Public Funding for Bond Digital Health Ltd

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs, causing a general state of illness, coughing and eventually death. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is caused by a particular bacterium that affects cows but can be passed on to practically all mammals, including humans. The usual route of infection is through the inhalation of infected droplets which are expelled from the lungs by coughing. Because the course of the disease is slow, an undetected cow can spread the disease to many others in a herd before it begins to show any visible signs of illness. Unregulated movement of infected but undetected cows, along with contact with infected wild animals such as badgers, are the major ways that the disease is spread. Accurate detection, herd management and movement control are critical to achieving the eradication of the disease. The current test for bovine tuberculosis on farm herds is relatively subjective relying on individual veterinary practitioner interpretation. It is also not sensitive enough to detect all the cows that are infected therefore making eradication impossible. Bovine TB control measures cost over £500 million in the last 10 years. Without intervention, costs are expected to top £1 billion over the next decade if no new action is taken. A new, effective test is urgently needed. This proposal would bring together an international consortium to lead the fight against tuberculosis in cattle. The ambitious consortium has set out to do a project that will eliminate inaccurate test results frequently experienced by farming communities across the country but also worldwide. These "false positive" results lead to the unnecessary slaughter of healthy animals and infected animals being missed, bringing enormous economic and emotional cost to farmers, society and governments. This collaboration allies Aberystwyth's world-leading biomarker research with Lateral Flow Diagnostic specialists Clarity Biosolutions, life science businesses, Dynamic Extractions, software specialists Bond Digital Health and Sona Nanotech in Canada, specialists in gold nanrod LF technology, to build a team of academic and industry experts because no single company can achieve this goal alone. The project combines the latest cutting-edge science and technological developments with world-class research, state of the art facilities and expertise, to develop a new highly accurate, objective test to rapidly detect, manage, control and ultimately eradicate bTB.

Accurate, real-time data is essential in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus. Diagnostic testing is being held up as the key to understanding and slowing the spread of the virus. The approach has already had an impact in some countries during this outbreak and was endorsed by the WHO director-general, who urged countries to ramp up testing activity. Similar to governments across the globe, the UK Government is buying huge quantities of rapid tests. Just like police drug tests, they give quick results and are highly accurate, affordable and portable, making them the obvious choice for mass population testing. They are much more fit for this purpose unlike the current frontline standard - the laboratory PCR test - which may be accurate but doesn't offer the turnaround time needed to combat a pandemic. The latest generation of rapid diagnostic tests generate data which reveals valuable information about how the virus is spreading and allows authorities to predict future spread. Using this data, governments can take informed steps to action targeted interventions and protect public health. Rapid tests provide accurate, lab-grade results at the point of testing. However, results can't always be read by the naked eye, so interpreting them is done either via portable, optical reader devices or smartphone readers, which utilise the phone's camera technology. This also mitigates the issues with misinterpretation. **However, the data these diagnostic devices generate is not being captured and used to its full advantage.** Our project is addressing this gap by providing the web platform and technology needed to connect these devices to the internet. Data is captured at the point of testing, stored and aggregated in the cloud where algorithms can be introduced to analyse it. It is instantly visualised on dashboards for decision-makers in real-time. Additional data such as gender, age, underlying health conditions, blood type, and location will be collected, giving richer insight into epidemiology. Geo-tagged results and data trends will be made available on heat maps in the dashboard. This will allow the NHS, public health bodies and other stakeholders to monitor emerging hot spots, enhance response times and allocate resources. This is a completely novel approach. There are several projects around data capture but none of the proposed solutions integrate with an accurate, rapid diagnostic test. Our solution will not only help contain the coronavirus but ultimately eradicate it- and when fully deployed - prevent future waves of the pandemic. The proposed extensions and added value are: 1. To develop an additional API (application programming interface) to enable interoperability between our system TRANSFORM and various electronic patient data systems in the UK and the US. In the UK, NHS Digital is moving towards the adoption of interoperable Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system to facilitate better patient data access. Data is collected from systems such as TRANSFORM, so smooth integration and communication between the systems is essential. This represents added value for both the UK public and UK Public Health agencies because the datasets will be much more comprehensive, including additional layers of accurate test, subject, symptom, location and environmental data. This is pretty much all the data public health bodies need in order to make informed decisions fast. 2. To extend the functionality of TRANSFORM to incorporate additional comorbidity coding to the records generated for each subject (patient) who using the system to collect data from the rapid lateral flow tests. The comorbidity coding is achieved using internationally recognised standards: SNOMED, and LOINC. These standards are universal and recognised in UK/EU/USA and are used to provide an interoperable medical condition and co-morbidity metadata set for each patient. Both these extended deliverables will enhance the functionality and value of our project in the mid term.

"Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common, progressively disabling disease characterised by airflow obstruction in the lung and commonly associated with smokers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that over 384 million people were affected worldwide in 2010, with 65 million people estimated to have moderate to severe disease. The economic burden of COPD is huge, costing £4bn p.a. to the UK alone. Bond Digital Health is developing a wearable technology called Metis, which integrates with the company's existing software developments, providing a digital solution to the ""white space"" void that currently exists between patient visits with their doctor. This void can be a few days or as long as 6 months, during which the clinician has to rely on anecdotal evidence and at best, inaccurate paper diaries. These are often referred to by clinicians as ""car park diaries"" as that is where the information is often entered, moments before the consultation . Metis integrates hardware and software solutions to address this issue. The device provides ""at a distance"" listening to the patients' lungs and heart enabling their health care practitioner to monitor COPD sufferers released from care. It will equip the practitioner with independent, accurate analysis of the patient's data providing valuable, comprehensive insights and evidence-based care. Metis is essentially a digital stethoscope consisting of 1 to 5 patches which adhere to a patient's torso. These patches contain a processing chip, audio capture device and Bluetooth, allowing lung sounds to be collected and transmitted to a smart phone, which are then processed by a central analytical system and stored in a secure cloud database for clinicians to access 24/7\."