Elaros is a private digital health company incubated by NHS organisations, that represents a breakthrough, not only in terms of the innovative nature of its product development, but also in its partnership approach that brings together the NHS, the academic community and industry.
The NHS organisations involved in ELAROS are:
Devices for Dignity: a NIHR Healthcare Technology Co-operative set up to
drive forward innovative new products, processes and services to support people with long-term conditions, preserving their dignity and independence.
Devices for Dignity is hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Medipex Ltd and NHS Innovations North:
the UK NHS Innovation Hubs for Yorkshire & Humber and the North East Region. Their mission is to facilitate the development of services and products that cut costs and improve patient care.
Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: who provide the clinical direction for ELAROS.
North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group: with whom Elaros is working to commercialiase the hydration monitoring system, Hydr8.
Elaros is a private digital health company incubated by NHS organisations, that adopts a partnership approach to product development, bringing together the NHS, the academic community and industry to develop solutions that are:
Elaros includes among its partners, the following organisations:
C19-YRS is an outcome measure used to screen for common persistent symptoms identified in patients after contracting COVID-19, also known as Long COVID. The self-reporting tool has been developed by clinical academics at The University of Leeds and has been recommended for routine use by NHS England in their National Guidance for post-COVID syndrome assessment and has been recognised by NICE in their rapid guidelines for managing the long-term effects of COVID-19. More details of the benefits offered by C19-YRS can be viewed through the product brochure accessible here, as well as through its dedicated website at www.c19-yrs.com.
Long COVID is a term used to describe a new and emerging condition faced by patients presenting with symptoms that develop during or after contracting COVID-19 and persist for more than 4 weeks (NICE). The syndrome is still not yet fully understood, with symptoms of breathlessness, cough and severe fatigue being amongst the most prevalent symptoms. As of January 24th 2021 the World Health Organisation estimates there have 97.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the Office of National Statistics estimating that:
ELAROS’ C19-YRS boasts a secure web portal for clinicians to manage patients over time, through visualisation of the graded scores for Symptom Severity, Functional Disability and Overall Health, helping to guide and evaluate treatment and rehabilitation programmes.
Patients can access the user-friendly questionnaire via web-link or mobile app, available on iOS and Android, allowing them to track their condition with a quantitative assessment of improvement or deterioration. The platform seeks to improve patient outcomes, clinical intervention methods and help to understand Long COVID as a condition by providing The University of Leeds’ research team with anonymised data to further validate the scale and develop a robust measure of the condition.
The system provides a secure, scalable solution to manage multiple patients on a single platform and is free at the point of use for all NHS organisations.
The C19-YRS captures data automatically and generates a report to clinicians in real time, offering powerful reporting tools to both clinicians and patients.
Contact
For more information, please contact c19-yrs@elaros.com
Your Data Privacy
Data privacy matters to us. Please see the full C19-YRS privacy policy here.
Partners and endorsements
ELAROS’ C19-YRS was rapidly developed to a high standard, by working closely with clinical researchers at University of Leeds and Pipe & Piper Ltd to pivot ELAROS’ existing CE-marked Digital Bladder Diary platform. The paper C19-YRS self-report is being slowly adopted by NHS Trusts across the UK as of December 2020. ELAROS’ digital C19-YRS aims to improve the Long COVID patient care pathway and offer patients and clinicians an enhanced, secure, remote digital alternative solution.
C19-YRS was developed with support from The University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Airedale and Hull NHS Trusts.
Recommended for routine use by NHS England in their National Guidance for post-COVID syndrome assessment and has been recognised by NICE in their rapid guidelines for managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 as a clinically relevant tool, requesting further validation and development with patients and clinicians.
The scale has also been endorsed and published by ACNR and BSRM.
At some point in their life two out of every three adults will have a bladder related problem, requiring a visit to their GP to identify the problem. Currently, people presenting to their GP with bladder problems are required to complete a paper diary that is then returned to their GP for analysis.
The Digital Bladder Diary replaces the paper diary with a hand held recording device that enables people to monitor their own health safely and discreetly.
The process of recording information is simple, and enables the patient to take control and management of their bladder issues with dignity. The device is discreet and convenient and the information captured is 100% secure. Using the device enables the patient to keep an accurate up to date bladder diary wherever they are. More details of the Digital Bladder Diary can be accessed here.
The information gathered using the diary is uploaded remotely to the cloud which provides an immediate clinical diagnosis and recommended clinical action.
Use of the device ensures accurate clinical analysis of data resulting in greatly reduced clinical referrals and unnecessary hospital visits. The time taken to diagnose and treat a patient's symptoms is cut, reducing anxiety for the patient and offering quick relief from symptoms.
This innovative new way of carrying out initial assessment, diagnosis and triaging of patients with long-term conditions has been specifically designed to be integrated into GP practices, specialist continence providers, community health organisations and acute trusts. The service enhances delivery of the patient pathway and enables compliance with NICE guidelines.
Partners
The Digital Bladder diary was developed in collaboration with urology experts from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with support from the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network and the North East & North Cumbria Academic Health Science Network.
Dehydration in older people is among the top 10 reasons for hospital admission resulting in a significant financial impact on the healthcare system. Yet dehydration in older people can easily be prevented or treated with an appropriate hydration programme.
Hydr8 is a platform by which care homes can monitor the fluid intake of their residents. Each resident has their own profile on the Hydr8 app, where their fluid intake is recorded. The cumulative total can be viewed at a glance, with an infographic displaying the percentage of hydration status attained. Residents at risk of becoming under, or over, hydrated can easily be identified and a standardised protocol then guides staff to the appropriate response. Data from all residents is relayed back to a central data store which is accessible to the care home manager, care home provider, CCG and authorised clinicians.
Partners
Hydr8 was developed by North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group and Nine Software company Ltd, with support from the Academic Health Science Network, North East and North Cumbria.
Sleep is essential for human survival. Lack of adequate sleep leads to many detrimental health effects.
Common behavioural sleep problems include difficulties falling asleep, an inability to maintain sleep and early morning awakenings.
Evidence has shown that paediatric behavioural sleep programmes improve sleep duration in children and thus have a positive impact on the whole family. Using the Sleepy Fox app, carers are taught to understand the science behind sleep and to create a personalised bedtime plan along with strategies to help the child get a good night's sleep.
Partners and funding
Sleepy Fox was developed in collaboration with the Children's Sleep Charity and Sheffield Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, supported by funding from the SBRI.
Dysphagia is a condition that affects the ability to swallow and affects many elderly people, including residents in care homes.
The swallowing mechanism changes significantly as people age and its disruption can have long-range health consequences in older adults, including dehydration and malnutrition.
The Guide is intended to be a one-stop shop for care home staff from caterers and care home assistants to care home managers and care home policy makers. It includes essential information about dysphagia, recipes suitable for residents with swallowing difficulties and specialist training modules for catering staff. It is accessible on Android or iOS tablets.
Partners and funding
The Guide was developed in collaboration with Luto, Making Sense Ltd and experts in dysphagia from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, supported by funding from Innovate UK and the Abbeyfield Research Foundation.
Professor Paul O' Brien was appointed CEO of Elaros 24/7 in April 2012. Paul has held senior
posts in the private sector (Chief Executive), local government (Chief Officer), health (Director in West Essex NHS Trust) and education (Head of Department).
He has previous venture start-up experience having established the Essex Development and Regeneration Agency with a turnover of £8.5 million and funds under management of £15 million - employing 60 planners, economists, surveyors, bid writers and fund managers.
He has extensive experience of public sector transformation having externalised a local government service and more recently the externalisation of a £33 Million NHS Service.
Paul also has broad non-executive board experience gained over a 15 year period and has completed the Institute of Directors Diploma in Company Direction.
He is a visiting lecturer to the University of Surrey on its MBA & MSc Entrepreneurship programmes.
Professor Christopher Chapple is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Sheffield
Teaching Hospitals and Visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University. He has a particular interest in functional reconstruction of the lower urinary tract and the underlying pharmacological control mechanisms
and provides a tertiary service in lower urinary tract reconstructive surgery. He trained at the Middlesex Hospital where he subsequently completed his doctorate thesis, and continued there and at the Institute
of Urology in London for his sub-specialist training.
He is Chairman of the International Relations Committee at the European Association of Urology, having previously been the Adjunct Secretary General responsible for Education and Past Director of the European School of Urology. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Neurourology and Urodynamics and is on the editorial board of several journals such as the British Journal of Urology, European Urology, Surgery and Current Opinion in Urology. He is an active member of many international urological associations and societies including the British Association of Urological Surgeons, the European Association of Urology, the International Continence Society, the Association of Academic European Urologists and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons. He has chaired a number of guidelines initiatives including the NICE Guidelines Development Group on male lower urinary tract symptoms. He was awarded the St Peter’s medal by the British Association of Urological Surgeons in 2011. Professor Chapple has co-authored over 350 articles in peer-reviewed Journals and has written several books and a number of book chapters.
Peter Cunliffe qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983, having trained in Birmingham with one of
the then ‘Big 4’ accountancy firms, Deloitte Haskins and Sells.
Since qualifying, Peter has worked in various finance and accounting roles for a wide spectrum of businesses, both in terms of size (£3m up to £1.2bn turnover) and industry sector (including retail, engineering, steel stockholding, laboratory analysis and specialty chemicals).
His early positions were in large blue-chip companies, roles which gave him a full understanding of the importance of pertinent, current management information and the need for strict financial disciplines to augment performance and safeguard assets.
Recognising that most small companies do not need a full-time financial director, Peter set up Flex FD Ltd in 2004, providing a flexible financial direction service for start-up and early-stage companies, particularly in the life science and healthcare sectors, and has helped raise £7m in funding across 10 businesses.
Román Rocha Lawrence first joined Elaros in July 2019 as our Graduate Trainee Research & Development Manager after graduating from The University of Sheffield with a First Class Honours MEng Degree in Bioengineering.
As part of his degree which drew on various engineering disciplines, management, science and medicine, Román specialised in Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering, Medical Devices and Computational Medicine; completing a summer research project with INSIGNEO in 2018; Europe’s largest research institute dedicated entirely to the development, validation, and use of in silico medicine technologies.
Román made a substantial impact at Elaros in his first year using his broad depth of knowledge of interdisciplinary STEM subjects and entrepreneurial experience outside of academia, forming key partnerships for the company at an early stage and managing various internal and Innovate UK funded projects and consultancy contracts.
Moving forward as Elaros’ Research and Development Manager, Román leads on the development, management and commercialisation of Elaros’ various projects and product portfolio whilst managing the growing internal team.
Gabriel joined Elaros in October 2020, as a graduate with First Class Honours in BSc Information Technology Management for Business at the University of Sheffield. Gabriel's degree looked at the combination of management and computing and how essential an effective understanding of these are in the modern workplace. His dissertation project focused on usability and User Experience Design (UX).
After a successful Year in Industry working as an IT Applications Engineer, Gabriel is now looking to develop the skills acquired through his four year course with his new Graduate Trainee Technology Manager role at Elaros. With the global transition into digital and remote working that has been catalysed by the coronavirus pandemic, Gabriel's work with our products and partners to ensure we provide usable and secure applications is sure to be extremely valuable.
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(28th May, 2021). People with long covid could be monitored with the aid of a ground-breaking mobile phone app and clinical web portal.
It has been developed to help NHS rehabilitation teams manage the large number of people suffering from the debilitating effects of the illness. Patients will also be able to use the app to track their recovery.
The app will initially be available to patients in 27 NHS Trusts, including the Salford Royal, Pennine Acute Hospitals, Liverpool University Hospitals, Airedale and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trusts - and the app provider is in advance discussion with several others. The public will not have direct access to the app - instead, patients will be invited to download it by their doctor or a member of their rehabilitation team.
Developed in a partnership between the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trusts, and the digital health company ELAROS, with the support from their software developers, Pipe and Piper, the app will enable patients to self-report their symptoms and the impact they have on daily living.
The first hospitals to use the system will go live with it next week (June 1).
‘Long covid’ refers to persistent symptoms that last for four weeks or longer after contracting covid-19, and include breathlessness, fatigue, brain fog, psychological distress, pain, and a general decline in quality of life.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed that during four weeks in February and March, more than one million people in the UK were experiencing long covid - 674,000 said the condition was adversely affecting their day-to-day activities. Of those, around 697,000 people had experienced symptoms for at least 12 weeks.
Approximately, 70,000 had been ill for a year.
The information that a patient puts onto the app will be stored on a secure and confidential database which can be accessed by the NHS team involved in their care, to monitor their progress and to evaluate treatment options.
Dr Manoj Sivan, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds and Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospital and Community Healthcare NHS trusts, is the lead academic in the project.
He said: “Long covid is a new condition, and it is causing long-term health problems for many patients. Given the scale of the problem, it is likely to strain healthcare services and burden the economy. We need efficient systems to manage the growing caseload and to standardise care across the NHS.
“The app and associated web portal will allow healthcare staff to rapidly assess and triage patients. Patients and families can also see their progression and their response to treatments."
The app takes the patient through a series of questions to record their health status before contracting covid, and what it is now. The information is displayed in two radar plots: one showing the severity of symptoms and how those symptoms may be impacting on their ability to perform daily activities, their level of functional disability.
Patients will be asked to regularly update the app and over time, the radar plots will show what progress they are making towards recovering their health.
Jenny Davison, Physiotherapist and Long Covid Rehabilitation Service Coordinator with Leeds Community Healthcare Trust, said: "A Patient will be able to update the app at different stages in their recovery – and it will show them and their clinician how they are improving and what areas might need more targeted input.
“It provides an excellent visual demonstration of the data in graph format for patient to see at a glance the improvements they have made."
Professor Paul O’Brien, Chief Executive of ELAROS, said: “The digital nature of the system will allow us to rapidly improve the clinical tool in partnership with healthcare professionals as we learn more about the condition. Our aim is to help healthcare teams provide the most effective support for patients recovering from long covid."
“This is a not-for-profit initiative for all NHS organisations as part of ELAROS' contribution to the national effort to tackle Covid”.
The app uses a version of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS), a questionnaire developed by Dr Sivan and his team during the first wave of the pandemic to aid the diagnosis and assessment of long covid symptoms.
C19-YRS is now widely used across the NHS and has been recommended for routine use by NHS England in their national guidance for post-covid syndrome assessment clinics. Guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence also support its use for comprehensive assessment of patients.
If a patient agrees, their responses recorded on the app can be shared with accredited research institutions, but personal details will be removed.
For healthcare organisations wishing to utilise the digital version, please contact: c19-yrs@elaros.com
For more information on the digital system, visit www.c19-yrs.com
Please get in touch by phone, email or twitter and a member of our team will respond to discuss your enquiry.
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