When it comes to improving public health, we have a very good understanding of what works.
We know that population-level interventions can reduce health inequalities, prevent illness and help people live longer, healthier lives. We know that we can save lives by proactively finding people with conditions that benefit from early treatment.
We are not normally debating what should happen, but how we make it happen with limited time, resources and money.
Clinicians are rightly cautious about claims that any one innovation can help achieve those goals without significant extra resources. But in the last ten years we have seen a flourishing of creativity from academics and medical doctors. The increasing enthusiasm of healthcare systems like the NHS for seizing on new ideas and innovations shows early signs of impact on public health right across society.
Universities are more confident about developing their intellectual property into new services. Investors understand and are more prepared to commit to long term funding for biotech start-ups. The National Health Service in England has even established its own clinical entrepreneur programme.
The unprecedented collaboration between academia, enterprise, the health system, and government to create a COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated just how powerful these alliances can be.
I have seen the benefits first hand. Last week the company I founded during my PhD at Cambridge University, Cyted, carried out its ten thousandth test to detect pre-cancerous cells in patients at risk of oesophageal cancer. We use a technology based on a capsule swallowed by patients to collect cells from the oesophagus. The process takes around 10 minutes and can be delivered in community settings.
The team at our Huntingdon laboratory then digitise the samples for pathologists to review and work with the support of our data-driven systems to identify biomarkers that indicate abnormalities in cells that can lead to cancer. Patients are advised of the risk of developing oesophageal cancer and directed for further tests and treatment where necessary.
This work can have a profound impact on people suffering from Barrett’s oesophagus. They are at greater risk of developing oesophageal cancer and, until now, have had to rely on endoscopies to monitor their condition. Those endoscopies can require a general anaesthetic, a doctor, two nurses, and sometimes a night in a hospital bed.
This new process of finding patients and guiding their management is quicker, more comfortable, and more accessible than the existing standard of care.
It is the product of UK academia. The original early cancer test was developed at the University of Cambridge by Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald and her team. When I began a PhD in machine learning in healthcare, I started working with Rebecca on bringing the technology to the next level. Both being highly passionate about the challenge, we teamed up with Dr Maria O’Donovan – the pathologist behind the early cancer laboratory test – to co-found Cyted.
But it is also the product of investors who understand the technology and the market, and an NHS ready and willing to make sure patients can swiftly benefit from innovations.
Together, we are developing our test and exploring what new diagnostic technologies could be unlocked through machine learning and other innovations in minimally invasive testing.
Cyted is one of several companies making – or set to make – this impact. Other new companies founded by academics from UK universities, including Quell Therapeutics and Novalgen, are demonstrating how we can close the gap between academic ideas and practical delivery. The NHS’s Innovation Accelerator is supporting individual businesses, including Cyted, as is the Catapult Network. The work of the Digital Innovation Hub, Genomics England and NHS Digital meanwhile is making local data more accessible to researchers creating new services and products.
We can still do more. Work by the NHS on accelerated access has made a real a difference to adoption of new innovations but once a concept has been piloted, we can deploy ideas even more quickly. Providing fast-track validation should be a priority for policy makers. The government has been pressing for greater spending in research and development, but we still have some catching up to do.
The UK economy has long benefited from our status as a leading life sciences hub. A community of innovators and investors is helping to make sure that the skills and expertise here mean we deliver even more – more quickly – for the healthcare systems in future.
By Marcel Gehrung, CEO Cyted
