Eye Hospital named as winner of AbbVie’s inaugural Sustainable Healthcare ‘Patients as Partners’ Award

Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, part of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT), has been awarded for the launch and use of an innovative hand held device for patients which allows risk factors associated with glaucoma to be detected.

The award, under the category of 'Enabling patients with technology', was given by AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, who recently announced the winners of its inaugural Sustainable Healthcare 'Patients as Partners' Awards.

'Patients as Partners' awards recognise those who have made an exceptional contribution to the lives of patients and contributed toward a more sustainable health service

Manchester Royal Eye Hospital was praised for launching the innovative hand-held device, Icare HOME, which patients can use themselves to detect raised intraocular pressure - a key risk factor associated with glaucoma. The use of the device leads to fewer hospital admissions and less disruption to day-to-day living for patients.

As a winner in this category, the team will receive a bursary of up to £3,000 to spend on conference attendance or research that will benefit patients and/or the NHS.

Karen Cairns, Specialist Glaucoma Nurse, said: "We are delighted to have been listed to the final 3 and won in the category 'enabling patients with technology'. It is excellent recognition for the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and the Glaucoma service and team that continually strive to improve patient experience and clinical outcomes and we are very proud to have received this award."

This is the first year AbbVie has held the 'Patients as Partners' awards, which were announced at the second 'Going Beyond Medicine' Conference at the King's Fund in London, held in partnership with the Royal College of Medicine.

The awards were created by AbbVie to recognise, celebrate and raise awareness of good examples of improvements and innovation that demonstrate clear benefit to the lives of patients and make our health services more sustainable, as part of its Sustainable Healthcare Initiative.

Jane Dwelly, Strategy Director at HIMSS UK and Head Judge, commented: "The use of a device that patients can use at home at different times of the day to measure intraocular pressure will achieve two things. It allows patients with glaucoma to continue their life without travelling to clinics to complete a simple test. This means patients will record more readings than before."

Over 70% of the NHS budget, or £7 out of every £10, goes on care for people living with long-term conditions. [i] To tackle this challenge, AbbVie has invested in its Sustainable Healthcare Initiative since 2014, to develop solutions to help make health services sustainable for the future and help people living with long-term conditions get better outcomes and to better use resources.

Matt Regan, UK General Manager, AbbVie commented: "We are proud to recognise the people and organisations that are making a real difference to both patients and the healthcare system in the UK. If together we can help the NHS to better support people with long-term conditions, not only will people have better health outcomes but resources will be better used and the service will make headway towards meeting the funding shortfall."