Creative England, in partnership with Nominet Trust and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, launched the West Midlands Interactive Healthcare Fund last summer. The initiative aimed to show just how powerful creative businesses can be when it comes to cross-sector collaboration, with the successfully funded projects developing innovative concepts using digital solutions to improve patient care and health services.
The applicants were asked to focus on the development of web, mobile and tablet applications that focussed on NHS priority areas: Improving quality of care, caring for people with dementia, people with long-term conditions and data visualisation
The selected projects range from a social phobia app for young people, to a hand held electronic diary that records patient care, all developed by companies across the region. Some of these are solutions designed to support patients directly, whilst others aim to help NHS staff to improve the quality of care they provide to their extended community.
Jim Farmery, Director of Regional Partnerships at Creative England, said: “These projects all demonstrate great innovation, and prove that creative ideas can emerge from thinking outside of a business’ usual industry.
“Identifying and supporting these businesses across the West Midlands is not only part of our remit as Creative England but also a chance to shine a light on a thriving digital sector in the region.”
Vicki Hearn, Director of Nominet Trust, said: “The West Midlands Interactive Healthcare Fund offers these local businesses a great opportunity to address some of the UK’s most pressing healthcare challenges, by combining digital innovation with their extraordinary entrepreneurial talent.
“Nominet Trust is delighted to support this exciting initiative and I look forward to seeing how these businesses make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of service users”.
Bethan Bishop, Head of Innovation & Industry Engagement at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust said: “The high number and standard of applications confirm my belief that creative companies have a key contribution to make in designing patient centred solutions to support health and wellbeing. All of the funded projects involved the matching of digital and clinical expertise to enable development of some promising products. This process has also been a catalyst to inspire and develop more collaboration across these sectors in the West Midlands.”
