East Midlands pioneered ADHD technology recommended in new NICE guidance  

Posted by: Jamie Sharp - Posted on:

Health Innovation East Midlands

New guidance published on 21 October 2024 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the use of QbTest to assist in the assessment of ADHD in children and young people.   

The guidance, published during ADHD Awareness Month, coincides with the news that one million patients worldwide have benefited from QbTest.  

The digital tool can significantly reduce the time to diagnosis of ADHD for children and young people – and since being spread across the NHS in England from 2020 it has benefited over 70,000 people, saving the NHS an estimated £38.5 million.  

The rapid national rollout of QbTest, developed by innovator Qbtech, is based on a collaboration between the company, Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM), the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands, and the NIHR MindTech HealthTech Research Centre.  

The ground-breaking computerised assessment tool measures all three core components of ADHD – attention, impulsivity, and activity.   

In 2013, NIHR ARC East Midlands funded a randomised controlled trial “AQUA-Trial” which was led by NIHR MindTech HealthTech Research Centre. The study found that adding QbTest to the standard assessment process made clinicians’ ADHD diagnostic decisions 44% faster without any loss of accuracy and increased confidence in their decisions.  

  

Building on these findings, HIEM piloted the technology across three East Midlands NHS mental health trusts, demonstrating its ability to both reduce diagnosis time and generate significant cost savings by minimising the number of appointments required.   

This laid the foundation for broader adoption by England’s 15 Health Innovation Networks (HINs), leading to its rollout from April 2020- March 2023.   

The technology rapidly gained traction and between April 2020 and March 2024 the national impacts included:  

  • 95,097 hours of healthcare capacity released across the NHS.  
  • 41,582 clinical appointments saved.  
  • 71,102 children and young people benefited.  
  • 79 NHS trusts using the technology, three quarters of all English trusts that provide ADHD services.  
  • £38.5 million estimated NHS cost savings achieved.  

The success of this national rollout has provided Qbtech with a strong basis for global expansion and in October 2024 QbTest reached the milestone of 1 million patients benefiting worldwide.  

In addition, an evaluation of the national NHS rollout of QbTest – led by Dr Charlotte Hall from NIHR MindTech HealthTech Research Centre and published by BMC Health Services Research – further evidences the clinical efficiency of the technology.  

Nicole McGlennon, Managing Director of Health Innovation East Midlands, said: “We welcome the latest guidance from NICE. This is an example of the fantastic results of close and effective collaboration between research and innovation partners – working together to build an evidence base and then drive the implementation of technologies that transform patient outcomes and generate NHS savings.  

“From the initial East Midlands pilot programme across three local NHS trusts, within a couple of years via the 15 Health Innovation Networks we are close to 100 per cent implementation across the NHS in England, benefiting more than 70,000 children and young people and saving valuable NHS resources”.  

Key highlights from the NICE guidance include:   

  • Robust Validation – Effectiveness is supported by data from the AQUA trial (Hollis, Hall, 2018) and other significant papers, ensuring its suitability for faster clinical decision-making, without compromising accuracy.  
  • Cost-effective – The QbTest strategy shows an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of £6,184 per quality-adjusted life year gained. The committee concluded that QbTest was likely to be cost effective when used alongside standard clinical assessment by a healthcare professional to help diagnose ADHD in children and young people.  
  • Positive patient experiences – Research highlights the significant impact of QbTest results in enhancing communication for clinicians and understanding of ADHD diagnoses for families and young people. Through increased acceptance, reduced complaints against diagnostic decisions and assessment experience.   
  • Detecting subtle clinical data improves equity of care and reduces bias – By detecting subtle clinical data with highly visual outputs, QbTest is especially beneficial for individuals with language or communication difficulties, ensuring an inclusive and accurate assessment process. Healthcare professionals also found QbTest helpful when assessing people with subtle presentation (common in girls and women) and supporting a diagnosis when there were comorbidities. Detecting subtle clinical information in the data and reports. Patient experts also noted that tests may help diagnosis in groups in which symptom masking is prevalent, such as particular ethnic backgrounds and cultures.”  

Read the full NICE guidance here.  

For more information visit www.Qbtech.com or visit the Health Innovation East Midlands website for more information about the transforming ADHD diagnosis programme.