Interactive digital platform launched to tackle health inequalities

An interactive digital platform centred on supporting healthcare organisations to tackle health inequalities has been launched by the NHS Race and Health Observatory.

The free to access Health Action Resource Platform (HARP), which launched on 11 August 2025, brings together data metrics which healthcare providers can use to share, compare and contract NHS performance data across major health condition outcomes and demographic markers.

It allows several elements of data searchable under multiple metrics including condition, region, ethnicity and deprivation to enable users to identify and understand the scale of disparities whilst building evidence for developing local action plans for improvement.

Professor Habib Naqvi, chief executive at NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: “We are thrilled to launch the Health Action Resource Platform as a useful, interactive tool that presents a suite of resources for healthcare providers, researchers and community organisations.

“This unique platform offers insights which can lead to informed, targeted action to tackle inequalities at both local and national levels. We expect it be used as an interactive, online learning platform.

“The platform presents another step towards creating a more efficient, agile, and technologically enabled NHS that will deliver care closer to people and further upstream.”

As a tool designed to highlight areas where chronic ethnic health inequalities persist, the platform content contains practical resources, videos, case studies, data dashboards and example guides of work being undertaken across the country to tackle disparities.

Key areas of focus include maternal and neonatal health where outcomes for Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women remain poor.

Other showcased subject areas include mental health, cancer, cardiovascular disease and sickle cell disorder – where historic disparities are widely found across treatment and outcomes.

All metric data are presented at national, regional and integrated care system levels with data cut by ethnicity and deprivation for each region and healthcare system – supporting the digital transformation of the NHS. Over time, the platform will be expanded to cover wider topics.

Professor Stella Vig, national clinical director for elective care at NHS England, said: “The Health Action Resource Platform marks a turning point in how we understand and tackle health inequalities.

“For too long, disparities in outcomes have been hidden within fragmented data and inaccessible insights.

“By bringing data, practical tools, and real-world examples together in one accessible space, HARP empowers healthcare professionals, community organisations, and policymakers to act with clarity and confidence.

“This platform is more than a digital tool, it is a call to action, equipping us with the knowledge and resources to build a fairer, healthier future for all communities.”

Last month, academics from Brunel University of London raised concerns that the overhaul of the NHS App, announced in the government’s 10 year health plan, could worsen health inequalities.