Data Informatics

Nine Health CIC our sister company helped to develop VPH­Share which created a safe, online facility in which medical simulation developers can produce workflows ­ chains of processing tasks ­ to allow raw medical data to be refined into meaningful diagnostic and therapeutic information. Via an easy-to-use graphical interface, all the functions needed by workflow developers are provided, including design, construction, data­ access and storage, test, high ­speed computation, sensitivity analyses and results presentation. By allowing users to work collaboratively, and concentrate only on the actual workflow design process, we estimate that over half the tasks usually associated with workflow project construction can be avoided. Huge savings in time can be made while complex interactions with infrastructure designers can be avoided. VPH­-Share has simple workflows running within minutes.

We have taken this know how and IP and are applying this to the area of hard to heal wounds working with the NHS Humber Teaching Foundation Trust. We have been awarded a grant of £149,000 to build a prototype of an AI predictive system for patients with chronic lower limb wounds.

The funding forms part of the NHS Artificial Intelligence Lab and the award is managed by the Accelerated Access Collaborative in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research.

The system, called Woubot, will create a suite of automated software tools for community and wound clinics, with a mobile application designed by doctors and nurses for their own use within the NHS. Software will sift through millions of data items in secure NHS facilities, use AI to identify people likely to develop chronic leg wounds, and manage their preventative care.

Data suggest that over two million people in the UK currently have a chronic wound1, with the annual cost to the NHS of managing these wounds and related conditions estimated at £5.3 billion2.

Around 180,000 people suffer from venous leg ulcers3. In patients with diabetes, 80% of leg ulcers result in amputation, and after one amputation patients are twice as likely to have a second. Five-year mortality rates for diabetic patients with foot ulcers are similar to or worse than many common types of cancers.

If you have an interest in developing predictive tools/diagnostics and data- based research for clinical conditions please get in touch.