Alder Hey Innovation, Based at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, to Develop a Cardiac Home Monitoring Programme in Partnership with Objectivity Ltd.

Alder Hey Innovation is developing a bespoke Cardiac Home Monitoring programme — “Little Hearts at Home” — to be implemented across the North West Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Network.

The “Little Hearts at Home” remote monitoring solution will enable newborns and infants with severe congenital heart defects to receive proactive and preventative care within the comfort of their homes.

The bespoke software solution developed in partnership with Objectivity Ltd. will aim to increase early interventions and reduce emergency admissions, leading to more babies being able to leave the hospital environment and return home with their families.

The “Little Hearts at Home” system will include:

These features will help transform existing post-operative processes into a more proactive and preventative model of patient care, leading to a better patient experience and better outcomes.

"This project is very meaningful to us as it is at the core of what we are trying to achieve: enabling little babies to spend more time with their families and get the treatment they need, closer to home.

The Innovation Centre at Alder Hey Children’s hospital is a really special and unique place. We’re dedicated to bringing new technology into healthcare for the benefit of children and young people”.

“Objectivity Ltd. has vast experience in helping NHS and private healthcare organisations meet their digital innovation goals and we are excited to be realising this important project together”.

The Healthcare Division of Objectivity is led by Andrew Smith, Director of Healthcare Services at Objectivity. With regard to the “Little Hearts at Home” project, he said:

“Objectivity Ltd. is a values-driven company and as such, it is an honour to work alongside Alder Hey on an initiative that helps to deliver the Quadruple Aim of healthcare. We are excited to help Alder Hey support newborns and infants to receive proactive and preventative care closer to home. Alder Hey is looking to the future of care and how best to support children and their families and we are proud to be a part of that journey”.

The company’s healthcare technology team who is working on the project has recently concluded the Discovery Phase during which they met with Alder Hey’s cardiologists and cardiac specialist nurses as well as with the parents of paediatric patients. The discussions they held have helped them to better understand each group’s unique perspectives and expectations for “Little Hearts at Home”.

“The feedback we have received from the team assigned to this project has been overwhelmingly positive — everyone involved is thrilled to be working on this wonderful initiative”, adds Andrew.

“Little Hearts at Home” has recently received the Digital Health Partnership Award granted to NHS organisations in England whose aim is to adopt digital health technologies that support patients at home. During Phase 2 of the awards, launched in November 2021, “Little Hearts at Home” was chosen as one of 27 projects to receive funding from the Digital Health Partnership.

The project is already underway, and many new developments are in store for the near future. For regular updates on the “Little Hearts at Home” initiative, follow Alder Hey Innovation and Objectivity Ltd. on social media:

Alder Hey Innovation is the largest, dedicated, purpose built, hospital led innovation centre in the UK. Alder Hey Children’s NHS Trust has a proud history of innovation spanning over a hundred years.

Today we continue that legacy pioneering the use of cutting-edge technology and innovating to save lives and improve the life chances of today’s child. Our ambition is to be the world leader in advancing child health with innovation, utilising our unique hospital-based innovation centre, disrupting, discovering and disseminating to have real impact.

Our mission is to solve the real-world healthcare problems children and young people face today, creating fair access to care and enabling a healthier future for all.

Our unique strengths lie in our experience to innovate and disrupt, with a strong track record of rapid problem solving, creating an end-to-end pipeline and process from problem identification and solutions through to commercial income.

Our strategy is fueled by a bespoke open innovation system, to rapidly identify real-world problems and bring the right partners together to solve those with innovative and disruptive technology. Our co-creation approach involves scouting and partnering with local and international industry and academia, bringing the most innovative technology and solutions to Alder Hey, where we strive for excellence and breakthroughs in healthcare.

Objectivity Ltd., established in 1991, is a values-driven technology partner specialising in bespoke software. By providing professional IT services, we aim to help organisations create a genuine business advantage that leverages the newest technologies and innovative thinking.

As your software development partner, we’re able to deliver a wide range of bespoke solutions and services: web & desktop apps, cloud, AI & ML, consulting, maintenance, etc.

When realising your projects, we focus on establishing a close and collaborative working relationship with you and your teams to ensure maximum efficiency and business need alignment.

Our ethical framework centres on win-win for all the people and organisations that we work with. We use it to create sustainable long-term relationships with all our stakeholders in many different sectors: healthcare, public services, retail, manufacturing, etc.

By partnering with us, you can be sure that we’ll deliver the value you seek, working in line with our company’s deeply-rooted principles: Win­-Win, People, Integrity, Excellence, and Agility.

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust provides care for over 330,000 children and young people every year. Alder Hey delivers clinical excellence for all children, for routine illnesses as well as very complex and rare conditions.

One of four stand-alone children’s hospitals in the UK, it is a national centre for neuro and craniofacial surgery, a regional centre for burns injuries and a Centre of Excellence for children with cancer, heart, spinal and brain disease. Alder Hey as an NIHR funded Clinical Research Facility (CRF) that specialises in the design, and delivery, of early phase drug trials in children with a wide range of conditions.

The Trust is one of only four epilepsy surgical centres in the UK and one of only two accredited major trauma centres in the North West. Alder Hey is also a respiratory Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) surge centre and is the referral centre for the treatment of congenital heart defects in North West England, North Wales and Isle of Man. It became the first UK Centre of Excellence for Childhood Lupus in 2010.

Alder Hey is the first accredited Investing in Children hospital in the UK. It has a dedicated patient experience programme which includes the award-winning Alder Hey Arts involving music therapy, dance programmes, storytelling and animation projects. It is also one of a few hospitals to have a Children and Young Person’s Forum.

Alder Hey opened a new hospital ‘Alder Hey in the Park’ in 2015. Europe’s first hospital in a park, the new facility provides a purpose-built, unique and world class healing environment for children and young people.

Alder Hey is supported by The Alder Hey Children’s Charity which aims to raise vital funds for lifesaving equipment, research projects and patient experience initiatives.

For more information visit www.alderhey.nhs.uk and www.alderheycharity.org