A new at-home monitoring solution that helps identify life-threatening complications earlier and cut down on appointments for cancer patients has been certified for use in the UK.
Developed by Entia, the solution is the world’s first, home-use, full blood count analyser designed specifically for cancer patients.
In combination with symptoms and vitals monitoring, the analyser is able to provide healthcare professionals with a comprehensive picture of a patient’s health throughout their cancer therapy.
This can help alert them to problems or side effects that may go on to prevent patients from receiving scheduled treatment, negatively impact quality of life or lead to high-cost, resource intensive hospitalisations.
By allowing some tests to be conducted at home Entia’s solution aims to cut time toxicity – the negative quality of life and financial impact of attending frequent healthcare appointments.
Dr Sacha Howel is Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
He said: “Time toxicity is a very real thing for people with cancer.
The time, energy and money spent getting to and during appointments is a significant factor in many people’s decisions about a particular course of treatment.
“By cutting out even just a few clinic visits Entia’s device could make a real difference to someone’s life and help make their cancer treatment more bearable.”
About the size of a laptop, Liberty, Entia’s comprehensive remote patient monitoring service, is designed to support cancer care in the home by giving patients a simple way of providing a full blood analysis using only a single drop of blood.
The results are securely shared with healthcare professionals through Liberty’s dashboard alongside symptoms and vitals.
Combined, they provide a comprehensive picture of a patient’s health without individuals having to travel for hospital-based check-ups.
The Liberty blood count analyser has been road-tested by over 1,000 cancer patients across five of the UK’s leading cancer treatment centres.
Having received its UKCA Mark, it is now ready for wider use across the UK’s cancer treatment centres.
In addition to being the world’s first regulated at-home full blood count analyser, it is also one of the first products to complete the full review process under the UK’s new safety standard, introduced post-Brexit to replace the EU CE mark.
This also marks the start of wider plans for Liberty’s approval in international markets such as the US.
Entia founder and CEO, Dr Toby Basey-Fisher, said: “Due to escalating staff shortages, increasing costs and hospital capacity constraints, maintaining or improving standards of patient care is an uphill battle.
“We’ve spent years collaborating with leading cancer institutes to identify major pain points for patients and providers.
“We’ve been able to recognise the need for a more individualised understanding of patients’ health whilst undergoing therapy in order to guide more personalised and proactive treatment pathways.
“We’ve also seen desire from patients to receive care that’s built around their lives rather than having lives built around their care. Liberty is our combined answer to these needs.
“Receiving the UKCA mark has given us the green light for rolling out Liberty in cancer centres here in the UK and to help accelerate their move to more patient-centric oncology care.”
