Blogs

Health is facing some big challenges that require the input of whole systems to solve, but when a problem is this big – where do you start?

In this blog, HIEM, Senior Improvement Lead, Kate Hardiman describes how we supported Joined Up Care Derbyshire to reduce harm from opioids for local patients, using a 7-step approach to working across whole systems.

The project, which has been shortlisted for the HSJ Patient Safety Awards, trained 80 Live Well With Pain practitioners, potentially saved five lives, and saw 131 fewer people prescribed high dose opioids and 306 fewer people with chronic opioid use.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has exploded over the past few years, and we are seeing it in use more and more. The landscape is changing rapidly, and navigating it can be tricky.

In particular for the NHS, Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), known as Ambient AI, is gaining interest within healthcare, with the Department of Health and Social Care recently describing it as a ‘gamechanger. Ambient AI is currently a hot topic for the NHS and how we can get the most from it.

We all know these are challenging times for our NHS.  Financial pressures, a population living longer with more years of ill health, the ongoing legacy of the pandemic, and the impact of recent global events over which we have no control, are a few of the issues that have coalesced to create a perfect storm.

As the health and care industry increasingly embraces artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, it is crucial to ensure that these innovations are implemented with the utmost care and responsibility.  Dr Hatim Abdulhussein, CEO at Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, explores more in this blog.

Shahnaz Aziz, Head of Equalities and Involvement at Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM) discusses the importance of Patient and Public Leadership in health care transformation, as well as a great opportunity to join our team as a Public Involvement and Equalities specialist. 

October is Cholesterol Awareness Month, which seems a great opportunity for us to share details of HIEMs CVD Prevention programme and remind healthcare services in the East Midlands of the support HIEM can offer.

The NHS Long Term Plan states that the biggest area where the NHS can save lives over the next 10 years is in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

CVD affects around seven million people in the UK and is a significant cause of disability and death. CVD is responsible for one in four premature deaths in the UK, with those in the most deprived areas almost twice as likely to die from CVD.

In this blog, Health Innovation East Midlands Managing Director Nicole McGlennon reflects on the ongoing outstanding impacts of a former national programme to accelerate the diagnosis of ADHD – and identifies some of the key learnings relevant to any NHS transformation project. 

I love the NHS – it’s very special to me - so it’s an amazing honour to be in this new role.

I completed my medical training in Nottingham and worked in the NHS as an academic obstetrician for many years in the East Midlands and overseas. More recently I’ve worked extensively to drive the research enterprise and innovation endeavour from within our universities.

Within these roles, I’ve seen how research can lead to improvements in patient care further down the line, but this process can take a long time – too long.

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve invited one of our innovators from the East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator, Tellmi Co-CEO, Kerstyn Comley to tell us about their digital peer support solution and their innovation journey.

• Tell us about the innovation. The what and the why?

The UK’s mental health crisis has created an unmanageable increase in referrals to mental health services. The predominant 1-2-1 counselling model cannot meet demand and this has led to ever-lengthening waiting lists and increased threshold for treatment.

Martin Hindle has served as the Chair of Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM) since the organisation was set up in 2013.

As his fixed term appointment comes to an end – with a new chair to be unveiled in April – Martin reflects on some of the high points, and learnings, from his journey with HIEM over the past 10 years.

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Between 2013 and the end of March 2024, I have been privileged to have served as the Independent Chair of the Governance Board for Health Innovation East Midlands, one of England’s 15 local health innovation networks.

My fixed term of office is about to end and in the next few days HIEM will be announcing the organisation’s new chair, to whom I wish great success – I’m sure they will be as inspired as I have been by the positive impacts achieved by the organisation and the fantastic expertise and commitment of our team.