Here, we present finalists for the HTN Now Awards 2024 in the category of SME/Start-up Innovation.
e18 Innovation
Overview: e18 Innovation is a UK based female led SME which revolutionises NHS operations through intelligent automation, enhancing patient care and operational efficiency. Collaborating with over 50 NHS organisations, e18 has successfully automated processes in areas such as outpatients, cancer, clinical coding, and EPR implementations.
Why? The NHS is confronting significant financial challenges, leading to staff reductions and recruitment freezes, particularly among non-clinical personnel. These measures risk overburdening the remaining staff and potentially compromising patient care.
What happened? The team has developed a library of over 300 pre-built automation processes, specifically designed to address common challenges across NHS trusts. These proven solutions are readily available to accelerate adoption, delivering quicker return on investment and maximising value for organisations. One of e18’s flagship projects involved automating waiting list validation for outpatient pathways. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust collaborated with e18 Innovation to address the challenges of managing extensive outpatient waiting lists. e18 implemented an intelligent automation solution that validated patient records by systematically reviewing waiting lists, the automation removed thousands of patients who no longer required appointments. This streamlined process significantly improved data integrity and enabled UHSx to remove over 13 percent of patients from the Waiting List. In another example of operational transformation, e18 collaborated with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to automate cardiology coding. By automating labour-intensive processes, e18 has saved hundreds of thousands of hours for NHS staff, allowing them to focus on patient care. e18’s solutions have delivered significant cost reductions for trusts, enabling reinvestment in frontline services.
Looking ahead. Looking ahead, e18 is poised to expand its reach, scaling its solutions to benefit even more NHS trusts. With a steadfast commitment to innovation and an unwavering focus on improving healthcare, e18 Innovation continues to lead the way in automation and AI.
Naq
Overview: Compliance is the UK digital health industry’s biggest barrier, stopping 50 percent of technologies getting to patients. Naq says it’s the market’s first automated compliance platform. Automating 80 percent of tasks, it’s fast, simple, and saves innovators £20,000 and 160 man-hours each year.
Why? Navigating the maze of regulatory compliance presents a significant hurdle for digital health companies, especially as most (77 percent) are SMEs, with a limited number of people, and without a background in security or governance.
What happened? With its ability to automate over 80 percent of compliance tasks, Naq offers innovators a faster, simpler, and more cost-effective approach to achieving, monitoring, and managing digital health security and compliance, enabling innovators to meet compliance without diverting significant resources. The Naq approach embeds compliance within the whole business. It provides a central hub for compliance, transforming project management, and staff training. The Naq platform also offers significant value to the NHS. The ability to access an online platform saves NHS and Local Authority commissioners hundreds of hours in due diligence paperwork. The ability to instantly see the current compliance posture of an innovator, also provides vital safeguarding of the NHS supply chain. The NHS Innovation Accelerator award-winning-programme has also announced its partnership with Naq, to streamline compliance for its innovators, to substantially reduce the time and cost burden on the NIA and innovators in meeting standards. Naq has grown by 300 percent over the last 12 months, as digital health innovators seek smart solutions to the growing business challenge of meeting NHS security and compliance requirements.
Looking ahead. As we look forward, we are excited to continue to automate compliance. We have received a Smart Grant from Innovate UK, to help us to use AI to further streamline the compliance process for the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, a crucial data security standard.
Cogniss
Overview: Cogniss empowers healthcare experts and organisations to create their own technologies using a purpose built no-code platform. There is no need for any technical skills or experience, developers or external resources. Digital health solutions can be created in a matter of days and weeks, not months or years.
Why? Clinical entrepreneurs and SMEs often fail to bring their innovative ideas to life and help transform the health system because of the barriers of cost, time, resources, and technical expertise.The conditions are not right for innovation or to develop a sustainable approach to creating personalised technologies.
What happened? Cogniss is a no-code ecosystem for creating patient-facing digital health apps without the need for software developers or technical expertise. Digital health apps can be created in a matter of days and weeks, not months or years, and at 90 percent of the cost of traditional software development. They meet the latest security and privacy standards and help innovators become compliant with the necessary standards and regulations. This unique solution means that any healthcare expert can now be a digital creator, using the simple ‘point and click’ interface and with over 180+ prebuilt features, purpose-built for healthcare. This ecosystem approach is supported by the ability to create a ‘Super App’, a single app being a gateway to others – a digital front door or digital health library. This means a sustainable approach can be developed whereby digital health apps created in one NHS organisation can easily be shared with another. Cogniss has already helped to create over 110 apps used right across the world, including the UK to Australia, US, Canada, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Covering a wide range of technologies from digital therapeutics, information and support apps, research and clinical trials apps, remote monitoring and symptom tracking tools, as well prevention and wellness technologies.
Looking ahead. It is true that often single point solutions in digital technology are celebrated for their impact rather than enabling infrastructure technologies, but we hope that Cogniss showcases the art of the possible and how we can transform healthcare at a system level, bring entrepreneurship together and not fragment innovation.
Kidney Beam
Overview: Kidney Beam, a virtual rehabilitation app, is a scientifically-proven, kidney-specific physiotherapy and lifestyle management platform shown to improve patient quality of life and demonstrate significant cost savings for the NHS.
Why? Despite proven benefits of physical movement, there are only 3 out of 72 kidney units in the NHS that offer dedicated physio-led rehabilitation for people with a CKD diagnosis, due in part to a shortage of skilled professionals. Unlike other long-term conditions, people with CKD are not routinely counselled about physical activity.
What happened? Professor Sharlene Greenwood and tech entrepreneur Katie Bell set out to launch Kidney Beam, a virtual physiotherapy and lifestyle management app tailored specifically to help people living with kidney disease. The app features over 350 kidney-specific classes, a weekly live class schedule, several signature programmes designed for different disease stages, plus a comprehensive renal rehab intervention developed by clinicians at King’s College Hospital. Kidney Beam is now being rolled out nationwide with the assistance of all 8 NHS England renal networks. This comes following a landmark clinical trial published in the Lancet Digital Health. Carried out at 11 centres across the UK, the research showed a significant improvement in patient-reported quality-of-life among those given access to Kidney Beam’s 12-week digital kidney rehabilitation programme. Patients were shown to benefit from improved mental health & physical function, better ability to self-manage their care, improved symptoms of fatigue, anxiety & depression, and reduced social isolation. In addition to the patient benefits, the trial demonstrated significant cost efficiencies for the NHS, with savings of £580 per patient across reduced hospital visits, out-patient attendances, primary and community care, social care contacts and medication spend.
Looking ahead. Plans for 2025 include wider rollout across the NHS, a new mental health programme and further support for comorbidities such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
ExR Solutions Ltd.
Overview: ExR’s Free Virtual Reality Education Platform, launched last year, offers hundreds of engaging VR medical training experiences. Accessible anytime on any device, it’s completely free for NHS workers and healthcare students, transforming medical education into an interactive and inclusive learning experience.
Why? A co-founder and practising surgeon, Jonny, identified the challenges of training thousands of medical professionals, quickly. The WHO projects a shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030. To amplify this, training is becoming an increasingly expensive cost to the sector, hindered by the growing cost pressures on the NHS.
What happened? Our technology looks to expand access to the training, by filming training sessions, whether it be on patient care or following a particular procedure. This footage is captured once and converted into an immersive format, when junior doctors can repeatedly watch the training, with the same detail as being right there in the room. These are then combined with fully-immersive VR serios games, which reinforces the experiential learning captured using 360-degree cinematography. A VR replica of a procedure provides students with limitless opportunities to practice, without the burden of practicing on real-life patients. The content library is growing and is over 120 learning experiences currently. Platform usage is currently doubling every 4-6 months and there have been over 10,000 learning logs in the portal. Liverpool University NHS Trust approached us to support the training of junior doctors in ENT emergencies and core procedures. We curated 10 ENT procedures in a 360-degree VR format. Initial evaluations of junior doctors using the VR tools to train on ENT procedures have demonstrated that knowledge, confidence, and competence have greatly increased. We’ve also been able to statistically show that user confidence doubled after the training had been completed, and knowledge tripled.
Looking ahead. ExR Solutions Ltd. plans to continue to expand its content library and offer accessible and free training for healthcare workers.
ATENXIA
Overview: ATENXIA leverages AI to enhance attentional parameters and reading skills for children with ADHD and dyslexia. The platform provides accessible, scalable, and measurable solutions for families, schools, and professionals, aiming to transform educational outcomes and support neurodiverse learning worldwide.
Why? The primary challenges in addressing ADHD and dyslexia include limited access to resources, especially in underserved regions; a one-size-fits-all method which fails to address the unique needs of each child; and insufficient data, with educators and parents often lacking real-time insights into the progress and effectiveness of interventions.
What happened? ATENXIA developed an AI-driven platform that combines neuropsychological expertise with adaptive technology to create personalized interventions. The platform offers diagnostic tools including early screening for attentional and reading difficulties; tailored training programs including exercises and activities customised to each child’s cognitive profile; and real-time progress monitoring for families and professionals to adapt strategies dynamically. Integration with schools, psychologists, and speech therapists creates a holistic support network. Key partnerships with institutions like Fundación Valórate (Panamá) and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (México) validated the platform’s efficacy through pilots. ATENXIA has delivered measurable improvements in attentional parameters and literacy skills for over 500 children across Latin America and Spain. Users experienced an average improvement of 35 percent in focus and task completion rates after 12 weeks. Dyslexic children showed a 28 percent reduction in reading errors. The platform supports up to 25 users per subscription, making it cost-effective for schools and therapy centres.
Looking ahead. ATENXIA’s mission aligns with global goals of inclusive education and digital health transformation, aiming to bridge the gap for neurodiverse children worldwide.
Caristo Diagnostics
Overview: Caristo Diagnostics’ CaRi-Heart® technology is a first-of-its-kind AI solution that quantifies coronary inflammation and characterises plaque burden based on analysis of routine CCTA, or cardiac CT scans. CaRi-Heart analysis also generates an individualised risk score, predicting a patient’s risk of cardiac mortality years in advance.
Why? Unfortunately, coronary inflammation is entirely invisible on cardiac CT scans. New drugs can successfully manage coronary inflammation. But because the condition is currently invisible, identifying patients who would be helped by the drugs is a major unmet need in global health.
What happened? Developed by cardiologists at the University of Oxford, CaRi-Heart applies advanced AI algorithms to CT scans to identify and quantify inflammation. Its novel imaging biomarker, the Fat Attenuation Index Score (FAI-Score™), predicts a patient’s risk of cardiac mortality up to 10 years in advance. CaRi-Heart shifts the focus of cardiac care from costly “last minute firefighting” to less costly early disease prevention. For high-risk patients identified by CaRi-Heart, the resulting intervention is typically lifestyle modification, statin, or FDA-approved anti-inflammatory medication, all significantly less costly than late-stage invasive procedures. Moreover, CaRi-Heart can analyse existing routine CT scans and requires no additional patient imaging. In a multicentre, longitudinal cohort study, the CaRi-Heart FAI-Score predicted fatal and non-fatal cardiac events at least 10 years in advance and outperformed other scores in routine clinical use for prediction of cardiac mortality, driving changes of management in 45 percent of patients. CaRi-Heart technology received CE marking, under the MDR process, in February 2021 and is currently approved for use in the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia. It is currently in use within five NHS hospitals and numerous private hospitals and clinics across the UK.
Looking ahead. Caristo is currently seeking market authorization for the CaRi-Heart technology from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Caristo’s cloud-based image viewing solution, CaRi-Cloud™, already has FDA 510(k) clearance.
Dosium
Overview: Dosium tackles medication errors—the leading cause of preventable harm in healthcare—with Touchdose. Integrating the BNF and BNFC directly into prescribing systems, it reduces prescribing errors by up to 84 percent and prescribing time by 20 percent.
Why? With no direct connection to the national formulary (BNF and BNFC), current prescribing practices require clinicians to access multiple resources and manually calculate doses based on age, weight, or body surface area. This process is needlessly time-consuming, stressful, and error-prone.
What happened? Dosium is a clinical decision support company, spun out of Imperial College London, working in collaboration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS). It has created Touchdose, a digital solution which integrates the British National Formulary (BNF) and the BNF for Children (BNFC) directly into electronic prescribing systems. Touchdose takes inputs related to medication, condition, and patient anthropometry and applies clinical logic to the BNF’s underlying formulary, with supplementation from local clinical guidelines. It then performs precise dosing calculations. Multiple healthcare organisations, including Imperial College NHS Trust, Imperial College London, and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have been closely involved in product strategy, including through workshops with nursing and medical staff, 1:1 user testing, and semi-structured interviews. A peer-reviewed study suggests that Touchdose could reduce the odds of prescribing errors occuring by 84 percent compared to existing clinical practice. It reduces the cognitive load of calculating prescriptions, whilst also reducing the time to prescribe by 20 percent. A 2024 health economic evaluation shows how, if deployed across the entire NHS, Touchdose could save more than £190M in secondary care alone through a reduction in costs associated with the 84 percent decrease in prescribing errors.
Looking ahead. The Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality at Imperial College London is running a mixed-methods service evaluation to understand Touchdose’s impact. This will be ready to share in early 2025.
Spryt
Overview: SPRYT revolutionizes healthcare access with Asa, our AI receptionist that boosts patient engagement, reduces missed appointments, and automates admin tasks via WhatsApp/SMS. We’ve achieved a 260 percent increase in engagement, 30 percent cost savings, and partnerships with leading organisations.
Why? Missed appointments are a significant issue in healthcare, costing the NHS over £1 billion annually and creating inefficiencies that hinder patient access and strain already limited resources. The traditional approaches to patient engagement—phone calls, letters, and manual reminders—are outdated, time-consuming, and often ineffective.
What happened? Asa, SPRYT’s AI receptionist, communicates in the patient’s preferred language through familiar platforms they use daily, such as WhatsApp, SMS, and RCS. By offering 24/7 support, patients can book, reschedule, or cancel appointments at their convenience—even outside traditional office hours—addressing the needs of a modern, digitally connected patient population. Patients can schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments at any time, reducing administrative bottlenecks and missed appointments. Asa sends reminders for upcoming appointments and automates follow-ups for post-appointment actions, reducing no-shows and ensuring continuity of care. The platform provides healthcare providers with real-time analytics on patient engagement, enabling them to optimize operations and improve service delivery. SPRYT’s technology has been piloted successfully in various healthcare settings, delivering significant improvements in patient engagement and operational efficiency. In an NHS North Central London Pilot, SPRYT achieved a 260 percent increase in patient engagement for a cervical cancer screening program, helping reach patients who were previously disengaged. The AI receptionist saved 8 hours per week in administrative work, resulting in a 30 percent cost reduction.
Looking ahead. SPRYT is excited to continue driving innovation and making a positive impact on healthcare worldwide.
