Diabetes Care – Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI - Phase 2 has commenced for the Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI

Remote HbA1c Monitoring: Overcoming the logistical issues and developing innovative care pathways

Funded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), Phase 2 has commenced for the Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI which is managed by the West of Scotland Innovation Hub. The aim of the competition is to develop disruptive innovative solutions that deliver sustainable, accessible and equitable remote HbA1c self-testing. This will include the development, distribution and return of self-collection blood sample kits with instructions on self-phlebotomy for patients and integration of the results within the current NHS infrastructure.

The lead clinician of the Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI, Dr Ian Godber, stated “The aim of this initiative is to develop an innovative solution that can deliver sustainable, accessible and equitable remote HbA1c testing through the development and distribution of self-collection blood sample kits with instructions on self-phlebotomy for patients. A system by which patients can use a self-collection kit to sample their own blood and return this to a laboratory for analysis has a number of advantages for the patient, overcoming issues such as the time spent on travel to clinic appointments. Once tested and established, the concept proposed in this solution could be utilised for testing in primary prevention and other aspects of chronic disease.”

Following the moderation of multiple high quality applications received for Phase 2 of the Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI, we can confirm that the successful candidate is:

Randox Laboratories Limited has been awarded a contract to take forward their Phase 2 development project clinically supported by Dr I Howat and The Weight Management Service team of NHS Lanarkshire. Dr Howat stated “The NHS Lanarkshire Weight Management Service are delighted to be working with Randox who have successfully secured funding for Phase 2 of the remote HBA1c innovation challenge. The teams are currently in the planning phase, looking to use remote HbA1c monitoring in a variety of clinical areas relating to the weight management service. We are excited regarding its potential use for streamlining patient care in a community setting, and reducing primary care workload”

Randox Laboratories Ltd Chief Operating Officer, David Ferguson, stated “With support from the eHealth Team, Randox have modelled the integrations to be compatible with existing NHS systems. This scalable model could be utilised for other clinical areas with existing NHS systems. This model could be utilised for other clinical areas of Diabetes care throughout Scotland and could facilitate additional tests that may benefit from remote testing. Furthermore, this solution could provide an integral solution to support further development of virtual care models within NHS Scotland.”