Yorkshire and Humber AHSN showcase innovations to senior NHS figures

Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has showcased some of the innovaters they have been working with to senior NHS figures.

A group of health leaders from the NHS attended the event at Nexus, University of Leeds to see for themselves how health innovation in the Yorkshire region has the potential to benefit the national population.

New technologies, products and services are being adopted and spread across health and care systems in the region by Yorkshire and Humber AHSN to support the NHS with its post-pandemic recovery.

Some of the innovations on show included a new technology that enables patients to self-monitor their health conditions at home, and products and applications that allow for non-urgent medical examinations and consultations to be done remotely.

Health leaders were also introduced to tools that healthcare professionals are being given to help manage the elective cancer care backlog by identifying high-risk patients earlier.

Matt Whitty, director of innovation at NHS England and NHS Improvement and one of the senior figures who visited Yorkshire & Humber AHSN, said: “We want to understand which models are working most effectively for innovators, for patients and for NHS organisations.

“We’ve seen a really good range of innovators from digital products that are supporting women to look after their own health needs right through to AI solutions that are showing real promise in supporting the earlier diagnosis of cancer. They’ve all got great potential so we’re really optimistic.”

Another senior figure who attended the showcase was NHS England and Improvement’s director of transformation, Dr Tim Ferris, who said it was an “extraordinary experience” to meet all the innovators.

The Yorkshire and Humber AHSN have been working with these innovations, as part of their digital health accelerator programme, Propel@YH, to support the NHS and its local integrated care systems (ICSs) and tackle the challenges that have been worsened by the pandemic, such as health inequalities and fighting the climate crisis by helping the NHS reduce its carbon footprint.

Richard Stubbs, CEO of Yorkshire & Humber AHSN, said: “It has been a huge honour to welcome our guests from the NHS. We’ve shown how we’re not just working on delivering innovations for frontline use but why the innovation is so crucial to some of the big challenges we face.

“It’s all about the elective backlog, health inequalities, equality and diversity within the NHS and environmental sustainability and we’ve told a bigger story by demonstrating how we’re delivering on the ground, with some fabulous innovators who have some amazing ways of being able to transform the delivery of care for patients.”