ICMIF member Simplyhealth, the UK’s leading health and dental plan provider, has announced it has invested in Ampersand, a provider of digital therapies for inflammatory conditions. This collaboration will help accelerate the adoption of digital therapeutics in the UK, reducing outpatient appointments, improving health outcomes and cutting unplanned hospital visits for patients suffering with a broad range of inflammatory conditions.
Ampersand helps clinicians a patients to manage and monitor chronic, inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s, arthritis and psoriasis. The organisation, founded less than four years ago and scaling quickly, works with scientists, clinicians and dozens of leading NHS Trusts, to deploy behavioural science-based interventions that improve quality of life and mental health[1]; and to implement “hospital at home” pathways that increase hospital capacity by 30-50% and reduce A&E visits by 89%.[2]
This revolutionary technology has been developed in partnership with Barts Health and King’s College Hospital NHS Trusts, with support from Innovate UK, NHSX and a number of national charities.
This is the second significant investment in a HealthTech start-up company that Simplyhealth has made this year as earlier this month it announced it was taking a majority stake in OcuPlan, the country’s top provider of predictive and preventative eye care packages.
“At Simplyhealth we strive to accelerate the development and adoption of preventative and predictive medicine in the UK and platforms such as Ampersand are at the forefront of this new healthcare paradigm. Through innovative technology such as Ampersand, we are enabling those living with long-term health conditions, to take control of their health. Along with OcuPlan, we couldn’t be more excited to have these start-ups within Simplyhealth’s ecosystem” said Dr Sneh Khemka, CEO at Simplyhealth.
“600m people worldwide live with an inflammatory disease. These diseases place a significant, lifelong burden on patients and on the systems of care around them. We’re looking forward to addressing these challenges in partnership with – and with investment from – Simplyhealth. We’re confident that our shared commitment to putting the patient at the centre of their care will enhance our impact and catalyse significant financial returns” said Nader Alaghband, Co-Founder and CEO of Ampersand.
[1] Moran, R. et al. PTH-16 Life in Lockdown: supported self-management of IBD increases disease control through My IBD Care. https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/Suppl_4/A178.2. Last accessed 29 April 2022.
[2] Parkes, G. et al. My IBD care, a digital therapeutic for IBD, is safe and effective: Case-control study in two UK centres. https://www.nxtbook.com/ueg/UEG/Journal2021/index.php?startid=467#/p/466. Last accessed 29 April 2022.
