NHSX has put out a direct request to health and social care professionals, asking them to send in information about workplace challenges they are facing that they think could be addressed with a digital or tech solution.
Posted through the NHSX Innovation Lab, the call is asking for assistance from the workforce to help shape the organisation’s ‘roadmap‘. The request says: “If you face a challenge that you think could be answered with innovative thinking and digital technology, but you aren’t sure exactly how, we’d love to hear about it.”
The five focus areas NHSX is interested in are solving challenges that:
- Reduce the burden on staff
- Help access clinical information
- Improve health and care productivity
- Provide tools to access services directly
- Improve safety across health and care systems.
Anyone of any profession that works within the health or social care system in England can submit an idea, problem or a challenge, as long as they: align with one or more of the NHSX focus areas; can’t be solved with an existing product or service; are based on a real need; affect the NHS on a large scale; could be solved with a digital solution.
Healthcare workers who want to submit a challenge must fill out a form that will ask the ‘author’ about their role, the challenge, and how involved they wish to be in the project.
NHSX aims to respond to challenges within three weeks of submission, will discuss any new problems that arise at its next advisory group meeting, and either add a relevant challenge to the Innovation Lab roadmap or publish it on the unsolved challenges page in case other innovators want to try and tackle it.
To submit your challenge to NHSX, click here.
In a similar vein to the request for challenges, at HTN we recently covered a call for comment from one of NHSX’s directors, who asked Twitter followers for feedback on their health tech priorities, and also heard from a Co-Chair of the NHSX Blueprinting Steering Committee on why Blueprints are so important in helping organisations to adopt technologies successfully.
While in July alone, NHSX has also already opened funding applications for The Digital Health Partnership Award, which helps NHS organisations accelerate the adoption of digital health technologies that support patients with long-term conditions, as well as releasing its latest digital playbook on mental health pathways.
