Innovation challenges across Wales have opened, looking to procure innovative solutions to reduce missed appointments and modernise bowel screening pathways under its Contracts for Innovation Cymru (CfIC) programme.
With ambitions to reduce the number of missed appointments and improve access to planned care, CfIC is seeking innovations addressing areas including appointment communications, information accessibility, appointment management, behavioural approaches encouraging attendance, digital tools and services, and data-driven approaches to improve attendance and access.
“The challenge is deliberately open and does not prescribe a particular technology, product or service.” CfIC states. “We welcome ideas from a wide range of sectors and disciplines and encourage applicants to think creatively about how attendance, access and patient experience can be improved.”
Solutions should be able to demonstrate their potential to make improvements for patients and citizens across access to planned care, appointment attendance, patient experience, and health outcomes. For staff, this could also cover improved clinic utilisation, reduced admin burden, and improved operational efficiency. CfIC suggests success could be measured through attendance rates, service utilisation, waiting times, and patient experience.
£200,000 is available to support a “portfolio” of projects, according to CfIC, with an award decision expected on 30 October 2026. Technical criteria make up 87 percent of award weighting, with cost and value for money representing nine percent, and social value representing the remaining four percent.
Solutions for modernising bowel screening pathways are similarly being sought, with hopes of improving assessment, triage support, and progression following a positive FIT result. “Current pre-colonoscopy assessment processes remain heavily reliant on manual and telephone-based activity during routine office hours (Mon-Fri. 9-4pm),” CfIC shares.
Innovations should improve access to timely assessments, offer increased flexibility for assessment, enable greater patient control over appointment booking and management, and enable the triage and stratification of participants for interventions based on clinical need.
A total of £300,000 is available, which is expected to fund four to five projects, although CfIC reserves the right to consider an increased budget for “exceptional” applications. Technical criteria are again assigned 87 percent of weighting in award decisions, followed by commercial criteria with nine percent, and social value with four percent.
Wider trend: Digital innovation in Wales
HTN recently completed a special report on digital transformation in Wales, exploring the latest on national ambitions, current programmes and priorities across Welsh health boards, and insights from digital leaders. We covered updates including upcoming approval of a three-year AI strategy from Digital Health and Care Wales, progress in GP IT, and the changing landscape as digital teams move away from a prescribed build-and-evolve approach to the procurement of standalone off-the-shelf solutions.
Wales has joined the UNITE European Digital Health Valleys project, opening up opportunities for Welsh innovators in the digital health and care space to apply for funding. The project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme, has ambitions to drive collaboration in Europe around testing, development, and scaling health innovations. £700,000 has been awarded to the Welsh government to ensure the participation of Welsh organisations in new funding and partnership opportunities, and the government is now encouraging applications from SMEs, health boards, and universities.
A collaboration between Welsh critical care services and the University of Warwick is exploring how immersive technologies can bring specialist support closer to those on the frontline, with an aim to support decision making during remote care or patient transfers. The 999 REACH (Remote Access for Enhanced, Adaptive, Collaborative Healthcare) project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, will test three different approaches for receiving specialist support remotely: telephone, video consultation via a tablet with 360-degree camera feed, and “full immersion” using a VR headset.
