The Government has today announced it will invest over £130 million in life-changing treatments for arthritis and cancer and for pioneering gene-based therapies for diseases including dementia and Parkinson’s.
An investment of £50 million with support NHS diagnostic services and support the work of existing Centres of Excellence in digital pathology and imaging with artificial intelligence based in Leeds, Oxford, Coventry and London.
The centres will be able to partner with more NHS Trusts to further develop digital systems including artificial intelligence.
£7.5 million will be invested in social care to use research to improve care delivery and £14 million for bioscience projects and technologies across the UK that could, for example, treat osteoarthritis and develop new vaccines.
£69.5 million of the total investment will be through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will help fund 4 projects:
- Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator: ‘NATA’ (£30 million) for brand new therapies and technologies directly targeting genetic mutations could be rolled out to treat diseases including cancer, Huntingdon’s, Parkinson’s and arthritis
- The Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (£12 million) – for deepening our understanding of pain, this will reveal new treatment approaches and address a wide spectrum of chronic and debilitating conditions including arthritis. Versus Arthritis will contribute an additional £12 million over 3 years
- UK Centre of Evidence Implementation in Adult Social Care (£7.5 million) – using high quality research, this project will lead to improvements in the delivery of social care across the UK; implementing innovations with the potential to allow more people to receive care from the comfort of their own home
- Tackling Multimorbidity at scale (£20 million, of which the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) is contributing £10 million) – this research into multimorbidity – when someone is suffering 2 or more long-term health conditions – will propel forward drug development, allow for earlier diagnosis and reduce progression to more severe illness and disability
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “We’ve got to bring NHS technology into the 21st century. I’ve seen for myself how better technology and diagnosis can save clinicians’ time so they can concentrate on care. The NHS is now spearheading world-leading technologies that can transform and save lives through new treatments, diagnosis techniques and care. I’m determined that the benefits of these advances will improve the lives of thousands of patients whose conditions have long been considered life-limiting.”
“Combined with this new funding, none of this would be possible without the long-term plan, backed by an extra £33.9 billion a year for the NHS.”
Nicola Blackwood, Minister for Innovation, said “The investments announced today will help to further deliver on the NHS’s international leadership on applying artificial intelligence to complex health problems. Today’s announcement is good for patients, good for staff and good for researchers.”
