Innovation Challenge
Learn how Macmillan is seeking future partnerships and pioneering solutions in virtual care.
Innovating and improving cancer care
The Innovation Challenge is an exciting new way for us to identify innovations that could transform the lives of people with cancer.
Innovators pitch ideas and solutions for improving cancer care to Macmillan and seek our support as partners in the development of their initiatives.
The Innovation Challenge 2023 is focused on virtual care, virtual wards and remote monitoring. Virtual care aims to deliver a high-quality healthcare service to people with cancer outside of hospital, with the potential to make their experience more convenient and more closely aligned to their needs.
About the Innovation Challenge
Macmillan is partnering with three Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) to deliver the Innovation Challenge 2023: Eastern AHSN, Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN and Yorkshire & Humber AHSN.
The AHSNs identified innovators with solutions that are relevant for this Innovation Challenge. The innovators were invited to take part and from those that applied we shortlisted six innovations as our finalists. The finalists were invited to present their innovations at a pitch event in September 2023, from which we will identify innovators to form partnerships with in 2024.
The pitches were judged by an expert panel, including representatives with clinical, commercial and innovation expertise, as well as people with lived experience of cancer. Our decision will be based on evidence that there is measurable benefit for people with cancer.
The support provided by Macmillan and the AHSNs through the new partnerships will be tailored to each innovation. Support could include:
- Opportunities to gather further evidence and evaluate innovations.
- Direct involvement of people living with cancer to help test the innovation via Macmillan's Innovation Community
- Funding or financial support from Macmillan, either through a grant or equity investment.
- Potential roundtable event(s) with Cancer Alliances to discuss challenges, opportunities and barriers.
The shortlist
The following six innovations were shortlisted as finalists and invited to the pitch event in September.
Definition Health Virtual Cancer Ward
The Definition Health platform supports people with cancer from the first clinic visit to virtual ward follow up. The platform is designed to support complete multidisciplinary team care as well as allowing people with cancer to ask questions at any point in the treatment pathway. The aim is that by linking healthcare professionals together, people with cancer will be able to more easily understand all aspects of their care, whilst healthcare professionals can centrally track their progress and monitor outcomes.
Doccla
Doccla is a virtual ward platform designed to facilitate remote patient monitoring and communication between people with cancer and healthcare professionals. Doccla offers personalised treatment plans, remote monitoring technology such as wearable devices and software, and emotional support that people with cancer can access from the comfort of home.
The platform aims to reduce costs for a wide range of pathways, improve outcomes and free up clinical resources by offering a fully managed end-to-end service.
Feebris
Feebris is a virtual care platform powered by artificial intelligence. It is designed to support community and family care workers in conducting a clinical health assessment of people with cancer at home, and to identify risks to enable timely healthcare interventions.
For those living with or beyond cancer, Feebris aims to reduce the need for hospital visits and admissions and to detect deterioration early.
Huma DBm-Health
Huma DBm-Health is a mobile communication system designed to support people who need their blood glucose level monitored remotely. The system aims to empower people to self-manage their blood glucose levels, to monitor their readings and to communicate with their healthcare professionals.
DBm-Health can be used by people with cancer who are receiving systemic anti-cancer therapies (SACT) to remotely monitor their blood glucose levels through a digital platform, potentially supporting the treatment of steroid-induced hyperglycaemia, which is a common side effect for people on SACT.
Huma SACT Digital Checklist_Virtual Ward
Huma’s systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) technology platform is designed to allow clinicians to monitor the health of people with cancer remotely and pre-assess their readiness for treatment before they attend the clinic. Patients share health information via a mobile app which is then monitored by healthcare professionals to provide care when needed.
This ‘digital checklist’ or ‘virtual ward’ aims to reduce telephone and in-person screening and to free up time for treatment, which could potentially help support timely SACT administration, reduce waiting lists and even improve patient quality of life and survival.
Vinehealth Oncology Platform
Vinehealth is designed to help empower people with cancer to improve their quality of life through supported self-management. The Vinehealth smartphone app aims to help people with cancer feel more in control by supporting them to track, manage, and understand their cancer experience.
Data logged in the app feeds directly into an insights dashboard, potentially helping healthcare professionals to extend care beyond the clinic while informing vital research.
Next steps
The Innovation Challenge pitch event took place in September 2023, from which we will identify the successful innovation(s) with which we will form partnerships in 2024.