Exeter, UK, 06/05/2024
South West-founded Lutra Health has raised £400,000 from QantX and a syndicate of angels to support the commercial rollout of their platform as the definitive tool for community eyecare.
The concepts underpinning Lutra Health were developed by Consultant Ophthalmologist and Founder Sam Evans, who saw huge inefficiencies in ophthalmology, the highest volume specialty in the NHS, with over 7 million care episodes per year. A key issue is the disconnect between primary and secondary care (in this case, optometry and ophthalmology). This disconnect has resulted in delays and increasing levels of irreversible sight loss and made worse by the COVID-19 backlog, with over half a million patients waiting more than a year for treatment.
For common eyecare procedures, such as cataract surgery, patients were making multiple trips to the hospital. To reduce the number of hospital visits, Sam began leveraging the expertise of community optometrists by requesting “enhanced” cataract referrals and patient questionnaires. This additional information allowed Sam to accurately triage patients instead of requiring a pre-operative hospital visit.
When trialled in West Wales on 1,500 cataract patients, this method achieved a 75% reduction in outpatient visits. This was a huge financial and productivity gain for the hospital and made the procedure more convenient for patients – many of whom must travel a significant distance to reach their nearest hospital.
By utilising community optometry to manage chronic conditions such as Glaucoma and Macula disease, there are even greater gains to be made for the healthcare system. The results of this will be reduced waiting time and improved long term outcomes for patients, as well as improved cost efficiency for both public and private healthcare systems.
To scale this concept, Sam co-founded Lutra Health with Conor Ramsden, a fellow Consultant Ophthalmologist and Charles Solanki. With funding from the QantX Blavatnik Prize for Innovation, Lutra launched its community eyecare platform – connecting patients, optometrists and eye surgeons. This is now in use in NHS Scotland with remarkable results, demonstrating a 91% reduction in cataract outpatient visits and reduction in referral-to-listing time from over 6 months to just 11 days.
Lutra Health is enabling end-to-end pathway management for patients and collecting key datasets in one place. The result is quicker and more efficient eyecare pathways.
Following their raise, Lutra are continuing to develop their platform for roll out across NHS boards, private healthcare providers and leading high street opticians.
Sam Evans, Co-founder, commented:
The investment and support we have received from QantX has turbo boosted this business. The challenges involved in starting a business in this sector are not insignificant, but with the combination of cash and deep sector knowledge that QantX bring we are in a great position to grown quickly. It was fantastic to have their support early on when we won the Blavatnik Prize, and now with this equity investment they are really backing up that early faith in our team and product.
Roger Killen, QantX Partner, commented:
We met Lutra Health in 2022 and were excited by their idea of engaging high street optometry to improve productivity of Ophthalmic specialists, whilst saving money for the NHS and halving patient waits. We awarded the team with a Blavatnik Prize for Innovation to prove out their concept. Their trial exceeded expectations and we’re delighted to make our first investment in the Company. I look forward to working with the team to maximise their positive impact on eye care.
About Lutra Health Ltd | Media enquiries: charles@lutrahealth.com
Learn more about Lutra: www.lutrahealth.com
About QantX | Media enquiries: harryalexander@qantx.co.uk
QantX is a South West-focused venture capital firm investing in globally impactful innovations across sectors improving outcomes in health and sustainability. QantX are committed to fostering exceptional talent, bold innovation, and transformative solutions.
Learn more about QantX: www.QantX.co.uk