AbbVie - October 2022 - case study 1

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of avoidable blindness in Europe and globally.

Patients require lifelong clinical monitoring; in the United Kingdom this is typically within the Hospital Eye Service. In the COVID era the NHS faces unprecedented demands on ophthalmic services due to a rising patient caseload and significant demand-capacity mismatches occurring nationally across glaucoma care.

It was recommended that the Royal College of Ophthalmologists should agree criteria for the risk stratification of people with glaucoma to ensure practice is standardised across NHS hospital eye services.

The Glauc-Strat-Fast tool has subsequently been reviewed and endorsed as the risk stratification tool of choice by the Professional Standards Committee of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and UK & Eire Glaucoma Society in 2020.

This is a service transformation joint working project between University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and AbbVie Ltd.

The project aims to.

• Accelerate the implementation of a newly developed Risk Stratification concept (Glauc-Strat-Fast) at University Hospitals Birmingham.
• Accelerate the introduction and subsequent implementation of the Risk Stratification concept across the broader ICS footprint.
• Help address the strategic recovery and transformation objectives for Ophthalmology across UHB and the wider healthcare system.
• Provide a qualitative assessment of the process, its challenges and delivery levers for success to provide a blueprint for national adoption and spread.
• Support the HSIB recommendation and enable the Glauc-Strat-Fast tool to be implemented as the national standard for risk stratification in glaucoma in the UK, via an evidence-based framework. The project also aims to provide a national vision for the system-wide changes that will underpin transformation of glaucoma care delivery.

Benefits to Patients:

• Appropriate care delivered in the appropriate setting by the appropriate Health Care Professional.
• Reduced unnecessary visits to hospital.
• Potential to reduce the risk of avoidable blindness.
• Improved patient understanding of their risk of disease progression.
• Appropriate access to treatment.
• Reduced risk of avoidable blindness.

Benefits to NHS:

• Glauc-Strat-Fast can improve overall glaucoma health service delivery by improving risk stratification, enhancing monitoring and enabling more rapid detection.
• The project should enable Glauc-Strat-Fast to be universally adopted as the mechanism for the identification of people at highest risk of sight loss.
• Facilitates the shift left to a non-hospital model.
• Data capture at system level will inform population health needs and facilitate commissioning.

Benefits to Industry:

• The process of risk stratification and prioritisation of patients will help to streamline glaucoma pathways across primary and secondary care in the UK and help to ensure that glaucoma patients and communities receive the appropriate level of resource through evidence-based commissioning.

Opportunity to evidence a partnership of shared value.