Scotland’s vast innovation opportunities during National Eye Health Week’ 

‘Let’s place focus on Scotland’s vast innovation opportunities during National Eye Health Week’

National Eye Health Week (NEHW) could provide essential inspiration for NHS Scotland staff looking to focus on fresh ophthalmic innovation, says InnoScot Health.

This year’s NEHW will take place from 23 to 29 September under an inclusive theme of ‘Vision Matters’ – but organisers insist that many are still missing the opportunity to “shout about the vital role eye care practitioners play in keeping Britain healthy”.

With glaucoma alone accounting for more than 60,000 Scottish patients and chronic long-term eye diseases still prevalent across the country, NEHW will spread the word on the need to promote the importance of good eye health and regular eye tests.

Organisers are urging everyone in optics to get behind the campaign. They say that “vision really matters. Sight is the sense people fear losing the most, yet many of us don’t know how to look after our eyes”.

Formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health believes that the workforce can go a step further by not only sharing the NEHW message, but also targeting innovative solutions after £2m in Scottish Government funding was recently allocated to help reduce waiting times in ophthalmology.

According to Health Secretary Neil Gray, this will help “to increase activity in the short-term as we aim to deliver one cataract procedure every 30 minutes on standard lists”.

Head of Innovation at InnoScot Health, Robert Rea insists that NHS Scotland’s workforce can capitalise on that by making a vital contribution to how the health service continues to mitigate and adapt to heightened ophthalmic pressures through progressive, forward-thinking innovation”.

Encouraging NHS Scotland’s diverse workforce to come up with new ideas that achieve better outcomes in ophthalmology is essential and is at the heart of InnoScot Health’s ophthalmology innovation call.

The call offers a package of support to health and social care staff, including advice and guidance in such areas as intellectual property protection, regulation, funding, project management, and commercialisation, to a value of £25,000 initially.

Robert said: “National Eye Health Week represents an excellent opportunity to inspire fresh, powerful, innovative thinking across NHS Scotland.

“Inspired by NEHW’s ‘vision matters’ message and the need to heighten awareness, we believe that the country’s expert ophthalmologists, alongside those in support roles, are best placed to identify unmet medical needs and bottlenecks – and how to solve them.

“They know where innovative thinking can prove most effective in both the short and long-term, but it needs to be recognised that they may find the prospect of developing ideas daunting amid day to day demands on their time.

“InnoScot Health could therefore be the right collaborative partner to help them strike the right balance and take forward their great ophthalmic idea at an opportune time.”

New ophthalmic facilities continue to be introduced across Scotland, inspiring innovative approaches – but existing facilities can be just as much of a fertile ground for encouraging new, more efficient ways of working.

NHS Tayside’s ophthalmology service has been able to significantly increase the number of cataract surgical procedures it can complete daily thanks to a ground-breaking approach.

The ophthalmology team at Ninewells Hospital is now carrying out simultaneous bilateral surgery on patients with cataracts in both eyes.

The team also sped up its theatre model by introducing a double nursing team working on a ‘tag team’ basis to support the surgeon, in turn cutting down time in between patients.

Together, this has allowed the completion of up to 50 cataract procedures daily, making the team one of the most productive cataract services in the UK.

The Community Glaucoma Service (CGS) has meanwhile helped to offset hospital pressures.

Robert continued: “We’ve had some fantastic ideas submitted in response to our innovation call – from fresh approaches to digital therapy for eye conditions, and new ways of improving technology for retinal disease diagnosis, to better management of patients undergoing cataract surgery – but we believe there is more.

“Identifying opportunities for accelerated ophthalmic solutions that can improve both outcomes for NHS Scotland patients and working practices for clinicians is incredibly important.

“Fundamentally, targeting heightened efficiency is key during this period of transformation, and it can be achieved in tandem with better eye health across Scotland. The potential is vast.”

Over the past 20 years, InnoScot Health has had a strong record in this area. It has supported and worked with NHS innovators on ophthalmic innovations including Peekaboo Vision, an app created by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; Multifocal Retinal Imager, developed in collaboration with Wideblue; and the iGrading platform, a diabetic retinopathy screening tool developed alongside NHS Grampian and the University of Aberdeen.

image Photograph by Martin