Focus on: transforming systems Leading system transformation Helen Oliver, Business Development Director and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Eastern AHSN, explains how we are supporting integrated care systems to ensure innovation is at the centre of patient-driven healthcare services S ystem-wide innovation in health and care requires a detailed understanding of the needs specific to that system. This relies on knowing the drivers of population health, enabled by access to data and a system-wide care record. But understanding a systems needs is only part of the equation, as the uptake of new technologies and pathways also relies on building and strengthening relationships and trust between organisations, networks and people across all stakeholders within that system. We believe that we have a core role encouraging and enabling our local system to transform by removing traditional divisions, embracing the future and embedding a culture of innovation to improve population health. Establishing integrated care systems as innovation leaders Collaboration and leadership arent just for senior management. We need to involve health and care professionals at all levels and provide the right skills, culture and tools to work with the community to deliver the care patients need. To this end, in September we partnered with Eastern AHSN and our six integrated care systems (ICSs) to support the embedding of collaborative, compassionate and inclusive leadership within developing ICSs. Leading for care integration the big collaboration brought Jacky Dixon, Systems Leadership Development Senior Manager for Leadership and Lifelong Learning (East of England) at NHS England and NHS Improvement. together more than 700 health and care staff from across the region over three online events to explore collective innovation, enabling high-performing integrated teams and how we instil the leadership skills and behaviours that health and care leaders will need for the successful integration of public sector, social care and third sector. Eastern AHSNs input was really valuable in helping us secure Click here to find out more about Leading for care integration speakers, promote the event and develop the agenda, as well as drawing on its networks to deliver some of the workshops. Developing an innovation hub We are thrilled to be a partner in one of the four Adopting Innovation Hubs funded by the Health Foundation as part of a national programme to ensure that people using services benefit faster from effective healthcare technology and practice. The hub, which launched in February 2022 and is based within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS, aims to address health inequalities across the county through the implementation of proven Jacky Dixon talks about working with Eastern AHSN innovation. It will support this through building knowledge, skills and confidence in provider organisations and local systems and sharing wider learning on the effective adaptation and uptake of proven innovation regionally and nationally. As well as supporting the development of the funding bid, Eastern AHSN helped in the initial set up of the hub by bringing together patient and professional groups, partners and stakeholders to establish working groups, co-design the hubs strategy, support recruitment and capture an effective baseline for evaluation. The hub aims to achieve a sustainable legacy within the ICS through upskilling the workforce to encourage adoption capability whilst aligning NHS, commissioning, local authority, academia and innovation partners through a central mechanism for the adoption of proven innovations. We have already seen an acceleration in collaboration between the partners as we move into the live delivery phase in summer 2022. Find out more. Ewen Cameron talks about Eastern AHSNs role in establishing the Cambs and Pboro Innovation Hub We hope this will become the blueprint for adopting innovation across the region in the coming years. Dr Ewen Cameron, Interim Chief Operating Officer at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Empowering innovation ambassadors Innovation ambassadors are embedded into local systems to promote and support innovative activities from within, supporting both ICS and AHSN priorities. They develop local infrastructure to ensure that systems are innovation-ready and able to adopt best practice and new technologies. They also encourage colleagues to come forward with innovative ideas and challenges to AHSN Network colleagues. Due to the success of my role and similar ones previously funded in Norfolk and Waveney CCG and East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Eastern AHSN have appointed two more innovation ambassadors in Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust and are in the process of appointing another in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICS. Below are some of the projects I have been able to facilitate within the Suffolk and North East Essex ICS based on an understanding of our local needs and Eastern AHSNs insight into the latest innovations that could provide positive health Caroline Angus, Head of Innovation at Suffolk and North East Essex ICS impact. Quibim Quibims QP Prostate software allows NHS Hospitals to operate a rapid urology clinic for prostate cancer and allows full diagnosis in less than 50 minutes. After they presented to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Growth Works programme, of which Eastern AHSN is a member, we invited Quibim to our Scale-Up Academy in 2021. Eastern AHSN also supported their application to the NHSX Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, for which they have proceeded to the next round of applications after we developed their data-driven proposal to align with key policies. We have supported East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) in a funding bid to pilot QP Prostate at the trust which, if successful, will run over three years. C the Signs C the Signs is an integrated clinical decision support tool which uses artificial intelligence mapped with the latest clinical evidence to support GPs to identify patients at risk of cancer at the earliest stage of the disease. A pilot of C the Signs has been commissioned across 35 GP practices by Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG, for which Eastern AHSN is providing funding and programme management support for an independent evaluation of the service due Summer 2022. C2-Ai C2-Ai provides clinical decision-makers with enhanced risk analysis and detailed risk profiles for each patient, using existing NHS hospital data and machine learning. Having identified C2-Ais patient risk stratification system as something that could support capacity management in the region, Eastern AHSN is partfunding a project with NHS England and NHS Improvement to pilot the tool in Colchester Hospital to help identify and prioritise patients at the highest risk of deterioration. It is hoped this will enable clinical teams to differentiate and prioritise between patients and strengthen their ability to get accurate prioritised patient lists to increase staff and service efficiencies. Eastern AHSN is funding and managing the evaluation of the project, which we hope to have completed by January 2023. Read more about our work with C2-Ai to support NHS elective services here Liberate Pro Liberate Pro is a digital platform designed to empower patients to better manage their conditions whilst reducing the number of clinical appointments needed. It allows a clinician to record their consultation with their patient and send it to them with further guidance to support understanding of how to manage their condition better. Eastern AHSN has worked closely with the ICS to broker a pilot of this tool with cardiovascular disease patients, with the evaluation due in January 2024. Eastern AHSN has supported the development of resources for the pathway and materials aimed at both clinicians and patients. This is being further extended to support other areas including pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation. Atrial fibrillation (AF) remote detection AF is an irregular heart rhythm which is associated with a higher risk of stroke. We brokered a pilot of a new remote atrial fibrillation (AF) detection pathway across two hospitals from February 2022. The pilot will offer remote screening via two technologies FibriCheck and Zio XT Patch (a remote ECG monitor), removing the need for patients to go to their GP or the trusts for initial screening. Find out more in our article on page 8 . Share this article Return to the contents page Get in touch Do you need support in making your organisation more innovation-ready? Contact us to see how we can support you. Up next: Read how we are supporting integrated care systems to ensure innovation is at the centre of patient-driven healthcare services.