It will invest more than £6 million in the programme to help people with Type 2 diabetes, stroke patients and babies born with a rare genetic condition.
The Scottish government has said that more than £6 million will be invested as part of the Accelerated National Innovations Adoption (ANIA) programme to help people with Type 2 diabetes, stroke patients and babies born with a rare genetic condition.
A national digital-intensive weight management programme will support 3,000 people recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. With £4.5 million invested over three years, the project is expected to help around 40% to achieve remission from the condition by the end of their first year in the programme.
A further £1.1 million will support testing of recent stroke patients to determine if they have a genetic variation that impairs the benefits of a drug commonly prescribed to reduce the risk of secondary stroke which would mean an alternative drug should be considered for them.
A third programme to provide a genetic test for newborn babies will also receive £800,000 funding to determine if they have a genetic variation which puts them at risk of permanent hearing loss if they are treated with a common emergency antibiotic.
Positive results expected
The Type 2 Diabetes remission programme involves diet replacements such as soups, shakes or bars containing around 900 calories a day for the first 12 weeks.
Participants will then receive intensive online support from dietitians, as well as health and well-being coaches as they reintroduce healthy, nutritious food to their diet to maintain weight loss over the 12-month programme.
The programme has said that 3,000 patients will be supported over three years and expectations are that the majority will benefit from an average 10% weight loss and reduction in blood pressure.
The first patients will be recruited into this programme in January next year.
Following a successful trial in NHS Tayside, patients who have had a stroke will receive a lab-based genetic test to identify if they are one of the 30% of people with a genetic variation that means they do not respond to a drug commonly prescribed to reduce the risk of a secondary stroke.
This programme will begin in October and be rolled out across the country within 12 months.
Once fully implemented, the programme will test around 60,000 patients over a three-year period, with an estimated 20,000 given a different drug which will work for them.
Building on a successful trial at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, in the third programme, newborn babies will receive a point-of-care genetic test to establish whether they are one of the 0.2% at risk of permanent hearing loss if they are treated with a common emergency antibiotic.
This programme will begin in October and be rolled out within 18 months.
Once fully adopted over 3,000 newborn babies a year will be tested, with those that require an alternative antibiotic receiving it.
