Emerging research points to NHS and industry being a successful partnership for patients

Early evidence links NHS-industry partnerships with improved prescribing practices and better health outcomes for patients.

In a new report, ‘Partnering for progress: A data-driven analysis of NHS-industry partnerships,’ CF (Carnall Farrar) aims to systematically measure how NHS-industry partnerships support improved patient outcomes using data from across the NHS.

The research, commissioned by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), found that hospitals engaging in industry partnerships are up to 2.5 times more likely to follow NICE recommendations for prescribing clinically and cost-effective medicines more closely, compared to hospitals that do not.

Appropriate use of medicines closer to NICE guidelines was, in turn, associated with better outcomes for patients in the areas of care studied, keeping their conditions under better control.

There were also early indications that partnerships in Primary Care Networks (PCNs) were associated with improved disease management, such as blood sugar and blood pressure control. [1]

The first-of-its-kind research looked specifically at partnerships tackling cardiovascular disease, cholesterol control and diabetes, as major priority areas of care for the NHS.

While multiple factors may have contributed to the improvements in patient outcomes noted, the report suggests that partnership working is one of several indicators leading to better patient outcomes in the NHS.

Dr Amit Aggarwal, Director of Medical Affairs at the ABPI, said: “The Health Secretary is clear that we have to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, and this research strongly suggests that partnership with industry is one of the ways to do that.

“For many years, industry and NHS leaders have been able to point to countless specific examples of successful partnerships benefitting patients and the NHS. This research provides further evidence that partnerships between the NHS and industry make a positive difference to patients.”

There were good examples of positive system and place-level partnerships between the NHS and industry across all four UK nations that helped to tackle local health inequalities. One example, in a Health Board in Wales, reduced diagnostic test turnaround times for head and neck cancer by 32 per cent.

Another example in Scotland established pharmacist-led optimisation clinics for heart failure throughout NHS Lothian, freeing up 138 specialist heart failure appointments per month.

Ben Richardson, Managing Partner at CF said: “We're witnessing growing levels of interest in partnerships between industry and the NHS to drive innovation. Launching a new drug is only part of the equation—true patient outcomes are achieved when we also address system-wide barriers such as patient identification, adherence, and best practice sharing.

“By leveraging data, technology, and collaboration, partnerships can create new opportunities to improve healthcare delivery. It is exciting that we have generated evidence to highlight the potential of these partnerships.”

The report sets out five key recommendations, which aim to further strengthen the evidence base for the impact of NHS-industry partnerships and for how such partnerships could be expanded in primary care and at system and place level:

In secondary care:

• Further research should be conducted to establish the direct causative relationship between partnership working and their impact on patient outcomes across the UK, as well as the improvements they may bring to NHS operational efficiencies.

In primary care:

• The scale of partnerships taking place in primary care should be increased, to address unwarranted variations in the prescribing of clinically and cost-effective medicines.
• Partnerships in primary care settings should also be considered to help to identify at-risk patients, initiate treatment, rapid diagnosis, improve chronic disease management and ultimately deliver better health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

At system and place level:

• To strengthen the impact of NHS-Industry partnerships, industry stakeholders and NHS leaders should regularly monitor collaborations documented in the ABPI’s Library of Case Studies to scale the most impactful projects.

Nationally

• The Innovation Scorecard Estimates Report is an important resource for improved support in identifying areas where prescribing for some indications is misaligned with NICE recommendations. This dataset should be expanded to enable the identification of more indications at all relevant geographic levels. This will allow for improvements in the visibility of local variation.

The NHS Confederation and the ABPI have been working with industry and system leaders to understand how to make the potential of NHS-industry partnerships a reality. Accelerating Transformation: How to Develop Effective NHS-Industry Partnerships, is a practical, step-by-step guide to help the NHS and industry develop, contract, implement, and measure partnerships more easily. [2]