LONDON – The U.K. government announced an £86 million (US$112.3 million) funding package to promote the uptake of digital health and other novel technologies, as the first step in taking forward the Accelerated Access Review (AAR), an independent report that made 18 recommendations to promote a step change in the speed at which the National Health Service (NHS) adopts innovation.

The centerpiece of the announcement is the Digital Health Technology Catalyst, a £35 million fund to support development of digital technologies. That will provide matched funding to accelerate progress by helping to de-risk projects to the point where they can attract private capital.

To promote uptake of the subsequent products, there will be £39 million for the Academic Health Science Centers (AHSNs) that are responsible for spreading innovation at pace and scale, providing the 15 centers with the means to assess the benefits of new digital health technologies and put them to use.

A key barrier for SMEs seeking adoption of digital products is generating the evidence they need to demonstrate the added value and inform reimbursement decisions. Up to £6 million of the new money will be available to fund testing in the NHS.

Meanwhile, another £6 million will be devoted to reshaping care pathways to integrate disruptive digital health applications into every day practice. That also will involve dealing with practical obstacles such as training staff to use new equipment.

"It takes time to innovate," said junior health minister James O'Shaughnessy, announcing the funding at the joint Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency/Bioindustry Association (BIA) annual conference in London Friday. "The £86 million will provide support to get products to patients more quickly," O'Shaughnessy said.

The government is aware of the importance of supporting SMEs across the development and deployment cycle. "The criticism we get from industry about the NHS is not about access, but uptake," said O'Shaughnessy.

The 15 AHSNs will be able to build on their existing track record of having promoted uptake of more than 200 innovations since they were formed in 2013, said Liz Mear, chief executive of the north west England AHSN and a member of the panel that wrote the AAR report.

"[We can] quickly identify and spread new, better and cheaper ways to deliver services for patients and population," said Mear.

Digital health products that already have received support from the AHSNs include MyCOPD, an online system that helps patients manage the condition. More than 32,000 people have used it to improve breathing, manage flare-ups and track use of medication, reducing their reliance on primary care doctors and hospital appointments, Mear said.

"The use of digital technologies will be critical to enable the best function of many in vitro diagnostics, such as diagnostics supporting self-care by people with long-term conditions . . . so the creation of the Digital Health Technology Catalyst is very welcome," said Doris-Ann William, chief executive of the British Invitro Diagnostics Association.

Despite welcoming the boost for digital health deployment, there is frustration across the life sciences sector that the government is yet to respond in full to the AAR report, which it commissioned in November 2014.

The final report and its full list of recommendations to make it easier for NHS patients to access innovative drugs, medical technologies, diagnostics and digital products was not published until October 2016.

Now there is a holdup in responding, due both to the need to subsume the review into a broader industrial strategy that currently is in the works and because the snap general election on June 8 put all government business on hold for two months.

"Our response to the AAR has hardly been accelerated itself," said O'Shaughnessy, promising there will be a full response to the review later this year, which he said is "a really important piece of work."

There are multiple and complex routes to get health care products to market. "We want our response not to provide another layer, but a new direction for medicines and diagnostics, so that is why it is taking time," O'Shaughnessy told delegates.

Speaking in advance of O'Shaughnessy, Luisa Stewart, the civil servant who is responsible for taking forward the AAR, said the £86 million is a "down payment" on AAR and "a signal of intent" to progress it further.

AAR has to be enmeshed in the broader industrial strategy now under development, which will set out a specific strategy for life sciences and include digital health as one of five key themes, Stewart said.