Our lives are increasingly surrounded by the latest scientific advances and technologies, from smart phones, to ChatGPT to autonomous cars.

Translating these advances into healthcare needs research to evidence transition into safe, improved, clinical care.

The Southampton Emerging Therapies and Technologies (SETT) Centre was established in 2021 to focus on research in 3 key areas:

Advanced Therapies
Medical Technology
Data & AI

In October 2024, SETT held its inaugural conference showcasing its achievements so far and future ambitions. The conference was attended by over 120 people from the Trust, University and Wessex region.

Dr Rashid Kasmi and patient John Curley discuss the life-changing impact of taking part a haemophilia gene therapy research study

Paul Grundy, UHS Chief Medical Officer, opened the day with his belief that research, innovation and education are key in our ability to always improve and deliver world class care.

SETT leads gave an overview of each workstream, and the work undertaken to build capacity, design systems and grow study pipelines to deliver over 145 studies.

Dr Karen Underwood, UHS Director of Research & Development, introduced the main session with an overview of the Trust’s research infrastructure working together on Research for Impact. Researcher presentations showcased the huge impact of a wide range of work.

SETT-supported studies

Machine Learning risk scores to prevent 11,000 hospital deaths (CARDS)
Gene therapy to cure haemophilia (HOPE-B)
Ocular gene therapy to reduce 7 eye injections to 1 for age related macular degeneration (ASCENT)Data pipelines expediting SMA study recruitment to improve early diagnosis of childhood disease
Reducing harm through over prescribing in older people (CHARMER)
Improved surgical outcomes using paediatric surgical robot (VERSUIS)
AI evaluation of myasthenia gravis symptoms from smartphone acquired data.
Improving patient experience and outcomes with development of novel ventilation device (EXOVENT)
Big data analysis of data from >5m ED attendances improving understanding of factors affecting mortality and LOS
Multisite hospital data analysis informing lifesaving surgery for babies with Necrotising enterocolitis
Navigating MedTech pathways to translate a novel ureteric stent from research into regulated marketable medical device (CASSETTE)
Evaluation of risk to improve perioperative care through identification of patterns in large scale data collections (CIPHER)
Benefits of whole team approach to the delivery of bespoke and personalised treatment trials for patients with high risk colorectal cancer BNT122-1

The inaugural SETT conference took place at the Novotel Southampton

Christine McGrath, Managing Director of Wessex Health Partners, opened the final session outlining regional partnerships working to accelerate advances in healthcare through research, innovation and training.

Rachel Savery, Deputy Director of the Advanced Therapies Treatment Centres (ATTC), discussed working closely with SETT to share learning across ATTCs, streamline study set up and prepare for an expansion of ATIMP studies into new areas.

Navigation from innovation to commissioned device is complex and SETT introduced two new projects for MedTech pathway improvement.

Dr Phil Jewel introduced development of a visual and data driven ‘Tube Map’ of Wessex facilities, expertise and resources.
Professor Chris Kipps introduced Innovation Rounds. Learning from successful global leaders, Innovation Rounds will provide forums to identify local clinical innovation, navigate regulatory science, engineering and commercial design and engage industry backing to rapidly progress from trial to implementation.

Mark Heffernan introduced the Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE). Building on SETT Data initiatives, the SDE will provide governed access to research grade data enabling the NHS to maximise the value of clinical data to improve patient care.

Dr Phil Hyde introduced PRANA- an exemplar SDE study using longitudinal multi-agency data from pre-hospital care through surgery to rehab and recovery. Learning will inform care design, major trauma guidelines, incident response, car and road safety design and legislation.

SETT Team members: Mike Dahl, Dr Helena Lee, Dr Rachel Chappell, Prof Chris Kipps, Dr Angus Prosser and Dr Matt Stammers

SETT Conference case study - Automated data pipelines for large scale patient recruitment

The SETT Data & AI team are enhancing capability at UHS with the development of new tools to assist with cohort identification and recruitment. At the SETT conference, Simon Smith and Jamie MacNamara described how four studies have been supported.
- Newborn Screening for SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) is a population-based newborn screening study to evaluate uptake and feasibility of screening in the UK. The Data & AI team created a reproducible data pipeline that was able to quickly identify all potential participants from the Southampton population who had not yet been recruited. The study team targeted a cohort of 600 expectant mothers via text message to inform them and invite them to participate in the study.
- CHARMER is a behavioural and intervention study for the planned and supervised dose reduction of medication that might be causing harm or no longer be of benefit. This is a large-scale study with a national target size of 24,000 across 24 sites with an initial UHS target of 800.
The new data pipeline extracts daily data from the hospital EPR over the enrolment period of 21 months. Geriatric patients might be seen on any one of six specialty wards with care led by five consultants. The data pipeline is reproducible and generates an automatic EDGE upload of real-time data excluding any patients already recruited to CHARMER, or who have opted out of national data sharing. The pipeline is extremely flexible such that when a new consultant joined the team in April, a rapid addition to the code meant that the new patient cohort could quickly be added in.

The hands-off pipeline is run twice daily, 7 days a week, averaging 23 patients added to EDGE every week achieving the initial study target of 800 in 9 months, allowing for an increase of UHS target up to 1,800 over 17 months.
- The Obstetric Bleeding Study UK pipeline identifies 15-20 potential target recruits as well as aggregating and enrolling 400 mothers in EDGE every month.
Building reproducible data extraction pipelines have accelerated recruitment, freeing up research delivery and administrative time as well as providing data quality assurances. Through designing efficient, scalable, and consistent workflows the Data & AI team will be able to repeat and further develop these concepts in future studies for example the upcoming GRACE Multi-centre randomised controlled trial.

Leading tomorrow’s care, today

Dr Rashid Kasmi and patient John Curley discuss the life-changing impact of taking part a haemophilia gene therapy research study

The inaugural SETT conference took place at the Novotel Southampton

SETT Team members: Mike Dahl, Dr Helena Lee, Dr Rachel Chappell, Prof Chris Kipps, Dr Angus Prosser and Dr Matt Stammers