Appropriately launched on Valentine’s Day in 2021, CUPID saved the NHS £58.2 million in just 12 months. Through the CUPID dashboard, users can identify and accelerate savings via a suite of actionable analytics tools. Furthermore, through a data-enabled process, business leaders and strategic suppliers can identify preferred devices, translate clinician consensus into a cost-saving procurement exercise and track trust and supplier performance against contracted commitments.
When the project started, the Health Solutions Team (HST) only had 1.5 full-time analysts, a budget of £13,000 and a six-month timeline to bring CUPID to life. Additionally, the team had to handle multiple sources of disjointed data inputs, which was of pivotal importance as one of the targets for CUPID was to become the “single source of truth” for clinical and commercial decision-making which required upmost trust in the system.
Kate Turner, deputy director devices programme, NHS England and NHS Improvement, said: “Without a doubt, the CUPID tool is a game-changer in identifying opportunities for cost-effective, clinically supported changes in purchasing high cost, complex medical devices. This will directly impact on patient outcomes by helping to identify opportunities for change and importantly recovery of services following the impact of Covid-19 over the last two years.”
In the short time it has been running, CUPID has transformed the depth and quality of information for stakeholders and the wider NHS, as well as clinicians verbalising their eagerness for the insights provided into best-practice device pricing and utilisation and additional clinical insights.
