Innovation and tech company Satellite Applications Catapult and the NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) announced this week that they have agreed a formal partnership that looks at leveraging the potential of satellite technology in the digital transformation of healthcare.

Oxfordshire-based Satellite Applications Catapult, which was established by Innovate UK in 2013, has been working with the CSU for the past year and a half, and the partners now want to take their collaboration even further.

“This exciting partnership will drive cross-industry understanding and expertise to deliver innovation within digitally-enabled care,” said Wendy Lane, Arden & GEM consultancy services director, in a statement.

Over the past 18 months, their projects have included the use of satellite technology in management of long term conditions, such as diabetes and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). In Scotland, the partnership has been involved in a trial to combine satellite connectivity with ingestible endoscopy technology, an initiative that later led to the rollout of the solution across the country, according to the CSU.

WHAT’S THE TREND

The partners hope that their projects will raise awareness of the potential of using satellite and related technology across the NHS.

In June last year, innovators were invited to bid for a share of £5m to turn technology originally designed for space into medical applications addressing major challenges faced by the NHS, with funding from the UK Space Agency, NHS England and the European Space Agency. The projects selected were unveiled in April this year.

Professor Tony Young, NHS England national clinical director for innovation, said at the time that the NHS was “open to innovations from any industry, anywhere in the world – or even out of this world - if they can improve the care we provide to patients”.

ON THE RECORD

“We are delighted to be continuing our ground-breaking collaboration with the NHS and are proud to be playing what we hope will be a major role in the digital transformation of patient services,” said Satellite Applications Catapult chief executive Stuart Martin.

“The NHS is facing a number of critical challenges, and connectivity and space derived technology has a vital role to play in supporting the delivery of a more preventative care system,” Martin added.