Projects and Programmes

The AHSC will focus its efforts on areas and activities where there is academic strength and capability in the partnership, health needs in North West London (and beyond) and opportunities for impact.

Aligning with the national focus on treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital, the AHSC will develop and deliver initiatives with a two-to-three-year timeframe. 

Four common threads: health equity, productivity, environmental sustainability and precision medicine will be embedded in these AHSC work programmes.

Obesity prevention

Obesity is a major public health concern in the UK. It is estimated that around one in four adults and one in every five children aged 10 to 11 are living with obesity.

In adults, obesity is associated with conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

The AHSC’s obesity project will bring together academic experts with NHS Trust, Integrated Care System and Imperial College Health Partners stakeholders to help support  commissioning and clinical decision making on the most effective interventions for obesity and cardiometabolic conditions such as stroke and heart attacks. This work will include consideration of new drugs such as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Early diagnosis of cancer

One in two people will develop some type of cancer during their lifetime.

Early cancer detection can significantly improve the chances of successful treatments and long-term survival. 

The AHSC will focus on early detection and diagnosis of cancers and will build capabilities to do this through the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research Unit (CEPRU) – collaborations between Imperial College London and The Institute of Cancer Research – and the two National Institute for Health and Care Research Centres at Imperial College London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The institute of Cancer Research.

Imperial and The Institute of Cancer Research have extensive experience of harnessing knowledge and expertise across different scientific disciplines to develop and evaluate new disease detection tools and diagnostic approaches. The AHSC will draw upon this capability to support North West London Integrated Care System’s cancer programmes, as well as trial and roll-out promising tools and capability developed within the AHSC partnership.