This week, NHS National Services Scotland has published a contract opportunity to form a framework for digital image capture, referral and integration technologies.
The framework is to support 14 regional health boards across Scotland and 2 national health boards, with the option to call off solutions that could help to reduce the number of face-to-face secondary care appointments required and “facilitate more accurate allocation of referral priority.”
Part of NHS National Services Scotland’s Accelerated National Innovation Adoption Pathway, it aims to identify, assess and implement technological innovations on a Once for Scotland basis. Some of the aims of the pathway are to ensure evidence based innovations can scale quickly, and to enable joint planning with territorial NHS Boards for adoption and implementation.
For this framework, it aims to support innovations that enable the “capture and inclusion of triage quality image(s) via a technology solution,” as part of the primary care referral process to secondary care dermatology services.
The notice explains an objective to reduce waiting times for specialist treatment and provide consultant dermatologists the tools to conduct active clinical referral triage to determine if a face-to-face appointment is required.
It is anticipated that the framework will be valued at £930,000, with the potential to reach £1.3 million over the duration. The deadline to apply is 4 September – to find out more, view the notice here.
In June, HTN highlighted a procurement launched by the University of Strathclyde, NSS and Scotland Excel worth up to £15m for digital co-managed care services. In the same month, we explored the role of digital in the fight against cancer, in the Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033.
