Simplyhealth makes second significant investment of 2022 by taking stake in Ampersand Health
The UK’s leading health and dental plan provider Simplyhealth, has announced it has invested in Ampersand, provider of digital therapies for inflammatory conditions. This collaboration will help accelerate the adoption of digital therapeutics in the UK, reducing outpatient appointments, improving health outcomes and cutting unplanned hospital visits for patients suffering with a broad range of inflammatory conditions.
Ampersand helps clinicians a patients to manage and monitor chronic, inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s, arthritis and psoriasis. The organisation, founded less than four years ago and scaling quickly, works with scientists, clinicians and dozens of leading NHS Trusts, to deploy behavioural science-based interventions that improve quality of life and mental health[1]; and to implement “hospital at home” pathways that increase hospital capacity by 30-50% and reduce A&E visits by 89%.[2]
This revolutionary technology has been developed in partnership with Barts Health and King’s College Hospital NHS Trusts, with support from Innovate UK, NHSX and a number of national charities.
At Simplyhealth we strive to accelerate the development and adoption of preventative and predictive medicine in the UK and platforms such as Ampersand are at the forefront of this new healthcare paradigm. Through innovative technology such as Ampersand, we are enabling those living with long-term health conditions, to take control of their health. Along with OcuPlan, we couldn’t be more excited to have these start-ups within Simplyhealth’s ecosystem.
600m people worldwide live with an inflammatory disease. These diseases place a significant, lifelong burden on patients and on the systems of care around them. We’re looking forward to addressing these challenges in partnership with – and with investment from – Simplyhealth. We’re confident that our shared commitment to putting the patient at the centre of their care will enhance our impact and catalyse significant financial returns.
[1] Moran, R. et al. PTH-16 Life in Lockdown: supported self-management of IBD increases disease control through My IBD Care. https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/Suppl_4/A178.2. Last accessed 29 April 2022.
[2] Parkes, G. et al. My IBD care, a digital therapeutic for IBD, is safe and effective: Case-control study in two UK centres. https://www.nxtbook.com/ueg/UEG/Journal2021/index.php?startid=467#/p/466. Last accessed 29 April 2022.
About Simplyhealth
Since 1872, we’ve been helping people make the most of life through better everyday health. Our health plans make sure individuals, families and employees can easily access in-person and virtual wellbeing services and afford to stay healthy by claiming costs back on dental treatments, visits to the optician, complementary therapies and much more.
Today we’re the UK’s leading health solutions company, with almost 1000 colleagues serving 2.3 million customers. We don’t have shareholders, so we’re led by our purpose of improving access to healthcare, for the many, for the long term. We’re passionate about using our voice in public health affairs and partnering with charities to reduce health inequality – each year we commit to giving 10% of pre-tax profits to a range of community causes. And we ensure our business takes care of the planet too, achieving Carbon Neutral + status in 2021.
To find out more, visit www.simplyhealth.co.uk
About Ampersand Health
Ampersand Health is a social purpose company, founded by doctors and patients to light the path to remission for people with long-term inflammatory conditions. The company works with clinicians, scientists and industry to develop a new generation of personalised behavioural therapies and out of hospital care for people with immune-mediated diseases like Crohn’s, Colitis, Arthritis and Psoriasis.
Ampersand Health is recognised in the Digital Health Global 100, the DIT First 100 and has won awards from Innovate UK, the NHS, NHSX, the Health Service Journal and many others.
To find out more visit www.ampersandhealth.co.uk