New NHS treatments and test to benefit ¾ million patients

NHS England has announced new world-leading innovations are on their way, and some are already in place, to benefit around ¾ million patients. There is a new pre-eclampsia test for pregnant women based on placental growth factor, Gammacore, a hand-held device that uses mild electrical current to reduce pain caused by cluster headaches, and a high sensitivity troponin blood test to reduce the time required to rule out the possibility of a heart attack. Funding has also been confirmed by NHS England for a further 10 new tests and treatments, such as HeartFlow, a computer programme that creates a 3D model of the heart and can remove the need for invasive procedures.
NHS England CEO, Simon Stevens, said: “From improving care for pregnant women to using digital modelling to assess heart conditions and new tests to prevent unnecessary hospitalisations for suspected heart attacks, the NHS is taking action to ensure patients have access to the very best modern technologies. It’s heartening to see the NHS grasping with both hands these rapidly advancing medical innovations.”
Chief executive of the Accelerated Access Collaborative and director of innovation and life sciences for NHS England, Dr. Sam Roberts, said: “This programme has been amazingly successful at getting new tests and treatments to patients, with over 300,000 patients benefitting already, and this year we have another great selection of proven innovations. We will build on this success with our commitments set out in the Long Term Plan, to support the latest advances and make it easier for even more patients to benefit from world-class technology.”