63470BACKLOG - Bridging the Appointments backlog, post COVID-19 through re-LOcation of urban and rural clinical service deliveryClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKBACKLOG will produce a secure cloud-based geospatial (location, distance, and transport) context aware resource and appointment allocation decision support service to aid the NHS and public health service providers safely and effectively clear the backlog of outpatient and small interventions which have occurred due to the COVID-19 crisis. The complexity of scheduling and managing this backlog is immense as the traditional appointment scheduling systems available to service leaders do not take into account the short-term, third-party, and mobile resources being made available in light of the COVID-19 response. The scheduling systems also do not take into account patient separation, availability of "clean" clinics, and the mobility of the patients. The BACKLOG system will integrate location-allocation models to the existing IT appointment and scheduling (ERP) systems and will impact medical practitioners and patients by improving their safety, reducing the potential COVID-19 touch points; allowing for a safe and efficient reduction in the patient backlog ensuring effective prioritisation of cases. This will give communities a sense of returning to normality by being able to carry on business as usual, ensuring the return to normality does not increase road and hospital traffic, by ensuring all patients are sufficiently spaced and will reduce environmental CO2 by finding appointments that may be closer or accessible via public transport. The effectiveness of BACKLOG will be tested by supporting the reestablishment of the Royal Papworth Hospital's oximetry diagnostics services once COVID-19 related restrictions are lifted. Typically, more than 10,000 oximetry tests are carried out in the community. Since routine service provision was suspended on 19th March 2020 the backlog of tests is growing by 195 a week or 868 a month. BACKLOG will aim to reduce the waiting list of sleep services appointments by 25% and the time to eliminate the excess waiting list by 4 months. Additional paragraph, explaining the effects of the “extension for Impact” funding: The “extension for impact” funding would support the success of the project in several ways and is expected to have the following effects: The two main effects are a) de-risking of achieving the expected project impacts and b) upscaling to a wider range of health-related services to benefit from service optimisation tools. More specifically, the funding will result in: • Engagement of wider stakeholder base Leveraging the output of the project to scale up stakeholder engagement and testing across health care providers but also other services (e.g. public health services, pharmaceutical trial organisations), which encounter the same requirements for effective modifications of the service location / allocation options. Wider validation and refinement opportunities Identification of new market niches and wider positioning opportunities A wider range of health-related services will benefit from service optimisation tools (savings of resource and time, as well as prevention of deterioration of health outcomes due to disruption of services) • Increased likelihood for uptake of results by a payer Refinement of the business model and possibly identification of more than one viable business models, stepping on a wider stakeholder base, which has a wider range of potential payers (i.e. not just the NHS/ CCGs), thus mitigating risks to the uptake of results in a situation, which strains public financing sources. Avoiding dependence of tool success on one funding source and securing that public resource spent on the tool development will not be wasted, thus ensuring that the promised impact will benefit the community. • Bridging the “valley of death” Decrease the duration and the associated risks of the “valley of death” phase of commercialisation by scaling up and acceleration of dissemination and engagement activities to wider circles. Opportunity to take effective measures to ensure viability of the company for a period (e.g. 1-2 years) until tool established as a trusted product. • Start-up formation and acceleration CMA and ILS will spin off the activities that will focus on the launch of the BACKLOG tool Building of a recognizable brand identity for market penetration and investor pitching.