Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of academic health science networks on uptake of medical technology.

George Freeman

Speeding up the adoption of innovation into practice to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience has been one of the four core contractual objectives for Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) since their establishment in 2013.

AHSNs have taken a range of approaches in delivering their objectives which have been selected in response to the priorities of their local populations and health economies. AHSNs are supporting over 150 active programmes and projects across a range of clinical and cross-cutting themes, many of which support the spread and adoption of innovations in their localities. In addition, AHSNs also host the Small Business Research Initiative and are facilitating the creation of Test Beds – both of which involve supporting the development and spread of healthcare technologies.

As part of NHS England’s assurance process, AHSNs are expected to publish annual reports to update their stakeholders on their achievements against their business plans. Annual reports can be found on individual AHSN websites.

Case studies and exemplars of how AHSNs are supporting the speed up adoption of innovation into practice can be found in the resources section of the AHSNs Network website: www.ahsnnetwork.com

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