NHS bodies in Scotland have signed a collaboration agreement with industry partners and universities with the aim of expanding clinical research and improving population health.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by NHS Golden Jubilee’s National Centre for Sustainable Delivery, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the University of Glasgow, AstraZeneca UK and Lenus Health.

The MoU aims to enable testing of new patient pathways and digital technologies with the goal of providing earlier diagnosis and treatment, enabling large-scale trials and studies and collecting evidence to assess the effectiveness of these new clinical management processes.

The agreement is hoped to improve patient outcomes, reduce waiting times and change clinical practice. It plans to offer enrolment in studies and trials of new pathways and therapies to all patients with chronic illnesses.

The Optimised Pathway for Early Identification of Heart Failure in the Community (OPERA) is the first project being considered for rollout across NHS Scotland. It was first trialled during the pandemic and the waiting list for heart failure diagnostic tests was reduced from more than a year to six weeks. During the trial, patients attended a single clinic appointment, and underwent a bank of tests including electrocardiogram heart tracing, echocardiogram ultrasound heart scan and blood-based biomarkers.  

Professor Jann Gardner, chief executive of NHS Golden Jubilee, said: “The national Centre for Sustainable Delivery at NHS Golden Jubilee has been set up specifically to renew and transform healthcare services across NHS Scotland and is uniquely positioned to deliver transformation programmes at scale through the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption pathway.  This collaboration provides opportunities to improve patient care, employ new technologies and medicines, while addressing the impact of health inequalities and social barriers to provide a more sustainable future healthcare system.”