing mechanical thrombectomy procedures, while also improving the speed of treatment by 49 minutes (a 27% reduction). Notably, a prior study revealed that functional independence among patients tripled, rising from 16% to 48%.
Dr Kiruba Nagaratnam, Consultant Stroke Physician and Clinical Lead for Stroke Medicine at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, says: “I’ve been using Brainomix for the past three-and-a-half years. This is really powerful data showing that when Brainomix is implemented as a component of an existing collaborative stroke pathway, it clearly benefits stroke patients and enables more patients to access treatment.”
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Impact Case Study
Supporting safer patient care
Mental health care can be a challenging experience both for those giving and receiving it. Oxehealth has been working on that challenge with clinicians, patients and carers since being spun out of Oxford University’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering in 2012.
The company’s contactless patient monitoring platform, Oxevision, supports clinicians in mental health hospitals to observe patients, intervene when necessary and plan patient care. Oxevision integrates camera-based hardware with a suite of software modules, including world-first medical devices for vital signs and sleep monitoring. Staff can interact with the platform using portable tablets or a fixed screen in the nursing station. Oxehealth technology has been deployed across over 100 sites in the UK, US and Europe – including 50% of English NHS mental health trusts. Evaluations of the technology show impressive results, including a 44% reduction in bedroom self-harm in acute settings and a 48% reduction in night-time falls among older patients. One patient who stayed in a room fitted with Oxevision says: “It can only benefit treatment. I would say it’s an aid to nursing and it’s a positive for patients who are getting better treatment, because the monitor is on the ball and the nurses are on the ball straight away should there be an alert. Only good things could be said about it.”
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Impact Case Study
Licensed to reduce stroke and heart disease risk
High blood pressure (also known as hypertension) is the third-biggest risk factor for disease and disability in the UK – despite being one of the most preventable and treatable conditions. Around one in three adults have high blood pressure, costing the NHS £2.1bn each year and taking up 12% of all GP visits.
Self-monitoring at home could provide a solution, but its adoption has been low in the UK and there are concerns about patient anxiety and contradictory evidence.
Launched in 2021, the ground-breaking Viso remote monitoring platform from global health technology company OMRON helps clinicians manage a patient’s medication plan based on home blood pressure readings. The system, licensed via OUI, is underpinned by an exclusive algorithm and marks another development in the digital transformation of the NHS.
The effectiveness of home blood pressure monitoring has been assessed by a team led by Professor Richard McManus of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. A research study found that patients who self-monitor and have their medication dosage adjusted using home blood pressure readings have significantly lower blood pressure than patients whose dosage is guided by clinic readings.
This blood pressure reduction, if sustained, would be expected to reduce stroke risk by 20% and coronary heart disease risk by 10%. Viso has been rolled out in over 150 NHS practices, saving significant GP time and up to a third of appointments for hypertension.
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Impact Case Study
Enhancing the treatment of pain
The latest Nurofen ‘Gender Pain Gap’ report reveals a widening gap between women and men in how pain is treated. Almost half of women feel their pain is ignored or dismissed by health professionals, while 14% of women surveyed still don’t have a diagnosis, compared with 9% of men.
These important insights are among the results of more than six years of close collaboration between Nurofen (Reckitt Benckiser) and academic researchers led by neuroscientist and pain expert Professor Rebeccah Slater of Oxford’s Department of Paediatrics.
Facilitated by OUI’s Consulting Services team, this work has informed some of Reckitt’s most impactful public health campaigns – not least the company’s drive to highlight women’s experiences of pain. The collaboration has also resulted in the formation of multiple OUI-led advisory boards, a series of academic papers and reports, two industry-sponsored DPhil students at Oxford, and planned clinical studies that will consider the effectiveness of pain treatments.
Reckitt’s Chief Medical Officer says: “We are so grateful to Professor Rebeccah Slater and her team for adding enormous value to our work on Nurofen, ensuring our pain brands are backed by the best insights, the best evidence and the best science. The Oxford-Reckitt partnership shows what can be achieved through academic and industry collaboration, making a real difference to people in pain – and the work on the gender pain gap is a shining example of that.”
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Impact Case Study
The Endometriosis Health Profile (EHP)
Enhancing quality of life for women
Endometriosis affects around 1.5 million women in the UK. That’s 1 in 10 women of reproductive age who suffer from varying levels of pain and discomfort, as well as potential impacts on fertility, mental health, work and social life, and more. The condition occurs when cells like those found in the womb lining grow elsewhere in the body, and the effects can be debilitating.
For the past 20 years, a set of specialised questionnaires known as the Endometriosis Health Profile (EHP) has been helping healthcare professionals assess the symptoms – physical, emotional and social – of women with endometriosis. The EHP is designed with a focus on the patient’s experience, making it a valuable tool for understanding the personal impact of endometriosis. Since 2008, more than 450 copyright licences have been granted for use on a global scale, with 68% being used for publicly funded treatment or within academic studies, and aptly supported by a library of 64 translations. This has enabled use with over 293,000 patients, giving them the opportunity to provide a voice in their endometriosis-related healthcare and has further enabled clinicians and healthcare professionals to make informed decisions around treatment and interventions.
A review of 139 studies found that most women reported improvements in health-related quality of life after treatment, whilst surgical interventions showed significant improvements for the longest time. Perhaps most notably, the questionnaires are particularly suited to clinical trials of new therapies: in 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment, Myfembree, for endometriosis pain management. Data from the EHP formed a key part of the trials.
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