Bone health project shortlisted for HSJ Partnership Awards

An innovative Northern project to prevent fractures has been shortlisted for Best Pharmaceutical Partnership with the NHS at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2020. Interface partnered with the Northern Health Science Alliance to deliver the project.

The ‘Northern Bone Health Project – Falls and Fracture Prevention, a Population Approach’ is a new approach to help reduce fracture risk in an aging population. Scaled across the region, the project could save the NHS over £35 million.

A joint working arrangement between Amgen and the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) in collaboration with the four Northern Academic Health Science Networks and Interface Clinical Services, the project aims to identify patients with a high fracture risk, review medications and treat appropriate patients with a bone-sparing agent to improve bone density.

The HSJ Partnership Awards judging panel is comprised of a diverse range of highly regarded figures across the NHS and wider healthcare sector. To be shortlisted as a finalist for these awards is a mark of real achievement and recognises all partners’ outstanding dedication to improving healthcare.

The project has been selected based on the diligence, ambition and the positive impact that the work has had on both practitioners and patients within the health care industry.

If delivered throughout the 16 million population of the North, the project would result in a total cost saving of £43,617,688 in potential savings in health and social care with £35,163,642 being saved in direct costs and £8,454,046 in residential costs.

The project has been developed and tested by the Academic Health Science Network for the North East and North Cumbria and the Innovation Agency (AHSN for the North West Coast).

Beginning in March 2019, the project is scheduled to run for one year and designed as a ‘proof of concept’ to provide the evidence for a future-proof sustainable model of fracture reduction. All four AHSNs across the North including Greater Manchester and Yorkshire and Humber are now implementing the project.

Dr Séamus O’Neill, Chief Executive at the NHSA, said: “We are delighted that the Northern Bone Health Project has been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Pharmaceutical Partnership with the NHS, recognising the collaborative efforts and dedication of everyone involved in this ground-breaking pan-Northern project.

“This is an important piece of collaborative preventative work which is addressing the challenges posed by falls and fractures to both patients’ health and the financial implications for national health and social care services.”

The winners will be selected following a “live panel” judging phase ahead of the HSJ Partnership Awards 2020 awards ceremony. The ceremony will be held at the Park Plaza Westminster on the 27th February.