Agentis Health Group (‘the Group’), a UK-based digital health management specialist, officially launches today with the acquisition of Living With, a leading digital health company specialising in condition-specific therapeutics and remote patient assessment, management and rehabilitation. This marks the Group’s first strategic move in bringing together the critical services needed to strengthen its digital therapeutics offer and transform long-term condition management for the NHS.

Established from within Ashtons – a leading UK provider of medicines management and prescribing technologies – the Group has been created to deliver better health outcomes for people living with long-term conditions. It will encompass three core service areas: Agentis Healthcare, Agentis Therapeutics and Agentis Diagnostics. Living With, along with Ashtons Virtual Hub and Primary Care Services, will sit within Agentis Healthcare.

With a focus on chronic conditions relevant to NHS primary care, such as heart failure, COPD and diabetes, Agentis Health Group brings together a unique blend of expertise across clinical and digital excellence, therapeutics and healthcare management, medicines management and diagnostics. With the offer of managing long-term condition pathways end-to-end, Agentis Health Group is building a single, scalable platform designed to help the NHS deliver smarter, more joined-up care.

 

Stephen Tuddenham, Chief Executive Officer of Agentis Health Group, said:

“Over the past 40 years, Ashtons has proven the merits of a pharmacist-led approach to managing conditions and preventing ill health. Building on these strong foundations, we’ve engineered an organisation which is ideally structured to help address one of the most urgent challenges in NHS healthcare, and help the NHS deliver its ten-year plan to shift ‘from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention’.

“Bringing Living With into our group means we can offer even more of what the NHS needs, all in one place. With our strong heritage, our expertise, and the acquisition of Living With, we’re hitting the ground running.”

 

 

“We’re excited about the next step in our journey,” said Chris Robson, CEO, Living With.

“Joining Agentis Health Group brings together Living With’s remote patient management and digital therapeutics platform with the Group’s medicines management, diagnostics, therapeutics, clinical and digital expertise. It creates a joined‑up, vertically integrated model for long‑term condition management that can help the NHS and other UK providers deliver the service transformation patients need. Above all, it unlocks the full potential of what we’ve built – giving us the scale, expertise and resources to grow faster, deliver more value for customers, and be an even better place to work.”

 

Ashtons will continue to serve more than 300 hospitals and care providers under the group’s specialist Agentis Therapeutics division, while the Agentis Healthcare division will focus on expanding the Group’s offer to NHS primary care, integrated care systems and commissioners. Agentis Diagnostics offers relevant testing and diagnostics services to both NHS and independent healthcare providers, supporting the end-to-end management of long-term-condition pathways. With this structure, Agentis Health Group is uniquely positioned to help the NHS achieve its long-term ambitions: improving health outcomes, enhancing patient experience, preventing ill health and easing frontline pressures.

 

For more information or to discuss interview opportunities, please contact our press office which is managed by our communications partners, MIH Group:

Jo Yeaman

+44 (0)7813 941933

Jo.yeaman@mihgroup.co.uk

Louise Invine-Rawlins

+44 (0)7757 697609

Louise.Invine-Rawlins@mihgroup.co.uk

 

 

Notes to Editors

1. The national NHS challenge: long-term conditions

As shown in the table below, long-term-conditions continue to account for the majority of NHS activity and cost*:

Area	Proportion linked to LTCs
Health and care spending (England)	~70% of total
Patient population	~30% with at least one LTC ~25% with two or more LTCs
GP consultations	>50%
Outpatient visits	~65%
Hospital bed occupancy	~70%
GP appointments per month	~16 million (LTC-related)
Annual cost to NHS of managing a person with one condition With two conditions With three conditions	~£3,000 ~£6,000 ~£8,000
Annual LTC-related cost	~£115 billion

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*Sources:

Future Health Research Centre | “Tackling the silent crisis: The impact of long-term conditions on the NHS” (December 2023). Developed using NHS Digital and ONS data models https://www.futurehealth-research.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Long-Term-Conditions-Report-FINAL-DECEMBER-2023.pdf

NHS England (via UK Parliament Committee evidence)

Source: House of Commons Health Committee — Written evidence from NHS England (2014) | https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/44520/html

2. Relevant quotes from Wes Streeting, Health Secretary, re: long-term-conditions

“Be in no doubt about the scale of the challenge. … the longer term challenge of rising chronic disease, combined with our ageing society, threatens to bankrupt the NHS.”

“We have to bend the curve of cost and demand to ensure that our health services are sustainable for the long term … On the current trajectory, in 50 years’ time, 100% of the public would be working for the NHS. That is clearly not a sustainable position.”

3. About Agentis Health Group

   Agentis Health Group is a UK-based digital health specialist focused on transforming long-term condition management through the integration of medicines management, diagnostics and digital therapeutics. Backed by LDC and founded from within Ashtons, the group combines clinical expertise with digital innovation to help health systems deliver safer, more connected and more sustainable care.

The launch of Agentis aligns with growing expectations from government, regulators and NHS leadership for healthcare providers to improve digital maturity, integrate care across pathways and deliver measurable improvements in quality, safety and efficiency.

4. About Living With
   Living With is a UK digital health company specialising in condition-specific digital therapeutics and remote patient monitoring and support. It has two digital platforms: Living With and Squeezy, which help health providers to assess, manage and rehabilitate more patients in less time, and play an important role in improving clinical productivity and efficiency.

• Living With is a single, modular, virtual rehabilitation platform with a catalogue of products, programmes and digital tools designed for healthcare providers – such as hospitals, GPs and clinics. Clinical users can select from a wide range of treatable and long-term condition pathways, with each module bespoke to the specific needs, treatment and symptoms of that condition. The platform covers various specialties, such as respiratory, rheumatology, maternity, urology, gynaecology, oncology, MSK, colorectal and chronic fatigue.

In turn, the integrated patient-facing app supports and empowers the healthcare provider’s patients, helping them manage their long-term or treatable condition, e.g. COPD, asthma, arthritis, lung cancer, chronic pain, incontinence, fatigue and breathlessness. For more information, visit: www.livingwith.health

• Squeezy is a market-leading, evidence-based therapeutic app designed to improve pelvic health conditions, such as bladder or bowel incontinence. NHS evidence proves that it improves both adherence to treatment programmes and associated health outcomes. It is used by more than 700,000 patients and advocated by clinicians across the NHS and independent healthcare.

There are three versions of the Squeezy app: for men, for women, and for clinicians to provide to their patients under licence. All versions are consistently among the UK’s top paid medical apps, with the female squeezy app holding pole position for more than five years. For more information, visit https://squeezyapp.com/

5. West Devon Primary Care Network (PCN) case study

Agentis’ work in 2024 with West Devon PCN has delivered the following:

• Boosted GP capacity by 13%, freeing up more clinical time to spend on direct patient care.

• Increased lipid therapy compliance from 0% to 95%, with 35% of patients achieving non-HDL cholesterol levels under 2.5 mmol/L through dose titration, alternative therapies, and structured follow-up.

• Reduced administrative burden, enabling clinicians to focus on clinical decision-making and patient care.

• Improved medication optimisation, reducing the need for unplanned interventions

• Enhanced patient outcomes for those with long-term conditions, through personalised care plans and regular review.

• Streamlined appointment booking with continuity of care.

For more information, read our case study here: www.agentis.health/healthcare

6. About Ashtons

Founded in 1984, Ashtons is a leading medicines management, training and prescribing technology provider. It works with independent hospitals, primary and community services, prisons, ophthalmic clinics, care homes and other healthcare providers across the UK.

Ashtons is the ideal foundation on which to build a fully integrated service offer for the NHS and other healthcare providers. Over the last 40 years, Ashtons has successfully demonstrated how taking a pharmacist-led approach adds major value to the effective and efficient management of long-term conditions. That’s why Agentis’ services will be provided by a multi-disciplinary team of experts, led by our experienced pharmacists and based on clinical evidence.

For more information, read the overview of our Ashtons therapeutics services here: www.agentis.health/therapeutics or visit the Ashtons website here: www.ashtons.com

7. About NHS pathways and Agentis Health Group’s offer

The NHS structures patient services around ‘care pathways’. These are like roadmaps which chart every step of a patient’s treatment and care based upon the condition they have, such as diabetes, mental health or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Each care pathway outlines what should happen at every stage, from diagnosis to management and recovery. They help make sure that a patient gets the right care at the right time, that the approach is consistent and reflects best practice, and that care provided by different organisations on that pathway is joined up, with all parties understanding the role everyone plays in a patient’s care.

Pathways cover all possible healthcare interventions – for example medicines review, medical tests, appointments, treatment options and support. Ultimately, following a pathway helps make sure that patients realise the best possible outcome and experience for their condition.

As well as supporting care pathways in a variety of ways, such as undertaking medicine reviews and supplying medicine, Agentis adds the greatest value to the NHS by managing pathways end-to-end, for example:

• Using data automation and insight to help identify people at risk of developing a condition or prevent existing conditions from getting worse.

• Providing clinical interventions ourselves or work with partners to deliver them.

• Overseeing a patient’s journey on any given pathway, making sure they get the information they need and receive the right support or treatment when they need it.

• Evaluating the effectiveness of pathways by using intelligent data, which measures effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction, and we can use findings to identify good practice and advise where further improvements can be made.