Academic Health Science Networks

Last updated

Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) are membership organisations within the NHS in England. They were created in May 2013 with the aim of bringing together health services, and academic and industry members. Their stated purpose is to improve patient outcomes and generate economic benefits by promoting and encouraging the adoption of innovation in healthcare. In 2019 the AHSNs were issued with a fresh five-year licence to continue their work. [1]

Contents

Background and history

A report in 2008 by Lord Ara Darzi [2] noted that the NHS was poor at innovating, and suggested wider collaboration between industry, education and all aspects of healthcare. The NHS is one of the world's largest employers [3] and with the UK's spending on healthcare at over £140b in 2010 or 9.6% of national GDP, [4] it is a key component of the national economy. There is a generally recognised need to improve the NHS's ability to identify and adopt innovation. [5]

AHSNs were first proposed by name in the 2011 report "Innovation Health and Wealth" [6] by Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of NHS England, and launched by the Prime Minister, David Cameron. A request for expressions of interest was issued in June 2012 [7] and, on 23 May 2013, the 15 designated AHSNs were announced. [8] [9] They are regional, with non-overlapping territories covering the whole of England.

AHSNs take their place in the "fragmented, cluttered and confusing" [6] landscape of NHS innovation. As part of the "Sunset Review" [6] a number of initiatives closed in 2013 including the NHS National Innovation Centre, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, and Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs). There is still a range of active initiatives including NHS Innovation Hubs, NHS Supply Chain Innovation and NHS Improvement.

Funding

Core funding comes from NHS England and work was "in hand to identify the funding" when expressions of interest were invited. [7] A briefing paper [10] assumed funding to be in the region of £2 per head of population served. With a population averaging 3m people, a typical AHSN might have expected roughly £6m per AHSN per year. These figures reflect early expectations but were neither clarified nor confirmed with the designation announcement.

When contracts were signed with NHS England in November 2013, the 15 AHSNs shared around £60 million of funding.[ citation needed ]

Operation and activity

Although their purpose is clear, the structure and approach of individual AHSNs is a matter for local decision. This is apparent in the contrasting approaches taken and the variety of opinions expressed by network founders. [11]

As membership organisations, AHSNs do not have any direct authority over their members, but the Innovation Health and Wealth report states: "all NHS organisations will aspire to be affiliated to their local AHSN where the AHSN will operate as a gateway for the NHS on innovation and working with the life sciences industry on the evaluation, commercialisation and rapid adoption of health technologies". [6] They will be seen to be successful if and only if they can demonstrably improve the rate of adoption of medical technologies and ICTs. [12]

In April 2014, it emerged that NHS England's 2014–15 business plan showed that AHSNs would receive £53.6m that financial year, a 5 per cent cut on the previous year's budget. However, it represents a larger 23 per cent cut on the £70m NHS England announced in May 2013. A senior AHSN figure told the Health Service Journal that NHS England risked "castrating" the programme by cutting the budget and by a perceived lack of promotion of the networks. "They are trying to save a comparatively small amount of money [by cutting the budget] but in doing so they risk castrating the AHSNs. Commissioners are not going to sign up to us if they are thinking that we are not going to be around in two years' time". [13]

In 2019, the AHSNs received a new five-year licence, running to 2023, funded by NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Office of Life Sciences. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute for Health and Care Excellence</span> Non-departmental public body of the Department of Health in the United Kingdom

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in England that publishes guidelines in four areas:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Wales</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales

NHS Wales is the publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales, and one of the four systems which make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Scotland</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in Scotland

NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, 7 special non-geographic health boards, and NHS Health Scotland.

The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) is a health services research centre based at the University of York, England. CRD was established in January 1994, and aims to provide research-based information for evidence-based medicine. CRD carries out systematic reviews and meta-analyses of healthcare interventions, and disseminates the results of research to decision-makers in the NHS.

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement was a special health authority of the National Health Service in England. It supported "the NHS to transform healthcare for patients and the public by rapidly developing and spreading new ways of working, new technology and world-class leadership".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service</span> Publicly-funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom

The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the "NHS" name. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS". The four systems were established in 1948 as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, free at the point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care. In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60 and certain state benefit recipients, are exempt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust</span>

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is an NHS hospital trust in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

An academic medical centre (AMC), variously also known as academic health science centre, academic health science system, or academic health science partnership, is an educational and healthcare institute formed by the grouping of a health professional school with an affiliated teaching hospital or hospital network.

The Manchester Academic Health Science Centre is an academic health science centre based in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a partnership between the University of Manchester and four NHS organisations in Greater Manchester. It was originally established in June 2008, with re-designation most recently in April 2020 by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and NHS England / NHS Improvement. It is now one of eight academic health science centres in England, designated for excellence in health research, education and patient care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improve the health and wealth of the nation through research". The NIHR was established in 2006 under the government's Best Research for Best Health strategy, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. As a research funder and research partner of the NHS, public health and social care, the NIHR complements the work of the Medical Research Council. NIHR focuses on translational research, clinical research and applied health and social care research.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the national healthcare improvement organisation for Scotland. It is a public body which is part of the Scottish National Health Service, created in April 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS England</span> Oversight body for the National Health Service in England

NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It directly commissions NHS general practitioners, dentists, optometrists and some specialist services. The Secretary of State publishes annually a document known as the NHS mandate which specifies the objectives which the Board should seek to achieve. National Health Service Regulations are published each year to give legal force to the mandate.

The Medical Technology Group (MTG) is a not for profit organisation in the United Kingdom comprising patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers. Its stated aim is to "work together to improve patient access to effective medical technologies". The Group launched in 2001.

Healthcare in London, which consumes about a fifth of the NHS budget in England, is in many respects distinct from that in the rest of the United Kingdom, or England.

The Five Year Forward View was produced by NHS England in October 2014 under the leadership of Simon Stevens as a planning document.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Improvement</span> Non-departmental health service oversight body in England

NHS Improvement (NHSI) was a non-departmental body in England, responsible for overseeing the National Health Service's foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. It supported providers to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable.

NHSX is a United Kingdom Government unit with responsibility for setting national policy and developing best practice for National Health Service (NHS) technology, digital and data, including data sharing and transparency.

The private provision of NHS services has been controversial since at least 1990. Keep Our NHS Public, NHS Support Federation and other groups have campaigned against the threat of privatisation, largely in England.

References

  1. ↑ The NHS Long Term Plan
  2. ↑ High Quality Care for All: NHS Next Stage Review, Department of Health, 2008
  3. ↑ "Which is the world's largest employer?". BBC. 20 March 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  4. ↑ "Expenditure on Healthcare in the UK: 2011". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  5. ↑ Academic Health Sciences Networks in England, David Fish, The Lancet, Volume 381, Issue 9882, Pages e18 - e19, 8 June 2013, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60866-6
  6. 1 2 3 4 Innovation Health and Wealth: Accelerating Adoption and Diffusion in the NHS, Department of Health, 5 December 2011
  7. 1 2 Academic Health Science Networks: expressions of interest, Department of Health, 20 June 2012
  8. ↑ "NHS England Gives Green Light on £70m Innovation Networks Project". Health Service Journal. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "AHSN Designation Announcement". NHS England. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  10. ↑ Academic Health Science Networks: Engaging with Improvement, NHS Confederation, June 2012 [ permanent dead link ]
  11. ↑ Johnson, Sarah (26 April 2013). "Academic Health Science Networks: their role and development". London: The Guardian, 26 April 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  12. ↑ Medd, Claire (1 July 2013). "Why 2013 Could Turn Out to be a Watershed Year for Telehealth". London: The Guardian, 1 July 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  13. ↑ "Innovation network could slip into 'self-defeating spiral'". Health Service Journal. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  14. ↑ The AHSN Network: delivering regional and national platforms for transformation of care
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.