A collaboration between Health Innovation East Midlands and Health Innovation West Midlands has seen the launch of a new programme designed to support UK tech companies in the development and scaling of “high-potential digital health innovations”.
The Grow Digital Health Midlands programme, formerly known as the East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator, is seeking applications for its 2025 cohort, which will focus on two key themes: enhancing NHS productivity and communication, and reducing demand for hospital-based care.
For the productivity and communication theme, the focus is on tech to “reduce the administrative burden” for NHS staff such as decision-support tools and ambient voice, and patient facing tech spanning self-service, appointments, patient history, data gathering and conversational AI. For reducing demand for hospital-based care, this could include innovations which support long-term conditions or improve patient flow.
Tim Robinson, commercial director at Health Innovation East Midlands, commented: “Delivering this as a collaboration with our West Midlands counterparts significantly impacts the scale and reach of the programme, spanning 11 Integrated Care Systems and a population of 11.8 million across the NHS Midlands region and combining our considerable expertise, networks and resource.”
“Local NHS representatives will play an active role in selecting candidates for the programme, ensuring that the chosen innovations align with regional priorities and have the highest potential for adoption,” the partnership stated, with successful applicants receiving support including one-to-one business coaching and “significant” opportunities to showcase innovations to decision-makers from across the NHS.
The closing date for applications is midnight 24 March, with Q&A briefing sessions to be held on 4 March and 13 March for interested parties. To learn more, please click here.
Digital change and transformation across health and care
One of HTN’s January panel discussions focused on the role of digital in supporting NHS reform – modernising services, shifting from hospital to community, and supporting the move from reactive to proactive care. We welcomed Dawn Greaves, associate director of digital transformation at Leeds Community Healthcare; Ananya Datta, associate director of primary care digital delivery at South East London ICS; and Stuart Stocks, lead enterprise architect with Aire Logic. Panel members shared their insight and experience from a wide range of digital projects, highlighting what worked well and their learnings; how their organisations are currently tackling key challenges such as capacity and demand, and managing waiting lists; and balancing risk with innovation.
We were also joined by experts from across the primary care sector to debate how general practice, PCNs, and ICBs can utilise data and leverage technology to support operational efficiencies and improvements across primary care. Panellists included Kathryn Salt, assistant director of primary & community care, data and analytics for the Transformation Directorate, NHS England; Dr Shanker Vijayadeva, GP lead, digital transformation for the London region at NHS England; Dr Sheikh Mateen Ellahi, GP and practice partner at ELM Tree Surgery and South Stockton Primary Care Network; and Max Gattlin, digital consultant at X-on Health.
An expert panel including Deborah El-Sayed, director of transformation and CDIO at Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB; Dan Bunstone, clinical director at Warrington ICB; Stephen Bromhall, interim chief officer for digital and data at South East Coast Ambulance Service; and Laura Thompson, director of marketing at The Access Group, joined us late last year to talk about approaches to tackling challenges from an ICS perspective; new models of care and pathway transformation; the role of technology in supporting the move from reactive to proactive care; and how a system approach can accelerate preventative care.
This week HTN covered Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust’s latest strategy to 2030, with a focus on modernising infrastructure, introducing digital tools and technologies supporting productivity, and enhancing digital skills to support modern ways of working. The strategy also looks to accelerate the adoption and “fostering of innovation” in healthcare, including in AI, robotics, and genomics, to deliver “high-quality, personalised care”. An Innovation Hub will be developed to further this agenda, it states, along with collaborations with regional Health Innovation Networks, industry partners, and universities.
