Health Innovation West of England is working with University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) to re-establish a system to improve patient outcomes.
The Patient Access Support System (PASS) is a a digital management workflow tool, which a network of nine trusts previously used to maintain records of families with a diagnosis of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). Our Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Programme team supported colleagues at UHBW in a successful bid for funding to re-establish use of the system.
There is currently a disparity in the provision of FH services, both accessing genetic testing for index cases and cascade testing of family members, with PASS connectivity becoming dormant in early 2024 due to funding and data management challenges.
The new funding will allow the Lipids team at UHBW to cover the salary costs of a new innovative National PASS Clinical Co-ordinator role. Their responsibility will be to lead the re-instatement of the system for the network of NHS acute trusts who previously used it, unlocking and growing over ten years of valuable and potentially life-saving clinical data for people with an inherited cholesterol condition.
Dr Eloise Willis, Consultant Chemical Pathologist and project lead, commented: “Restoring use of this essential digital tool for cascade testing of this condition through families, will strengthen collaborative working between FH services, and their partnerships with the genomic labs, to improve identification rates and reduce cardiovascular disease.”
Further funding is being pursued to support a second year for the role, where the aim will be to enlarge and financially sustain a network of trusts using PASS so it becomes a vital infrastructure that more and more families can benefit from across the country.
David Evans, Deputy Director, Health Innovation West of England said: “We are thankful for our colleagues at Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria who organised the funding scheme that will allow the team at UHBW to re-connect and grow a network of provider organisations using PASS. The enthusiasm, passion and determination to succeed for the benefit of their patients resulted in Eloise and the team producing a high quality and ultimately successful funding application.”
Lisa Gritzmacher, an FH nurse specialist at UHBW, has successfully secured the role of PASS Co-ordinator following a competitive recruitment process.
Posted on July 3, 2025
