Dr Paul Upton, who completed the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme in 2023, is the CEO and co-founder of Ultramed, one of the 148 national organisations to be royally recognised. The King’s Award programme, now in its 57th year, is the most prestigious business award in the country.

Commenting on the award, Dr Paul Upton said: “In 2020 I was awarded a Fellowship on the NIA programme. For three years I benefited from personal coaching and support alongside business advice, training and mentoring. This, with the fantastic network of NIA Fellows supported Ultramed to flourish, becoming the market leading digital preoperative solution in the UK. This was recognised in being awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.”.

Each NIA Fellow and their innovation are selected through a robust, multi-stage application and assessment process involving an expert panel of clinical, patient and commercial assessors.  Paul was awarded an NIA Fellowship for his MyPreOp® innovation, which works to reduce unnecessary hospital appointments by facilitating a one-stop, patient-led preoperative assessment.

Before someone undergoes an operation, their fitness needs to be assessed by a registered nurse. Paul, who previously worked as a consultant anaesthetist, noted that a lot of his team’s time was spent collecting information from the patient and that many hospitals have paper-based systems which cannot automatically process the information or give guidance to the assessing nurse on what preoperative tests and actions might be needed. To address some of these issues he co-founded MyPreOp®.  The software removes the need for up to 50% of patients to attend in person for a preoperative assessment. Patients complete an online questionnaire, with algorithms ensuring a consistent approach to questions and decisions on tests or actions, which might need to be taken by the clinician. The hospital’s preoperative assessment capacity can increase by 40%, as has been achieved at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.

Commenting on the impact of the system, Craig Brown,Head of Elective Transformation Programme at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust said: “Working with Paul and the team at Ultramed has been a joy and a true collaboration between professional teams. They have enabled London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust to deliver a true stepwise transformation in how we provide Pre-Operative Assessments for our local multi-cultural communities. Their commitment to our team ensures we have high quality training, insights from other Ultramed users, and full digital integration to support the operational teams. The benefits our patients and clinical teams have gained through working with Ultramed would never have been delivered without their innovation and customer support.”

National NHS Innovation Accelerator Director Konrad Dobschuetz said: “The whole NIA team is absolutely delighted for Paul, who has been an exemplar Fellow of the program. The first thought that came to mind when I heard the news was how hard Paul and his team have worked over the years to change patients’ lives on a daily basis and improve the NHS. This drive to do better is part and parcel of why we all do what we do. I would also like to congratulate all other winners and runners up. You are all playing a crucial role in innovation in the UK – thank you.”

The King’s Awards for Enterprise were previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. The new name reflects His Majesty The King’s desire to continue the legacy of HM Queen Elizabeth II’s by recognising outstanding UK businesses.

The NIA is an award-winning NHS England initiative, working to support NHS Long Term Plan priorities by accelerating uptake of promising innovations for patient, population and NHS staff benefit, and help business growth. It is commissioned by the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative, hosted by UCLPartners and delivered in partnership with the AHSN Network. To date, the NIA has supported the scaling of 85 innovations spread across 2,882 locations of England’s NHS. This has created 1,102 new jobs. Close to 60 NIA-supported innovations have been successfully marketed internationally.