Creative England offers £1m fund for digital healthcare innovation
Creative England has announced a new £1m fund for regional based small and medium enterprises designed to stimulate creative and digital innovation in UK healthcare.
Four new programmes will open as part of the fund, which aims to encourage creative and digital businesses in the North, Midlands and South West regions to develop innovative concepts or prototypes using digital technology to improve patient care and health services.
The first to open is the West Midlands Interactive Healthcare Fund, in partnership with Nominet Trust and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, and will offer five £50,000 investments to support projects that focus on improving quality of care, caring for people with dementia, supporting people with long-term conditions and data visualisation.
Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis and the fund will close on 31 October 2014.
Bethan Bishop, head of innovation and industry engagement at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This partnership provides an extremely exciting opportunity for all involved. It enables us to give insight into the areas of healthcare which will benefit from existing and new technology sitting within creative businesses. Importantly the fund will deliver the vital investment required to enable these developments to be used and make a real difference across healthcare services and the health & wellbeing of patients and the community.”
The full £1million Interactive Healthcare Fund is supported by the Regional Growth Fund.