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.
“As a UNITE partner region Wales will play a central role in a shaping a new digital health innovation ecosystem and gain access to a network of European digital health regions, opening up new opportunities for our most innovative sector organisations to collaborate internationally and access funding,” Adam Price, cabinet minister for enterprise, connectivity and energy said. “Crucially, this will support the adoption of innovative solutions for NHS Wales while strengthening Wales’ position in the global digital health market.”
A webinar is scheduled for 3 September, 11am – 12pm, offering an overview of the opportunities available to Welsh organisations across universities, research organisations, the public sector, NHS Wales organisations, health boards, and more.
Wider trend: Digital health 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.
Digital Health and Care Wales has announced every GP practice in Wales is now using EMIS Web, with the final practices going live to complete the national roll out. 193 GP practices have transition from Vision to EMIS Web, with Riverside Medical Practice in Caerphilly and Newport Surgery in Pembrokeshire recently going live. DHCW noted that the programme began in June 2024 and has seen “more than 1.75 million patient records safely migrated and over 5,000 practice staff supported through training, preparation and go-live activities”. This has been supported by DHCW’s Primary Care Services team providing more than 17,400 hours of support.
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.
