First home testing diagnostic service to fully integrate with NHS app
First home testing diagnostic service to fully integrate with NHS app
Digital heart check with results in 9 minutes to drastically reduce wait times and save billions
London 12th June 2024: A landmark step for the NHS’ digital health check vision has been made as a new private, at-home diagnostic service has become the first to be integrated into the NHS app - offering heart check results in 9 minutes.
The revolutionary integration is a result of a partnership with UK digital diagnostics company, PocDoc. The company is making screening for cardio, metabolic, and renal diseases vastly more accessible by enabling patients to use smartphone-based technology to undertake screenings that can provide almost instant results.
It is a significant moment for the NHS in its mission to make digital health checks widely available across the country. The first-of-its-kind integration enables patients to undertake a point-of-care diagnostic test for Cardiovascular Disease - called the “Healthy Heart Check”.
The test is an easy-to-use, home kit, combined with the PocDoc app. It provides patients with a full cholesterol panel test, and data including their heart age, 10-year risk of a heart attack or stroke, and BMI score. The test also provides access to follow up treatment options where necessary. Users of the service can upload their test results directly to the NHS app and see their results automatically reflected on their patient records, all within 9 minutes.
Cardiovascular (CVD) disease currently costs the health service £7.4 billion a year and the wider economy £15.8 billion1, presenting a challenge the NHS is struggling to address, with early detection being a particular problem.
This new digital pathway represents part of the solution, offering patients the opportunity to undertake blood tests, learn about their risk of disease, and have their results shared with the NHS almost instantly, in contrast to a process that can currently take weeks.
The service has been used by thousands of patients across the country, with initial rollouts via pharmacies, community centres, and NHS partnerships in North East and North Cumbria, West Yorkshire, Cambridge and Peterborough, and Cornwall.
Results indicate the service is proving effective at reaching ‘at risk’ groups, particularly those over the age of 40, the untested, the overweight and those groups who find it difficult to access a GP - such as shift workers, parents who struggle to find appointments that fit around childcare responsibilities, and groups where there are cultural barriers to accessing current services.
The feedback is overwhelmingly positive, with 97% of patients saying they would recommend the service to a family member or friend concerned about their health.2
The promise of rapid screening for cardio, renal, metabolic and whole-body health is substantial. Studies show it offers the NHS the chance to save £27 billion over the next 10 years in reduced costs3 and could help save up to 1 million people annually from heart attacks and strokes.4
Crucially, services like PocDoc’s make screening anywhere - whether at home, work, or community centres - more straightforward, improving access to health checks for everyone.
PocDoc’s tests are available for free in regions where the company is already working with the NHS, in pharmacies, on Pharmacy2u, and on PocDoc’s website.5
The integration is a major endorsement of PocDoc’s proprietary and patented technology6, as the Cambridge-based company prepares for its next funding round later this year and scales in a market worth over $200 billion globally.
The business is the UK’s fastest-growing diagnostics startup with plans to launch in the Middle East towards the end of 2024 and the US towards the end of 2025, which explains why the company has been tagged as a “unicorn in waiting” by many watching this space.
Steve Roest, CEO at PocDoc comments: “In 10 year’s time, PocDoc’s app-based Health Check technology will have delivered screenings for over 150 million people for Cardio, Metabolic and Renal Disease, and our digital treatment platform will have prevented millions of heart attacks, strokes saving countless lives.
“We’re incredibly proud to see our digital diagnostics, starting with our Healthy Heart Check, integrated into the NHS app. We believe we can help to relieve some of the pressure on the NHS through early detection of chronic diseases, while making important services more accessible to people across the country.
“Excitingly, this is just the beginning. We expect patients to be able to book their health check directly through our app soon. We also have further tests for metabolic, kidney and whole body health in the pipeline and are looking ahead to launching in new international markets towards the end of the year.”
Professor Julia Newton, Medical Director at the NHS adds: “CVD is a silent killer. With PocDoc, we are raising awareness and increasing uptake of potentially life-saving health checks.
“New screening initiatives like PocDoc, done outside of GP surgeries, without appointments, are really attractive to underserved communities and delivering at scale requires a new pathway with new technology to power it.”
Dr Neil Paul, Head of Primary Care Network in Cheshire and Merseyside and Senior GP: “The evidence behind the value of early detection of Cardio, Metabolic and Renal disease is very clear. PocDoc’s solution delivers the best of both worlds for me as a GP, providing clinically valid testing, risk assessment and elements of care delivered to people who are in need, at a place and time that’s more convenient for them. Services like this can free up time in our surgery and the integration with the patient record means I am getting data on patients whom I would not normally be aware of - it’s a win-win.”
Notes to editors:
2 All figures PocDoc data, accurate as of May 2024
3 NHS data, UCLP “Size of Prize – Cholesterol
4 £27bn figure is informed by using cost savings data from British Medical Bulletin article (Optimizing Lipid Management, Volume 146, Issue 1, June 2023, Pages 19–26), data from UCLP study, and the UK population.
5 PocDoc is working with NHS partnerships in North East and North Cumbria, West Yorkshire, Cambridge and Peterborough, and Cornwall. A full list of the pharmacies that PocDoc works with can be provided by the company.
6 PocDoc’s technology comprises of:
- PocDoc MFA
- HUESnap®
- PocDocOS®
PocDoc has a number of NHS contracts, has won multiple Innovate UK awards, an SBRI award and a MedTech Breakthrough Award. Its technology has CA and CE marks and is patented in Europe and the US.
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