Healthwave completes a successful Innovate UK project
Innovate UK has supported Healthwave in its mission to support inclusive digital transformation in healthcare.
Oliver Sleeman, Director of Healthwave said: ‘Part of the challenge of understanding citizens' opinions is to surface the information to those who need it to make decisions. The Innovate UK funding allowed us to put significant development effort into a number of Healthwave products and services, giving commissioners and policy-makers unparalleled access to evidence-led insights’.
Dr Rehan Symonds, co-lead for the research and Director of Healthwave Limited said: ‘We were very excited to work with SWAHSN and Somerset CCG on this important project. It has given a voice to citizens who would otherwise struggle to be heard in consultations about accessing healthcare digitally. The project enabled us to create a step change in the way we present insights via the Healthwave Workspace, while creating a route by which resources can be targeted to ease potential issues as they were uncovered.
The project also gave rise to a new way for Public Services to mitigate against digital exclusion, creating a new sense of urgency of around the #digitalcarer phenomenon'
The project took place in Bristol and Somerset and Allison Nation, Associate Director Digital Strategy, Somerset CCG commented: ‘Widening digital participation is an important step to help our communities access and use digital health services and information to benefit from their convenience. This important project used innovative and user-centred approaches to address digital exclusion and plays a vital role in our digital strategy - keeping the 'patient voice' front and centre will help create better outcomes from digital solutions. It’s exciting to anticipate the benefits this will bring to the healthcare user community in Somerset and for the outcomes of this project to contribute more widely across the whole of the UK.’
Dr Hayley McBain, from SW AHSN, the other co-lead of the research added ‘This is an important project that contributes to our overall mission to accelerate the spread of innovation in healthcare. The adoption of digital services, such as online consultations or mobile apps for health information, is critical for the future management of our health services but we have a responsibility to ensure equal access to all. Currently, we know certain groups within our communities nationally are left out of the debate about how these are developed and introduced. This project will go a long way to resolving that.’
Healthwave Limited is a team of engagement specialists, pioneering people powered transformation in healthcare so everyone can access the services they need, when they need them. They drive engagement that delivers meaningful change that results in sustainable transformation.
Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group are responsible for planning and buying healthcare services for around 580,000 people across Somerset. We are a statutory body, established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
We work with patients, the public, and many partners, including local hospitals, local authorities, and local voluntary and community groups. Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Somerset.
South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) works to transform the health and patient experience of people in South West England by accelerating the spread and adoption of innovation and quality improvement.
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth. We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org
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