Public Funding for Onorach Limited

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is one of the UK's most common life-threatening inherited diseases, impacting sufferers' lungs and digestive systems. Patients have strict daily regimes to remain active and take the necessary antibiotic medication and food supplements required to survive. This project aims to develop a platform which will allow sufferers of Cystic-Fibrosis to self-manage their condition in a COVID-19 world, and for their specialist teams to provide the required vital support remotely. The 10,500 sufferers in the UK (100,000 worldwide) are currently unable to leave their homes as a result of COVID-19\. This means an absence of any vital face to face care, which would typically take place at a specialist CF Centre. Patients have no capacity to undertake their traditional physical regimens outside of their homes, and this additional social isolation, imposed on an already socially isolated patient group, risks impacting the mental health of CF suffers both during lock-down and post COVID-19\. At the end of the 6 months, we will have created a platform which is able to be clinically validated and trialed within an NHS setting and with a specialist CF Centre. It will offer patients a tool to support the day to day management of their condition through tailored information, remote and video access to specialists and via a bespoke peer to peer support community embedded within the application. It will offer the NHS a means through which to ensure regular check-ups are still permissible with their patients, and that live condition monitoring is possible, resulting in their ability to rapidly triage, assess and support both the physical and mental needs of the CF sufferer.

To apply clinical research, machine learning and cyber security expertise from Dundee University to develop and validate Onorach’s patFINDER software system; interrogating medical data to efficiently identify and recruit patient cohorts to clinical trials that meet specific inclusion/exclusion criteria.