What are we trying to do?

The overall aim is to understand how inclisiran is adopted and spread in the NHS to understand its implementation and uptake across the 15 Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) areas. Using inclisiran as an example and exploring its implementation at multiple case study sites, will increase understanding of how AHSNs facilitate the adoption and spread of innovations within the NHS.

 

 

Why is this important?

English health policy has increasingly emphasised innovation, speeding up the adoption and uptake of new products and closer working between the NHS and industry. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out ambitions to ‘speed up the path from innovation to business as usual’ and ‘speed up the pipeline for delivering innovations in the NHS, to get proven, affordable innovations to patients faster’

 

The AHSN Network is delivering a national lipids optimisation programme, running from 2020-2023. The programme aims to improve the management of cholesterol, increase the detection of those with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia and optimise the use of all medicines for patients on the cholesterol management pathway. To meet this aim, The AHSN Network is working in partnership with the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) rapid uptake pathway (RUP) lipid management programme to improve patient access to appropriate medicines to enable lipid treatment using the NICE-recommended clinical pathway, with a focus on secondary prevention and including novel therapies.

 

Inclisiran is one of the first products to be fast tracked by the NHS AAC, and is included in the NICE-endorsed lipid management pathway. A population health management  approach to implementing inclisiran has been taken, and AHSNs are supporting this by acting as the ‘delivery partners’ for its deployment.  Studying this new type of agreement will help understand how a new treatment could be deployed and delivered into a system of care in a way that would treat patients at a population-health level.

 

How are we doing it?

We are taking a multiple case study approach to evaluate the spread and uptake of inclisiran. The study will use mixed methods and has three components:

 

•  A review of documents related to the implementation of inclisiran at AHSNs
•  A time series analysis of the uptake of Inclisiran using routinely available prescribing data
•  A qualitative process evaluation of the adoption and spread of Inclisiran in England by AHSN areas

 

We will draw upon the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to guide our data collection and analysis. CFIR is widely used in implementation research to guide the systematic assessment of barriers and enablers to adoption and spread. We will use other theories, for example, Normalisation Process Theory relating to implementation and diffusion of innovations, as relevant, during the course of the study.

 

 

Who are we working with?

• The AHSN Network

 

 

More information

 

 

 

Programme Manager
Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk