By Martin Heath, BBC News, Cambridgeshire
PocDocA diagnostics company has announced it has developed an at-home heart test that can provide the NHS with results within minutes.
PocDoc, which is based in Cambridge, said its kit would help the NHS make digital health checks available across the UK.
The test provides patients with a cholesterol reading, a body mass index score and heart data, which includes the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke.
The NHS said each digital health check could save 20 minutes of doctors’ time, which would free up thousands of GP appointments.
Cardiovascular disease currently costs the health service £7.4bn a year and the wider economy £15.8bn.
The government announced a digital health check programme last year, which was designed to deliver a million tests over four years, in addition to the face-to-face checks that were already being carried out.
The kit developed by PocDoc is the first test to be integrated with the NHS Health Check app.
It will enable patients to carry out tests at home and share the results with the NHS in around nine minutes.
The test has already been rolled out in pharmacies and community centres in several areas including Cambridge and Peterborough.
PocDoc said it had proved to be successful in reaching “at risk” groups, such as the over 40s, people who are overweight and those who find it difficult to access GP appointments.
Steve Roest, the co-founder of PocDoc, said: “When I was 14, my dad had a huge stroke due to undiagnosed cardiovascular disease which had a catastrophic impact on our family, so I’ve always felt extremely passionate about the disease area.”
He added that results so far showed that using the test could save the NHS £0.5bn a year and “families [would be] prevented from going through what we went through when I was 14”.
Louise Jopling, from Health Innovation East, said: “For NHS staff, it’s freeing up time, a huge amount of time saved.
“For patients, it’s the convenience of testing at home, not having to try to get a GP appointment.”
Jason Wilson, who has a young son, tried the test and got an unpleasant surprise.
He said: “It showed I was in the obese category, which was a bit shocking, so I started running at lunchtime, I bought a treadmill and [started] drinking more water.
“I’ve lost two stone, which is a great feeling.”