Promptly Health, a company incubated at UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto, has announced a strategic partnership with one of the largest entities in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) – the NHS Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust. The partnership aims to build a secure digital environment for interoperable data to accelerate research and encourage therapeutic innovation within the institution.

Promptly Health supports healthcare organisations through a platform that collects and analyses different types of data so that it can be accessed and used securely and privately. It develops proprietary technology for patient engagement, population health management, decentralised research and results analysis.

As one of the largest organisations in the British NHS, NHS Newcastle holds large volumes of clinical data generated from providing healthcare to over 2 million citizens. However, this information is fragmented across different computer systems, often in different formats and structures, making it difficult to consolidate and use efficiently.

Promptly Health’s solution will enable the cataloguing and harmonisation of this health data in accordance with international standardised vocabularies, ensuring that clinical teams, researchers and partners can access and analyse the information in accordance with best data protection practices.

“We see this partnership as a responsibility: to support this infrastructure with technology capable of providing accessible, secure and high-quality data”, says Pedro Ramos, CEO of Promptly Health. “I am confident that we will be able to promote more collaborative research and drive innovations with a real impact on the lives of patients and their families”, he adds.

Promptly Health: innovation in the healthcare sector

In Portugal, Promptly Health already has seven partners, including the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Coimbra, the ULS Lisboa Ocidental, the ULS of the Hospital de Santo António and the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO) in Porto. In these units, the company has implemented projects ranging from the creation of a data network for the development of models to assess the impact of new drugs for cancer treatment to artificial intelligence algorithms to digitise and structure doctors’ free-text clinical notes.

This year, the company wants to strengthen its international growth in a sustainable way through new partnerships in Spain and the United Kingdom, in both the public and private sectors. In addition, it intends to formalise its entry into more key markets in Europe, such as France, Germany and the Nordic countries, with the aim of closing 2025 with more than 50 partners in the Promptly network.