Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have launched a health innovation sandbox that will test emerging technologies, including AI-enabled medical devices, with patients and clinicians in real NHS environments.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is partnering with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to test emerging healthcare technologies in real NHS settings and generate evidence to support their safe adoption.
The Manchester Sandbox is the first major programme under the partnership and will enable selected technologies to be deployed and evaluated as part of day-to-day healthcare.
The programme is intended to provide evidence about their ongoing safety, effectiveness and impact, helping the NHS determine which technologies can improve patient care and are suitable for wider adoption.
The first technologies are expected to include AI-enabled medical devices, including tools capable of identifying patients who are at greater risk of complications from long-term conditions, potentially allowing support and treatment to be provided earlier.
The programme will bring healthcare providers, regulators and technology developers together earlier in the innovation process, while testing proportionate, lifecycle-based approaches to regulation.
Mark Cubbon, Chief Executive, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Patients should benefit from innovation as quickly as possible, but they should never have to choose between access and safety.
“This partnership brings together key partners earlier in the process so we can understand what works and how new technologies perform in real healthcare settings.
“By creating a clearer route from innovation to safe adoption, we can help people gain faster access to developments that have the potential to improve care, while maintaining the high standards of safety that patients rightly expect.
“The learning we generate here at MFT could help shape how effective innovations are adopted across the wider NHS, and we are excited to share it more widely at the right time.”
The initiative is also expected to help technology developers better understand the evidence they need to generate before their products can be considered for wider NHS use.
Learning generated by the Manchester Sandbox will be shared across the NHS and could influence how proven technologies are subsequently introduced elsewhere in the country.
Lawrence Tallon, Chief Executive, MHRA, said: “AI and other emerging technologies have enormous potential to improve patient care. The challenge is understanding how they work in practice and where they can make the biggest difference.
“Manchester brings together the NHS, innovators, researchers and regulators to do exactly that. The learning from this programme could help shape how safe and effective technologies are introduced across the country, helping more patients benefit from innovation.”
The launch also included demonstrations of emerging technologies, including wearable products and AI-powered Ambient Voice Technology products already being used to support earlier intervention and patient care.
MFT and the MHRA plan to hold a roundtable later this year involving healthcare providers, researchers, innovators and patient and public representatives to help determine future projects. The MHRA will also invite expressions of interest from medical device developers seeking to participate in the programme’s next phase.
