Cardiology team wins funding for digital innovation project

The final of RADICAL, our Rapid Adoption Innovation Call for digital innovation ideas took place today, with five finalists presenting their innovative proposals to a panel of leading experts in digital health and technology.

This was our first funding call specifically focused on digital innovation, as part of our CW Innovation programme with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In partnership with the Rosetrees Trust and Kusuma Trust, the winning project will be awarded funding and have the opportunity to test and scale their innovation at our hospitals and beyond.

The panel members joining our CEO Chris Chaney were: Laura Wade-Gery, Chair of NHS Digital; Soma Pujari, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee at the Kusuma Trust; Richard Ross, Chairman of the Rosetrees Trust; Ann Berger, Chief Executive of the Rosetrees Trust; Angelica Anton, Founder and Managing Partner of Silk Ventures; Robert Hodgkiss, Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer at the Trust; Bruno Botelho, Deputy COO and Director of Digital Operations at the Trust.

“A huge thank you to our panel for their support of the first RADICAL call, and thank you to all the applicants – we had a really strong range of projects and it’s great to see innovation being prioritised at our Trust and beyond,” said Chris Chaney, Chief Executive of CW+.

The winner of the RADICAL call was announced as FibriCheck, a smartphone atrial fibrillation testing app proposed by Consultant Cardiologist Sadia Khan and Pavidra Sivanandarajah. Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm disorder and the app will be used to measure pulse pressure signals in members of the local community who have recently suffered a stroke, and those at high risk of atrial fibrillation.

Brent Bartholomew was announced as runner up, with his proposal to use Microsoft’s Hololens glasses across our hospitals, enabling medical students to remotely stream into clinics – particularly useful as we increase our digital provision in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to generous support from the Rosetrees Trust and Kusuma Trust, all of our finalists will have their projects funded including:

  • DBm-Health, a remote monitoring system which allows patients with diabetes to manage their condition using an app, reducing the need for hospital visits and streamlining patient-clinician communication
  • Kintsugi, effective and engaged support to CAMHS patients from the outset – the app includes expressive voice journaling and AI-driven depression and anxiety monitoring
  • Virtual Bodyworks, which uses virtual reality to expand on equality, diversity and inclusion training for staff by using the VR environment to replicate real-life situations

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have fast-tracked a raft of new technologies and innovations into our day-to-day functioning as part of CW Innovation. The introduction of these innovative solutions are the latest initiatives to be rapidly accelerated in order to continue to deliver high quality care to patients beyond the walls of our hospitals.