News

£250,000 fund for innovation and digital tools in wound care launches

The launch of a new £250,000 fund for innovation and digital tools in wound care has been announced, designed to improve outcomes for patients with chronic wounds by supporting widespread adoption of digital wound management in community nursing.

Minuteful for Wound by Healthy.io invites applications from innovators in the wound care space with a deadline of 14 November 2024 at 5pm.

The funding is set to be “proportionally distributed” amongst successful applicants who can demonstrate readiness to deploy a digital wound management programme, with funding towards a 12-month digital wound management programme, staff user training and support, deployment support, and deferral of initial set-up fees.

Project agreements are expected to be in place by the end of February 2025, with the fund’s contribution expected to “reduce the overall cost of launching a digital wound management programme by over a third” in most cases.

Encouraging self-care and self-management with support from digital

Over the last couple of months, panel discussions at HTN have talked about the potential for digital to support self-care and self-management, with an event at the beginning of this month looking specifically at digital apps and wearables in the push toward personalised care. Panellists discussed how the maturing of wearable tech is driving acceptance amongst patients, as well as challenges, approaches to implementation and scaling, and the impact of tech in this space.

Back in July, a separate HTN Now virtual discussion also focused on self-management and the future model of community care, with panellists looking at the possibilities for self-management to help address health inequalities, how best to adopt and scale self-care pathways, and the benefits of a digital wound management solution for patient care.

And in upcoming events, why not join HTN for a webinar on the 3 October looking at the role of technology in chronic wound care, and featuring a case study from Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust on detecting pressure ulcers in darker skin tones with support from digital.

Spotlight on innovation funding

HTN regularly covers news and updates from the health tech funding space, including an opportunity from Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS for innovators to receive up to £10,000 in funding for projects making a positive impact on patient care in the region.

We also reported on Innovate UK’s reversal of a decision to award only half of its Women in Innovation funding grants, following backlash online.