We’re delighted to present our finalists for the category of “Best use of digital and data for NHS trusts”.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust: Transforming operational decision-making through a real-time digital operational update app
Overview: Somerset NHS Foundation Trust developed a real-time Operational Update App to replace manual spreadsheet reporting. The app improves efficiency, data accuracy and decision-making, reducing update time four times a day. It supports patient flow, eases staff burden, and strengthens confidence in operational information.
What happened? The trust developed a digital Operational Update (OU) App: a web-based solution that replaces manual spreadsheet reporting with a single, real-time, data-driven view of operational performance. Key features include automated data integration from existing systems; access to live information for all users; standardised reporting; and an intranet-based design to make information easy to access. The OU App has delivered significant time savings, with the time to produce each operational update being reduced from approximately 20 minutes to five minutes four times a day. Automated data flows and reduced manual handling have significantly lowered the risk of error. Standardised definitions ensure consistency and improve confidence in the data used for decision-making. The move to a live platform means information is always up to date and accessible. This supports faster decisions around escalation, discharge, and capacity management, helping teams respond more effectively to operational pressures. Reducing administrative burden has had a positive impact on colleague morale, easing pressure during shifts and enabling more time spent with patients.
University of Exeter and Partners: High or Elevated Level of Platelets (HELP) Flag Pathway project – transforming early cancer detection
Overview: The HELP Flag Pathway project uses a data-driven approach to support early detection of potential cancer in primary care by analysing routine blood tests and alerting GPs to warning signs. It uses an algorithm to apply personalised age and sex-adjusted thresholds to platelet results, built into existing NHS pathology laboratory systems.
What happened? The HELP Flag Pathway project uses a novel, data-driven approach to enable earlier detection of potential cancer in primary care through analysis of routine blood tests taken by GPs. These tests include a count of platelets. Funded by SBRI Healthcare and led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR HRC in Sustainable Innovation and NIHR Exeter BRC, HELP Flag applies an algorithm that uses personalised, age and sex-adjusted thresholds to interpret platelet results. These thresholds are embedded directly within existing NHS pathology laboratory systems. When a patient’s platelet count meets HELP Flag criteria, a digital alert is returned with the blood test result into GP clinical systems, prompting consideration for monitoring, further testing or referral. This may include onward referral to the Non-Specific Symptom (NSS) pathway for diagnostic investigation where clinically appropriate. HELP Flag is currently live across 60 GP practices in Devon and has expanded to Liverpool. HELP Flag directly supports NHS priorities around earlier cancer diagnosis, prevention and data‑driven care.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: Improving outpatient utilisation and visibility through digital innovation
Overview: The Trust improved outpatient capacity through CMRB, delivering real-time visibility of clinics, rooms and cancellations. By addressing data quality issues and enabling proactive operational management, utilisation increased, admin time reduced and services collaborated more effectively, supporting more timely patient care.
What happened? Clinic Management and Room Booking (CMRB) was implemented as a trust-wide digital solution, supported by the Federated Data Platform. The aim was to provide a single, consistent and reliable view of outpatient clinics, room utilisation and capacity. CMRB brings together clinic scheduling, room allocation and utilisation data into one central platform. Clinical and operational teams can see how clinics and rooms are being used, identify gaps in capacity and understand the factors affecting performance. A trust-wide data quality guide was developed to support consistent practices and ensure that data captured within the system more accurately reflected real-world service delivery. As a result, clinic utilisation, defined locally as the proportion of available appointment slots filled, has increased by approximately five percentage points. Data is now refreshed hourly, replacing previous weekly reporting cycles, allowing teams to respond more quickly to emerging issues. Rather than relying on retrospective reports or manual tracking, operational teams are now able to actively monitor clinic performance and take action in real time. Room availability is now visible across the trust, enabling greater collaboration between services.
North West London: One shared platform for safer care across North West London
Overview: North West London’s four acute NHS trusts consolidated separate integration engines into one shared cloud platform, using InterSystems Health Connect Cloud. The programme has supported the move to a single EPR, reducing repeated technical work, and helping staff access reliable information faster for safer care.
What happened? Supported by InterSystems, the four acute trusts consolidated their separate integration platforms into one shared cloud platform, using InterSystems Health Connect Cloud. Clinical and operational colleagues helped set priorities, identifying the connections that mattered most for safe care, including radiology, results, and alerts. Since consolidation, North West London has delivered nine cross-system projects through the shared platform, with eight more in development. For a medium-complexity interface, delivery effort fell from 171 person-days to 79 person-days, saving more than 50 percent of the work previously required. The platform now processes around 3.2 billion messages a year. Those messages are not abstract data points. They are the information staff need to manage appointments, review results, receive alerts, share documents, and make decisions. For patients, this means information is less likely to be delayed. For staff, it means clearer processes, more reliable systems, and more capacity to focus on service improvement. North West London expects the cost of running integration services to remain at 2021/22 levels through 2027/28, avoiding an estimated 28 percent inflationary impact.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Digital referral redesign for Emergency Department mental health patients
Overview: WWL has delivered nurse led digital redesign of the ED mental health referral pathway, embedding real time digital referral directly into the Altera Sunrise™ EPR. In partnership with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), the initiative introduced an auto populating digital workflow.
What happened? WWL extended the use of Altera’s Sunrise EPR Platform to create a digitally enabled, EPR native mental health referral process. Key features include auto population of ~85 percent of referral data, removing duplication and reducing cognitive load at triage; real time routing of referrals directly to the mental health inbox; structured, standardised data fields; referral at arrival, reducing the pathway from five steps to three; and native EPR integration, eliminating the need for scanning, emailing or parallel systems. The solution was developed in house, allowing rapid iteration, strong control of clinical safety and alignment with existing ED workflows. The work was delivered through WWL’s Digital Champions Programme, with frontline nurses, clinical informaticians, ED clinicians and mental health colleagues co designing the pathway end to end. The team mapped existing workflows and time delays in real clinical settings and piloted the digital referral live in ED. Audit data demonstrated a 95 percent reduction in referral time, from 68 minutes to 4 minutes; a 70 percent reduction in total time from arrival to being seen by a mental health practitioner (from 148 minutes to 45 minutes); and 11 WTE nursing time released.
Aire Innovate: Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust digital ePROMs transforming paediatric psychological care insights
Overview: We have built an NHS-led implementation of a fully integrated, automated electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measure (ePROMs) system in paediatric mental health. This is significant as demonstrating the effectiveness of psychological interventions is a challenge nationally, due to a lack of standardised, objective data and metrics.
What happened? Using the Aire Innovate platform, we have taken a number of validated PROMs used in paediatric psychology and translated them into a digital format that sits within routine care. From a clinician’s perspective, the process is now much simpler. Patients are added to a list, relevant questionnaires are selected from a pre-configured set, and these are sent electronically via a secure link. Patients and families can complete them on their phone at a time that suits them. Responses are scored automatically in line with clinical standards. Once submitted, results are available within the EPR, meaning clinicians can review them ahead of the appointment. We have applied this across a number of pathways, including RCADS for anxiety and depression (which contains 47 items), the WHEEL tool for young people with cystic fibrosis, and within remote CBT services. Since going live in early 2026, over 30 clinicians have adopted the system and more than 170 questionnaires have been completed. Tasks that previously took around 105 minutes across a group of patients can now be completed in approximately 20 minutes – an 80 percent reduction. In some cases, automated scoring saves up to 25 minutes per assessment.
