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The Government's Office for Life Sciences has announced a major initiative to drive the rapid uptake of health innovation. The AHSNs will co-ordinate the initiative so that innovative new diagnostic tools, treatments and medical technologies reach patients faster.

Welcoming the announcement, Lars Sundstrom, Enterprise Director for the West of England AHSN, said: “This announcement by Health Minister Lord O’Shaughnessy that the government is going to invest £86 million into four new mechanisms to help speed up uptake of innovation into the UK healthcare sector is a testament to the great work done by innovators in companies and in the NHS."

Chair of the AHSN Network, Dr Liz Mear added: “England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks support the healthcare system to quickly identify and spread new, better and cheaper ways to deliver services for patients and populations – since 2013 our work has benefited six million people and we have spread over 200 innovations across the health and care system."

“The Innovation Exchanges will be built on the partnerships AHSNs have built in their local areas, bringing partners together across health, care and industry and will support the supply of products for the Accelerated Access Partnership and build on AHSNs’ existing expertise of supporting industry partners.”

AHSNs will use their established networks and expertise to

• identify priorities and then act as honest brokers across sectors to bring people and organisations together

• provide the first port of call for information – for example signposting commercial innovators and matching already proven solutions to challenges faced by local NHS organisations

• share best practice around health and care organisations, and offer expert advice about how to get transformation and innovation adopted

• identify opportunities for patients to take part in trials and pilots

• work with health and commercial partners to test out solutions

• collaborate as a national network of 15 to identify what is working best locally, and then scale it nationally.

The Innovation Exchanges are one of the key outcomes of the Accelerated Access Review (AAR), an independent report commissioned by the government and published in 2016.

The AAR looked at ways to ensure patients get quicker access to innovative new diagnostic tools, treatments and medical technologies – with the aim of making the UK a world-leader in healthcare innovation.

AHSNs will receive funding for the next three years to coordinate the Innovation Exchange process.

More information

Background to the Accelerated Access Review and more detail about the Innovation Exchange announcement.