SBRI Healthcare award supports pioneering innovations

We are delighted with today’s news that two companies we’ve been supporting have been awarded funding by SBRI Healthcare to help Reset and Recovery and new ways of working, which includes tackling Mental Health Inequalities in Children and Young People.

The awards will see Dr Julian and Definition Health each running a nine-month project, with the aim of implementing and scaling up their technology in a real-world environment, building evidence for future uptake and spread.

The aim is for these technologies to be adopted for use in the NHS, where they can provide benefits for patients and the overall community.

Dr Julian is an online Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service that provides structure, organisation and enhanced patient care.

Set up by an NHS GP who was frustrated by mental health waiting times, the Dr Julian Platform improves efficiency and access to mental health services. It provides an end-to-end platform for the booking, matching and choice of clinician, assessments, and having the appointment.

Commenting on the funding, Julian Nesbitt, CEO of the Dr Julian Platform, said:

“I’m really proud and delighted to announce that Dr Julian Medical Group has been selected for the SBRI reset and recovery competition. This is great recognition for all the hard work of the team as we endeavour to build the best, most comprehensive, highly efficient and results driven Mental Health Therapy Platform on the market, and we are excited to be able to bring this to IAPT services.”

Through this SBRI grant the company will look at the value of providing a SAAS model for their product which is based on the feedback from current NHS sites, thereby providing commissioners with options to use Dr Julian clinicians or their own.

All case management, as well as tailored self-help tools and resources for patients are integrated on their own dashboard, providing the right support where and when they need it.

Definition Health will launch the first digital tool that covers the entire patient journey for all patients undergoing surgery. It will enable clinicians to deliver prehabilitation care, perioperative assessments, outcome scores as well as monitoring patients whilst integrating with a major Electronic Medical Records (EMR) provider to allow remote delivery of information.

Both companies have been supported in their journey by KSS AHSN. Commenting on the awards Nuala Foley, KSS AHSN’s Portfolio Lead for Commercial and Partnerships, said:

“Definition Health and Dr Julian each offers exciting, innovative approaches to responding to the needs to support the NHS with reset and recovery and provide an innovation and long-term way of supporting current and future challenges in the NHS. We’re absolutely delighted that they’ve received this funding to further develop their work and scale of their technology.

“It’s been great seeing the companies grow and develop, and as well as offering a great opportunity to further develop their evidence, the SBRI Healthcare funding pays testament to the determination, passion and innovation that both companies have consistently shown.”

Unlike other competitions, Competition 19 is a new, standalone funding round, open to late-stage solutions and technologies looking to move from clinical evaluation to real-world implementation. For a full list of the projects visit SBRI Healthcare’s website

KSS AHSN has a strong reputation in winning SBRI awards, and would encourage companies thinking of applying to get in touch to see how we can help you.  We are also available to broker introductions to interested NHS stakeholders for either of these two new products. To find out more about how KSS AHSN could help your innovation email kssahsn.bridgingthegap@nhs.net