Back to Contents was born . Our mission was simple : to deliver Upstream preventative care using technology to empower patients and care teams by helping them to introduce early interventions and prevent issues from becoming bigger ( and more expensive to resolve ) later . We wanted to enable integrated working . Putting the patient at the centre of the care provided by their GP , acute , community and social care teams .
A lot to learn and time for a big pivot
We slowly grew our services and solutions , deploying clinical portals , mobile clinical apps , patient apps and video consultation products and getting places on all the key government procurement frameworks . But through this growth , we struggled to deliver on our vision for integrated and early preventative care .
We struggled to get traction on our ideas and solutions that could help drive earlier interventions through cross-organisation workflows . During that time , we engaged in accelerator programmes , meeting Clinical Commissioning Groups ( CCGs ), Local Authorities , and developing our initial relationship with the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN . We received invites from the AHSN to attend several workshops to learn from users , and opportunities to present and share our mission at events .
The reason we don ’ t deliver truly integrated care isn ’ t because of a lack of tech , or innovation . At the ground level , there is a desire to integrate , but when you only have minutes for a patient consultation or visit , then there is just no capacity in the system to integrate to deliver preventative care .
That ’ s why with these insights , in the summer of 2019 , we decided to look at the problem a bit differently . I had seen in my personal life that the most important person looking after my grandad Doug wasn ’ t his GP , hospital doctor or home care support . They all contribute and do a great job , but it ’ s my mum and sister that are the ones there for Doug every day helping with shopping , medications , and emergency support .
Our pivot was simple : rather than add to the catalogue of solutions designed for our 300,000 doctors , that they struggle to use because of lack of capacity , we will focus on the 6.5m family carers in our country .
We wanted to empower family carers with the tools , support services and solutions to help them to provide care to people like Doug . Helping with accessible devices to help monitor and support their loved ones and access to real-time support and guidance on how to deliver preventative care . We also focused on how important it is for carers to look after themselves , with access to on-demand care coaches to guide , support and listen .
Time to grow
With our refocused approach guided by our discussion with the AHSN , we started to receive more support and traction . With support from the AHSN , we applied for and won a Small Business Research Institute ( SBRI ) grant . With that , we completed the development of our home hub units , and an initial trial in the summer of 2020 with promising results .
During the study , we embedded ourselves within a local NHS facility , built close connections with our users and the carers ’ community . We learnt a lot , and with a letter of support from the AHSN , successfully won a grant of nearly £ 700k as part of SBRI Phase 2 . With the grant , we have now significantly grown our team and the breadth of the solutions and services we provide .
Our model is designed so that it doesn ’ t require any effort from the local care and social teams to implement . We can be commissioned to provide end-toend support for family carers , which is increasingly important to help kick start the Integrated Care Systems emerging within the UK .
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