Supporting digital health innovators
Over the last six months we’ve delivered a series of masterclasses to support 10 SMEs taking part in Propel, the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Networks’ digital health accelerator programme.
The ten SMEs selected for the programme have innovations that can help the NHS and social care organisations address health inequalities, support the workforce, enable patients to manage their long-term conditions, and support the priorities outlined in the NHS’ operational planning guidance.
With our network of expert associates we curated a series of six masterclasses to support the SMEs navigate the complexity of the NHS and achieve their scale and spread ambitions:
How the NHS works
On the surface the NHS appears quite simple but to make sense of and navigate it you need to understand the more complex reality. In this session we became familiar with some of the terminology used and through a ‘digital’ lens looked at the basic governance arrangements, how the money flows, and some of the arms-length arrangements and how these are expected to change over time. In addition, we explored a number of areas where digital is expected to make a significant contribution to improving efficiency, both within the NHS and integration with other agencies such as social care and the voluntary and independent sectors.
This session was facilitated by Anne Cooper, Chief Clinical Digital Officer, Thrive by Design and Alastair Cartwright, Director of Informatics, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Understanding and managing complexity
This interactive session focused on how a better understanding of complexity can support implementation, spread and scale-up of technology projects in health and care. We explored the NASSS framework (Non-adoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Health and Care Technologies) and the Complexity Assessment Toolkit developed in conjunction with NASSS as a practical way to get the SMEs to assess and manage complexity. You can read more about the NASSS-CAT framework and tools in our case study.
This session is facilitated by Dr Chrysanthi Papoutsi, Senior Researcher, Interdisciplinary Research in Health Sciences (IRIHS) group.
Clinical safety by design
The need for compliance with clinical safety standards has never been more important. This includes the overlap into and from MedTech and Medical Device manufacturers. Implementing the manufacturers DCB 0129 standard can be daunting and complex for innovators.
International digital health (including medical devices) now operates around three key themes of safety, security and effectiveness. This awareness session provided insight into NHS, UK, EU and international standards and regulation. Innovators need this information to plan the early years of growth, funding rounds and strategic product placement.
Our facilitator, ETHOS Director Stuart Harrison, co-authored the standards and continues to lead their next stage development internationally.
Building the evidence base
The purpose of this session was to support the innovators to understand why evidence and evaluation is important and how to go about building a framework which they can apply to their work. The session included looking at what to measure and why, methods of evaluation, and some real-life examples. The aim was that the SMEs would leave the session with an understanding of the benefits of effective evidence and evaluation and of how to generate evidence that really counts.
This session was facilitated by Ian Sharp, CEO, Future-health Innovations.
Inclusive digital design
Tackling health inequalities and in particular ensuring that existing health inequalities are not compounded by digital technologies and innovations is something of increasing importance, so inclusive digital design is something we need to consider and apply when we implement and scale up new technologies and innovations. This session was an introduction to inclusive digital design in health and care, and blended a mixture of theory, case study examples from our work, and practical activities that the SMEs can apply within their areas of work.
The aim was for the SMEs to leave the session with an understanding of how inclusive co-design works, how it can benefit their product or service to think in this way, and with some practical steps you might want to consider taking forwards.
This session is facilitated by Kirstin Blackwell, Deputy Director of Design and Delivery, Thrive by Design.
Expert panel
In our opinion there is nothing more inspiring than hearing from pioneers who have travelled this road before us. In this panel session we heard from entrepreneurs and innovators who are further on in their own journey. We listened to their stories and discovered what worked for them and how they overcame the challenges that faced them. Our participating SMEs got the chance to ask questions and have a conversation.
This panel is chaired by Anne Cooper, Chief Clinical Digital Officer, Thrive by Design. We’d also like to thank our panel members:
Bruce Elliotte, CEO and Co-founder of Memory Lane Games
Dr Lloyd Humphries, Managing Director, Orcha
Maddie Julaian, Co-found and Director, Digibete
“The masterclasses covered a broad range of topics, which you need to successfully position an innovation in the NHS. It was particularly useful to get tools for inclusive design and practical guidance to generate real world evidence”
The cohort
We have shared some more information about the 10 SMEs who made up this year's Propel cohort.
• Chatterbug is a social enterprise that supports children and young people with Speech and Language difficulties.
• Genome is a digital health company, developing advanced quality assurance and improvement software solutions for health and social care organisations.
• BookYourGP, by Hummingbird Medical, is a tool designed for GPs to organise complex medical care for patients.
• Heyr is a mental health chatbot app designed to make you feel good.
• PhysioBuddie is an innovative online therapy service that provides its users with remote step-by-step progressive rehabilitation.
• SocialRx, by Promatica, is a complete digital management system for Social Prescribing.
• Syrona Health’s app ‘SORA’ is a digital health platform supporting women with chronic gynaecological conditions.
• Vitacam is transforming routine clinical observations from manual contact based methods to contactless measurements from video, in elderly care and beyond.
• YourMeds is a smart medication management system aimed at helping people take the right medication at the right time.
• Rewire uses data and clinical best practice to deliver personalised stroke therapy.
If you would like more information about the wider Propel digital accelerator programme then please contact Tim East at the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network.
Email: tim.east@yhahsn.com
