Cyted’s test clears endoscopy backlogs and delivers savings in NHS pilot

• Technology cut burden on endoscopy services in Barrett’s patients and delivered savings for the NHS

Diagnostic technology from health company Cyted could reduce NHS endoscopy waiting lists by over 75%, an independent evaluation of a pilot deploying the minimally invasive test in primary care and community settings has found.

“The findings of this report clearly demonstrate the huge positive impact of our technology.” said Cyted CEO and Co-founder Marcel Gehrung. “They show that we can cut waiting times, deliver earlier diagnoses, and help to relieve pressure on health systems still recovering from the pandemic. By making this technology widely available in communities we can diagnose cancer earlier improving patient outcomes”.

The Unity Insights study found Cyted’s test cleared endoscopy backlogs for four hospitals, reduced burdens on endoscopy services and would deliver a positive return on investment for the NHS. It evaluated a pilot project offering surveillance for NHS patients with Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to cancer, in the North West of England in 2022. For five months, Cyted’s capsule sponge test, a minimally invasive alternative to endoscopies, was used to monitor patients in the community.

The test was able to identify low risk Barrett's esophagus surveillance patients who could safely wait for a routine endoscopy, while allowing a subgroup of high-risk patients to be fast-tracked for urgent endoscopies. The Unity Insights report found patients undergoing surveillance were happy to have access to the alternative to endoscopies.

Read more on the Unity Insights reporthere.

The NHS pilot project, called CYTOPRIME, was designed to assess the impact of delivering capsule sponge tests in primary care and community settings and help the recovery of endoscopy services which have been under pressure since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the project, the NHS North West region had the longest waitlist for endoscopy in England, with more than 50% of patients waiting over six weeks for a potentially life-saving diagnostic test.

A total of 150 patients received the capsule sponge test, cutting the number of required endoscopies by 107 and delivering a 31% fall in patients waiting more than six weeks from referral to procedure. The backlog for Barrett's surveillance endoscopy was cleared at four NHS trusts. The implementation and outcomes of the project were modelled over 12 months, and showed the project delivered a significant cost saving. The report calculated that a single local NHS Integrated Care System could save as much as £3.86m over five years by adopting the technology.

The project was funded by SBRI Healthcare in partnership with the Lancashire & South Cumbria Cancer Alliance, the Cheshire & Merseyside and Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Systems, the Innovation Agency (North West Coast Academic Health Science Network), Unity Insights and Medtronic.

Interested in starting capsule sponge testing in your organisation?

Please get in touch: hello@cyted.ai