Datnexa's Response to New NICE Guidance

As the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) releases its updated guidance on falls assessment and prevention in older people and in people 50 and over at higher risk, Datnexa welcomes this comprehensive approach to reducing falls and related hospital admissions for older and at-risk people. The new guidelines, published on 29 April represent a significant step forward in addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing our healthcare system today.

The Growing Impact of Falls on UK Healthcare

Falls remain a major public health concern with far-reaching implications for individuals, healthcare services, and the broader economy. The statistics are sobering: approximately one-third of people aged 65 and over fall at least once a year, increasing to nearly half of those aged 80 and over. In 2022/23 alone, England saw around 210,000 emergency hospital admissions related to falls for people aged 65+, with 146,700 of these involving individuals aged 80 and over.

The financial burden is equally significant. The total annual cost of fragility fractures to the UK has been estimated at £4.4 billion, including £1.1 billion for social care, with hip fractures accounting for around £2 billion of this sum. Beyond these direct costs lies the immeasurable human impact – the loss of independence, confidence, and quality of life experienced by those who fall.

Datnexa's Proactive Approach to Identifying Frailty

At Datnexa, we have been at the forefront of developing innovative, data-driven solutions to identifying frailty, providing adult social care teams with neighbourhood and household level data that enables early intervention to mitigate the risk of falls. Our National Frailty Index (NFIX) for England and Wales exemplifies our commitment to transforming preventative healthcare through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.

'We've hit upon this idea of looking within as many data sets as we could get our hands on to try and do something good,' explains Adam Dustagheer, Managing Director of Datnexa, regarding the genesis of NFIX. This ambitious project aims to identify those individuals at the highest risk of falling within the next two years, potentially saving lives and reducing the burden on healthcare systems.

What sets our approach apart is its unprecedented scale and granularity. By analysing data and validating it with local experts for over 3.1 million households, we've created a tool that provides insights at both national and local levels. This enables targeted interventions that are both efficient and effective.

Aligning with NICE Guidance: A Data-Enhanced Approach

The new NICE guidance emphasises personalised assessments that consider multiple factors, including home hazards and medical history – an approach that perfectly complements Datnexa's data-driven methodology. While the guidance recommends checks carried out by occupational therapists or appropriately trained healthcare professionals, our NFIX system can enhance this process by pre-identifying areas of frailty, areas where falls are most likely to occur.

This proactive identification allows for more efficient allocation of limited healthcare resources, ensuring that those most in need receive timely interventions. It also supports the guidance's recommendation for comprehensive falls assessments for people who have fallen in the past year, are living with frailty, or have experienced multiple falls.

Beyond Prediction: Holistic Solutions for Intervention and Prevention

The NICE guidance highlights the multifactorial nature of falls risk, recommending interventions ranging from home modifications to medication reviews and targeted exercise programs. At Datnexa, we believe that effective falls prevention requires this holistic approach, supported by robust data analytics.

Our work extends beyond identifying frailty. We're collaborating with healthcare providers, local authorities, and social care organisations to develop integrated prevention strategies that address multiple risk factors simultaneously. This includes supporting the implementation of evidence-based falls prevention exercises and home modification programs, both key recommendations in the NICE guidance.

The Future of Falls Prevention: A Call to Collaboration

The publication of the new NICE guidance represents a pivotal moment in falls prevention. At Datnexa, we see this as an opportunity to strengthen partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem and scale our innovative approach to benefit more at-risk individuals.

'Is our approach perfect? No. Is it pretty good? Yeah. Can it be used to start making an impact? Absolutely,' notes Dustagheer with characteristic candour. This pragmatic perspective underpins our commitment to continuous improvement and real-world impact.

We invite healthcare commissioners, providers, and policymakers to join us in leveraging the power of data to implement the NICE recommendations more effectively. By combining clinical expertise with advanced analytics, we can create a more responsive, targeted approach to falls prevention that improves outcomes while maximising the value of limited healthcare resources.

Data-Driven Prevention for a Better Tomorrow

As the population ages, the challenge of falls prevention will only grow more pressing. The new NICE guidance provides a robust framework for addressing this challenge, and at Datnexa, we're committed to enhancing its implementation through our data-driven approach.

By identifying those with greatest frailty, supporting targeted interventions, and continuously refining our predictive models, we can help create a healthcare system that's not just reactive but truly preventative. This embodies our core philosophy: Big ideas, Bold Technology, for a Better Tomorrow.

Together, we can transform falls prevention from a resource-intensive challenge into an opportunity to demonstrate the power of predictive analytics in creating more efficient, effective healthcare interventions that improve lives and reduce costs.