Leeds-based Asclepius MedTech is helping hospitals transform how they perform surgical pre-operative assessment. With Surgfit© patient friendly ‘at home’ surgical assessment technology designed to enable hospitals to provide safer and more effective surgical care, improve efficiencies and deliver better patient outcomes.
The company was one of nineteen innovators chosen for Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber’s flagship accelerator programme, Propel@YH, which offers a six-month course of support and guidance for HealthTech SMEs looking to access the NHS market.
We caught up with CEO, Michael Morgan-Curran, to understand more about the company’s journey on the Propel@YH programme.
- Why did you join the Propel@YH programme?
We joined the programme to give greater visibility of our innovation Surgfit© across the Yorkshire and Humber region, to access key clinical and decision makers and to help us grow as a Leeds-based Medtech company.
2. How did the programme help Asclepius MedTech?
We would have been satisfied with just the raised profile however the programme exceeded our expectations.
The rigour of the programme modules and workshops has crystallised our value proposition and helped us understand how to navigate the NHS healthcare systems, and better appreciate their needs, priorities, processes and challenges.
It has helped us build and develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with Hospital Trusts.
We noticed that being part of the programme “changed the perception” of us and the “value of our innovation”. With NHS stakeholders wishing to engage and work with us and seeing us a “true innovation partner” to collectively have a meaningful impact in surgical pre-operative assessment.
We were successful in winning a CPI award, worth £25,000 via their MARRS program, which funded the last part of our regulatory roadmap for DTAC and clinical safety compliance. In order for Surgfit to be used in hospitals in the West Yorkshire region and UK-wide.
We also won a large West Yorkshire Launchpad: Innovate UK Investor Partnership Award, worth £350,000, for our AI development programme. Which we will develop in partnership with Leeds University, Leeds Teaching Trust and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care.
The programme also meant we are part of Nexus Leeds, which facilitated a number workstreams including the DSDP programme to help us access talent in the region to support product development. As well as facilitating an application to the Mayors Big Ideas Challenge which is seeking health technologies to Tackle Health Inequalities.
Being selected to join the Leeds Teaching Trust Innovation Pop Up means that we can move forward more speedily with pilots and procurement discussions within the local Trusts.
3. What was the most useful part of the programme?
We appreciated the curated access the Propel@YH programme gave us to the Teaching Trust’s clinicians and managers. And to stakeholders in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Leeds City Council, the University of Leeds and the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Networks. All of which we have also leveraged outside the region.
It also introduced us to important ecosystem partners such as Quiddity Health, DigiSafe + Acorn Compliance, Prova Health, Par Equity, YHEC, 6B, Hill Dickinson, Barclays, Nexus, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Innovation Popup, CDS and Medipex who we continue to engage and work with on our journey to build Asclepius MedTech as a successful Yorkshire based business attracting local talent.
4. What have you been doing since the programme?
We continue working with several trusts to pilot Surgfit© in clinical practice so that patients may access it as an alternative way of having their surgical pre-operative assessment in their own homes.
Moreover, on the back of our participation we won a place on Grow Digital Health Midlands with Health Innovation East Midlands and Health Innovation West Midlands. This opportunity will enable us to scale Surgfit across the Midlands, this being the largest NHS region in England. With access to its 11 Integrated Care Systems and a population of nearly 12 million.
We were invited to participate in the NIHR Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care annual SurgTech Conference in April and in June have been invited to exhibit at Barclays’s UK Health Elevate Conference, London.
Plus, we won “Start-up of the Year 2025” at Digital Health Rewired in March in front of NHS stakeholders and industry partners. The response and praise we have had has been amazing. It wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been in the programme.
Find out more about Asclepius MedTech