Leeds-based digital healthcare company Itecho Health awarded £2.2m to supporting patients with long-term health conditions

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded a £2.2 million grant to a Leeds-based digital healthcare company for a major research and development project, designed to support patients with long-term health conditions.
Michael Crossland
By Michael Crossland
Published 17th Jan 2023, 06:00 BST

Itecho Health said the grant will allow them to evaluate the experience of more than five thousand patients with long-term health conditions, using its dedicated healthcare platform Ascelus as a “virtual clinic”, which patients are now being enrolled into, connecting them clinicians.

The firm is based at University of Leeds’ innovation hub, Nexus and co-founded by former NHS consultant Dr Adrian Brown and digital tech expert Lalit Suryawanshi, is the largest in the current series of the prestigious NIHR i4i (invention for innovation) Challenge awards.

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Dr Brown said: “Our aim has always been to relieve pressure on our health service, by creating efficient virtual assessments, where patients with chronic conditions can more easily access information and communicate with their clinicians on their smartphones and devices.

The Nexus Hub at the University of LeedsThe Nexus Hub at the University of Leeds
The Nexus Hub at the University of Leeds

“By identifying patients most at risk, the healthcare platform can free up clinician time for more face-to-face appointments with patients who have more complex needs and enable more resources to be devoted to vital patient care.

“We’re also looking closely at digital inclusion to ensure that no patients are left behind due to their social circumstances, ethnicity, language spoken, age or familiarity with apps and digital support.”

Itecho Health is working with ten partner organisations across the UK on the collaborative research project, including King’s College Hospitals NHS Trust, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Leeds, Sheffield Hallam University and King’s College, London.

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The study will also examine the cost benefits of reducing face-to-face appointments and how much that would contribute to a greener NHS and its ambitions to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Itecho Health is initially working with five patient-focused charities, supporting patients with chronic blood disorders including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, haemochromatosis, iron-deficiency anaemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smouldering (asymptomatic) myeloma, sickle cell disease and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia.

Related topics:NHSLeeds