Box 2.

Case study

NeoMate is a smartphone app designed by junior paediatric doctor, and now NHS England clinical entrepreneur fellow, Christopher J Kelly. It aims to help doctors and nurses looking after sick newborn babies by offering drug and infusion calculations, intubation and central line calculations, checklists for common acute situations and concise reference material.

The app was originally designed by me for me, during my first paediatric job, after experiencing the realities of a stressful neonatal resuscitation in a small district general hospital – says Kelly.

The challenge in releasing the app began when Apple refused to publish a drug-calculating app written by an individual. Kelly partnered with the London Neonatal Transfer Service, an intensive care ambulance service that transports sick babies between hospitals, which adopted the app and helped introduce a rigorous governance process to ensure quality and accuracy. A small team of doctors, nurses and paediatric pharmacists carefully checked and helped improve the app over several months and worked to ensure that the app met requirements for CE marking.

The final organisational challenges that we experienced in publishing the app were greatly helped by winning an NHS Challenge Prize in 2015 – says Kelly. This gave everyone the additional confidence to officially launch the app on iPhone and Android.

Funding from the NHS Challenge Prize provided resources to promote and develop the app further within the NHS and abroad, with the app since being downloaded almost 60,000 times across 195 countries.

Being part of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has allowed me to meet a wide range of interesting people, learn new skills and knowledge, and gain a unique insight into the world of medical innovation. There’s a special atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm at each event as part of the programme, which is unique in the NHS at the moment.