Definition Health secures SBRI funding to support NHS recovery

Definition Health, along with its partner, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, has been awarded funding by SBRI Healthcare to support the rollout of its suite of digital surgical solutions. The digital health technology company is one of just nine winners across the UK selected to share more than £4million of funding allocated to support new and efficient ways of working, addressing the treatment backlog and workforce pressure in the post-pandemic NHS.

The SBRI grant will be used to establish the full range of Definition Health’s digital solutions at Royal Surrey, which will include the LifeBox ePOA - a digital pre-operative health assessment app, Connect - a virtual clinic, and Recovery, which supports patients at home after they have had their operation.

The LifeBox ePOA allows patients to complete part of their pre-assessment at home via an online healthcare questionnaire. Two-way file sharing between the Trust and the patient provides secure exchange of information such as test results, medication, fasting advice, and useful information ahead of their procedure. Already, the Guildford-based Trust, which serves a population of 336,000 across southwest Surrey, has gone live with the LifeBox ePOA with the first patients pre-assessed digitally this week (week-ending April 29, 2022).

“We are absolutely delighted that our digital solutions have been recognised by SBRI Healthcare as essential in supporting the NHS in its post-pandemic recovery, and we are especially excited to be working alongside the dedicated team of health professionals at Royal Surrey,” says Sandeep Chauhan, orthopaedic surgeon, and co-founder of Definition Health.

“While our digital solutions are currently being used by other hospitals across England, the Royal Surrey will be the first NHS hospital to adopt the full end-to-end digital surgical solution which will improve patient safety, reduce unnecessary face to face visits and deliver a `virtual ward’ to enhance post discharge care. We look forward to supporting the Royal Surrey team on this journey.”

Royal Surrey’s consultant anaesthetist, Dr Harsh Saxena, is leading the Trust team to implement the digital solutions. He says: “The benefits of using LifeBox are many and include being able to empower patients and engage them more fully in their own care, educating them about their surgical procedure and facilitating smooth admission. It also allows us to improve standardisation of patient care and reduce unnecessary hospital visits.“

Completing part of their pre-assessment away from the hospital not only lessens the stress for patients, but it also allows close family and friends to be more involved in the process and support their loved ones more effectively.”

Plans are already in place at Royal Surrey to set up the Recovery software to enable patients to receive advice after their operation without coming into hospital. The Trust will also be carrying out real life validation studies of the digital solutions in association with the Kent, Surrey, Sussex Academic Health Service Network through its analytical and evaluation service, Unity Insights.