Innovation from universities should play a key role in renewing our NHS

With the future of the NHS being a hot topic of national conversation – not least at the Labour Party Conference – it’s vital that the role of university research is recognised as a driving force in making our health service fit for the future, says Anne Lane, CEO of UCLB.

Equipping the NHS for the challenges of the 21st century requires embracing innovation. Commercialising university research and technology is key to transforming ‘end to end’ healthcare, from early detection of disease to optimising efficiency of healthcare systems and providing new treatments for the biggest health challenges of our time. 

As a leading university technology transfer office, UCLB is part of a vibrant innovation ecosystem which is nurturing and supporting this commercialisation process. We create spinout businesses, protect IP and helping licence technologies emerging from UCL’s world-class academics. 

Early diagnosis 

An inspiring example springs from UCL research into use of magnetic technology to replace radioactivity in diagnosing the progression of breast cancer. Pioneered by UCL academics, the technology has formed the basis of a successful business, Endomag. UCLB has helped support the business’s growth, and helped bring the tech to market. Endomag recently recorded its 500,000th patient worldwide, and the system has helped surgeons minimise surgery and improve outcomes for patients whilst reducing healthcare costs.  

UCLB spinout MyCardium, meanwhile, is using AI-enhanced interpretation of cardiac scans to enable clinicians to make faster, cheaper and more accurate heart disease diagnoses and improve patient care.   

Elsewhere, Odin Vision (now acquired by Olympus) spun out of research at UCL Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional Surgical Sciences and the department of Computer Science. It uses an AI model to help detect and characterise polyps in the gastro-intestinal tract. The product, CADDIE, is now widely used by clinicians to assist in detecting abnormal polyps, helping to identify the presence of early-stage colorectal cancer – crucial in enabling much more effective treatment of the disease. 

The right advice

Empowering people to take control of their own health is also critically important in reducing the burden of ill-health. Here too, commercialisation of research can play a vital role. TrimTots is a good example. A ‘social venture’ created by UCLB with UCL academics specialising in nutrition and child health, TrimTots is tackling childhood obesity and creating healthier eating habits through a programme of interventions at community level that includes family workshops and creative storytelling via puppets and creative activities. Clinically proven to reduce obesity, the programme is the only research-backed intervention approved by the NHS. 

Meanwhile, Help Diabetes, a web-based self-management and education programme for patients with Type 2 diabetes, has now attracted more than 20,000 users. The tool was developed by a multidisciplinary group including UCL clinicians and academics headed by Professor Elizabeth Murray, Co-Director of the e-Health Unit. The programme provides people with diabetes with the tools to manage their own health via easily accessible evidence-based information and support.  

Innovative treatments  

Finding new and more effective treatments for the big health challenges of the 21st century such as cancers and degenerative brain diseases is central to a strategy for improving the health of the nation.  

UCL and its associated network of hospitals (including University College Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Royal Free and Moorfields Eye Hospital) is one of the world’s leading universities in life sciences, and successful commercialisation is bringing ground-breaking medical research from the lab to patients.  

UCL academics and their spinout businesses are taking 22 treatments through clinical trials – including revolutionary ‘personalised’ immunological cell and gene therapies for cancers and promising treatments for common ophthalmic diseases including macular degeneration. Already available to patients in the U.S and some EU countries is an astounding ‘one shot’ gene therapy for treating haemophilia A, which frees patients from a lifetime of twice-weekly infusions.  

Drug development is a long and extremely costly process running into the hundreds of millions. Maintaining commitment of capital investors to support the long road from lab to patient is helped hugely by an efficient regulatory process and flexible pricing for new treatments. The work in the background to optimise NHS procurement and NICE approval processes is key to maintaining the flow of new treatments to patients.  

Building back better

AI also has huge potential in helping the NHS transform operational efficiency, improving patient care and reducing clinical risk through better data management.  

UCLB spinout Cogstack, a collaboration between King’s College and UCL, is improving treatment, outcomes and efficiency by using narrative long-form patient records to teach a large language model AI to assist clinicians to predict likely disease progressions as well as identifying health trends in whole populations.  

This great example of cross-institutional and NHS collaboration also illustrates the importance of working together to accelerate innovation to benefit the NHS and patients alike. This was vividly demonstrated during the COVID –19 pandemic when a low-cost breathing aid called C-PAP was developed through a ground-breaking collaboration between UCLB, clinicians at University College Hospital and engineers at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains. Over 24,000 devices were manufactured in 30 countries, and used in over 130 UK hospitals, helping save many lives.  

Experience shows that where there’s a will there’s a way to lower the barriers to entry for getting new products, services and processes adopted by the NHS. We must make it quicker and easier for the entire health ecosystem to embrace innovation and better procure proven technologies coming from our world class university researchers. 

We welcome the new government’s acknowledgment that AI and innovation will be pivotal in shaping the NHS’ future. University technology transfer offices should be its first port of call.