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Recruitment begins for innovative patient monitoring study
Aptus Clinical Ltd has started recruitment for the COSMIC-19 study, which they believe will help transform and shape clinical trial monitoring in the future.
The COSMIC-19 study (COntinuous Signs Monitoring in Covid-19 patients), sponsored by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in collaboration with Manchester University Foundation NHS Trust, utilises advanced AI capabilities provided by Zenzium. Aptus Clinical is providing specialist Data Management and Clinical Operations support, enabling compliant data handling and aggregation infrastructure.
The COSMIC-19 pilot study aims to recruit 60 inpatients who are suspected or confirmed as having COVID-19. Each patient will have vital signs and observations monitored using advanced wireless wearable sensors, with Zenzium’s proprietary AI technology used to retrospectively look for predictive patterns in the patients’ vital signs which could be used to alert the medical team if the patient is deteriorating. If the prediction indicates that the patient needs critical care, the medical team could then potentially intervene earlier, giving patients the best chance of recovery.
Steve McConchie, CEO of Aptus Clinical, said: “We are delighted to have provided clinical operations support for this important and transformative clinical trial. Working with the NHS and AI partners, we have developed a novel data sharing system that compliantly integrates biosensor data from patients with their clinical data and transfers it seamlessly to Zenzium for analysis. We are confident that the infrastructure we have built in Manchester can be easily applied to ensure future clinical trials benefit from these AI driven insights, and ultimately lead to better therapies for patients.”
“Unfortunately some patients who are suffering from COVID-19 on our hospital wards can become seriously unwell. By using this system, we hope to be able to identify these patients early and this may mean we can optimise their management without the need for them to go to intensive care.”
Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite COSMIC-19 Principal Investigator Medical Oncologist The Christie
“This technology is a glimpse of how we will monitor hospital patients in the future and it’s fantastic that MFT and The Christie are frontrunners in such innovation.”
Dr Anthony Wilson Intensive Care Consultant Trial Coordinator, MFT
How can Wales futureproof its healthcare system?
Cari-Anne Quinn, CEO of Life Sciences Hub Wales, discusses the challenges that healthcare and social services in Wales will face over the next decade, exploring what needs to be done to address them and ensure people continue to live longer, happy and healthier lives.
Prior to the arrival of Covid-19, it was all too easy to overlook how fortunate we are here in the UK. We have a dedicated healthcare service, staffed by top clinicians, caregivers and researchers who are striving to keep us living as healthily and as long as possible.
What was even easier to overlook is the fact that, as well as frontline staff working daily to protect our health, we also benefit from an entire industry dedicated to developing the next generation of healthcare solutions. While Covid-19 has brought unprecedented challenges, the truth is that the challenges our healthcare system faced before its arrival have not gone away.
Wales is home to an array of innovative companies working hard to develop new technologies and practices that will not only address the problems of today, but ensure that our healthcare system is prepared to meet our future needs as well. It is a massive undertaking, but if this year has shown us anything, it is that the Welsh life sciences sector’s ability to innovate can match that of the global leaders.
Life Sciences Hub Wales exists to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative solutions for better health and wellbeing. This will prepare our health and social care system for rising patient numbers, fiscal pressures, the complexities brought by an ageing population and the need to tackle social isolation.
One thing is for sure – we need to rethink how we approach healthcare delivery. At Life Sciences Hub Wales, we believe that futureproofing Wales’ health and social care system requires a concentrated effort to develop and roll out innovative solutions targeted around five key areas – digital and artificial intelligence, advanced therapies, precision medicine, healthy ageing and value based healthcare.
Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is starting to unlock enormous resources of real-world data that will transform how our healthcare is planned and delivered. Today, data is potentially our most valuable asset when working to improve patient centred outcomes, with applications in fields such as medical imaging analysis, patient medical records and genetics. Take radiology for example – AI systems can interpret X-ray images much quicker than humans, immediately identifying abnormalities that need further human investigation. Such technology will not replace clinicians; instead it will allow them to focus on more complex cases, speeding up diagnosis and treatment. As a result, forging such a partnership between clinicians and AI systems could help address the current shortages of radiologists.
Going forward, AI in healthcare will become the norm. However, we are not quite there yet. While we are starting to see AI used within clinical settings, we are not at the stage of seeing it used daily across the country.
With so many new AI innovations vying for support against the context of limited resources, deciding which products to scale up will be a key challenge in speeding up AI’s development and adoption. It’s also crucial to remember that data used by AI and connected systems will be the personal data of patients, so safeguards must be in place to ensure it is used both confidentially and ethically.
Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products
Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMP), which include treatments like cell and gene therapies, are set to transform care pathways for a range of conditions, by providing the ability to repair, replace, regenerate and re-engineer genes, cells and tissues to restore normal function.
We are seeing impressive developments in 3D printing of tissue made from human cells, which could have huge implications for facial reconstructive surgery, as well as in the battle against cancer. Two lymphoma patients in Cardiff were recently treated by genetically modifying their immune cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells, offering hope for a one-size-fits-all treatment.
As it stands, Wales isn’t set up to adopt advanced therapies on a large scale as we do not have the resources, infrastructure or sufficiently skilled workforce in place to support them. Bridging the gap between research and treatment will enable cuttingedge transformative therapy development and use in our health services.
In Wales, over 1000 companies are working in this area, with over 1,100 ATMP products currently used in clinical trials. Estimates suggest we will see 20-40 new therapies licensed by 2025. By 2030, we will be able to design, develop and administer ATMPs much faster and cheaper, with ‘off the shelf’ therapies immediately to hand. Therapies will be more widely available in Welsh hospitals and used as ‘first line’ treatments rather than a ‘last resort’.
Precision Medicine
Clinicians have access to a huge array of treatment options for conditions, but certain treatments aren’t guaranteed to work for all patients. As well as potentially being detrimental to a patient, ineffective treatments can waste valuable resources.
What people may not realise is that a person’s genetic makeup can have a huge impact on whether a treatment is successful, with some drugs only effective in people with certain specific gene mutations.
The good news is that advances in genetic testing are providing clinicians with a clearer indication of the success rates of treatments for certain patients This approach – known as ‘precision medicine’ – will enable clinicians to develop personalised treatment plans that are the best fit for individual patients, as opposed to testing numerous options. This will not only improve patient experiences and recovery rates but will bring economic benefits by eliminating the use of unnecessary treatments.
Precision medicine is set to grow enormously but its wider roll out will be dependent on clinicians having access to full patient medical data, both on an individual and population level, to inform their decisions on diagnosis and treatment. Harnessing AI and digital technology will be necessary to make this happen.
Healthy Ageing
By 2030, one in four people in Wales will be over 65 – that’s an estimated 700,000 of us. Our ageing population is perhaps the most pressing issue facing our NHS.
We must adopt new technology and processes that will help people stay healthy, happy and active for as long as possible. The goal is to delay the need for additional care as we age, but as well as helping individuals maintain physical health, Wales’ health and social care services need to guard against the very real risk of loneliness and social isolation, which is all too common in later life. Across Wales, businesses, social enterprises and researchers are developing approaches and products to support healthy ageing and combat cases of loneliness and social isolation. These factors are often associated with higher rates of emergency admissions, rehospitalisation and earlier entry into care homes. Encouraging continued collaborations between technology developers and health and social care providers will be key to ensuring cuttingedge solutions are not only developed but implemented.
Value Based Healthcare
A value based healthcare system will transform how we plan, deliver and pay for treatment across health and care in Wales. Unlike the current fee-for-services and products, where care providers pay for treatments regardless of their effectiveness, a value-based system sees developers and pharmaceutical companies paid if their product successfully improves patient’s health outcomes and experience.
This transition will require a major shift in how the NHS and wider industry operates, which takes time and investment. It also raises issues of data sharing, so building trust and collaborative partnerships will be crucial to transitioning to a value-based system.
However, it’s vital that we focus on what such a system will deliver. It will allow patients to make better informed decisions and access information on likely treatment outcomes, based on data that comes directly from patient feedback. This will lead to a better understanding of costs and outcomes in health and social care, as well as improved knowledge on how best to allocate resources. Our organisation will continue to support industry to understand and develop approaches that enable value-based innovation development to effectively meet the needs and approaches of patients, and health and care in Wales.
Life Sciences Hub Wales is committed to continuing to support the acceleration and adoption of innovation across health and social care. To find out more, visit: lshubwales.com
