Millions will be able to sign up for ‘life-changing' clinical trials through the NHS app
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has vowed to speed up access to ground-breaking treatments by making medical research studies available to join via smartphone.
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The move could slash trial set-up times from 250 days to 150 or fewer by next year.
Patients will receive push notifications from the app matching them to relevant studies based on their health data.
NHS Trusts will be ranked on trial performance.
Funding will be prioritised for the best.
The moves are part of Mr Streeting's Ten-Year Health Plan, due shortly.
He said: 'The app will become the digital front door to the NHS.
"It will enable us to play our part in developing the medicines of the future.'
Wes Streeting brutally slams Kemi AND Farage and demands Tories say sorry for how they ran the NHS in blistering attack
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STV News
12 minutes ago
- STV News
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The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
I've lost 6st on Mounjaro but I'm exhausted – the hidden side effect you need to know about that ruins your sleep
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Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
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It's regarded as a waste product, but new technology means menstrual blood could be used to monitor signs of diseases including urinary infections, type 2 diabetes and ovarian cancer – before any symptoms appear. A team at the ETH Zurich university in Switzerland has developed a paper-based sensor which is embedded into a standard sanitary pad to detect possible health problems in under ten minutes. So far researchers have shown it can accurately measure the body's levels of C-reactive protein (an indicator of infections such as colds and flu); carcinoembryonic antigen (linked to tumour growth); and CA125 (a protein which may be a sign of ovarian cancer). The sensor works similarly to a Covid test: the user wears the pad as normal and takes a photograph of the sensor following menstruation. The sensor, which is just below the top layer, displays lines or dots depending on the markers detected. The darker the colours, the higher the concentration is for the markers being tested. 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'The sensor is embedded into a soft silicone casing that protects it,' says Lucas Dosnan. 'It's designed so that we can control the volume of blood that comes into contact with the paper strip.' Women lose roughly 30 to 50ml of blood during their monthly period. Menstrual blood sensors have been in development for the past ten years at least. The big attraction is that samples don't need to be collected by needle and are readily available every month. In 2019, a team at Stanford University in California compared samples of menstrual blood with blood that circulates through the body from 20 women over two months. Results in the journal Clinical and Laboratory Medicine showed menstrual blood could reliably estimate levels of several bio-markers – including for diabetes and inflammation – as well as reproductive hormones, and so could be an alternative source for diagnosis and health monitoring. In 2022, Paul Blumenthal, a professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Stanford School of Medicine and Dr Sara Naseri, a former Stanford Medicine visiting scholar, developed a smart menstrual pad that could detect human papillomavirus, or HPV, which is linked to cervical cancer. Dr Naseri went on to co-found a company called Qvin and develop the first FDA-approved diagnostic menstrual pad, known as the Q-Pad. Women wear the pad as normal, then a blood collection strip is sent to a laboratory to be analysed. Results are returned within five days and, as well as HPV, can identify bio-markers for pre-diabetes, anaemia, perimenopause, endometriosis and thyroid health (it is not yet available, but women can sign up on the Qvin website to join a waitlist). Lucas Dosnon says the latest test is not designed to replace laboratory tests, but to give early indications of potential problems that may require more detailed investigations. 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Dr Karen Morton a consultant gynaecologist based in Guildford, told Good Health: 'This technology is interesting but there is a lot more to understand about how it may be used to really help improve women's health, if at all. 'The concern is that this may just encourage the worried well to spend more of their money.'
