Pioneering Moray wins UK awards
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MORAY’S pioneering use of digital health technology has scooped two awards and a share of £15 million in UK Government funding.
Schemes involving the "Digital Moray" partnership have won cash support in two out of four nationally-selected bids for government funding.
The ‘dallas’ scheme (delivering assisted living lifestyle at scale) was developed by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, and joint funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
In London on Wednesday, UK Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, announced that, although nearly 150 bids had been received, only four had been successful.
The announcement is another boost for the Digital Moray team – a partnership between the NHS, Moray Council, the Scottish Government, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, academia and industry, which aims to lead the way in Scotland, improving health and creating wealth by developing and reaping the benefits of digital health innovations.
The two winning projects involving Digital Moray are:
•‘Year Zero’ – an online application enabling people to actively manage their health information, helping them to be better informed, healthier and lead more independent lives.
The application includes an online family tree which where people can plot their family’s health genealogy, a digital version of the paper-based Red Book that is given to all new parents to record their child’s health and Rally Round, a social networking and planning tool to connect family, friends, carers and health and care professionals.
Digital Moray experts Professor Grant Cumming and Dr Jamie Hogg are providing specialist medical leadership for the programming.
•‘Living It Up’ – focuses on developing innovative solutions that will enable people in communities across Scotland to live happy, healthy and safe lives, enabling choice and better control over their health and wellbeing.
One of its innovations is the use of connected TVs to give people access to health and community information within their own homes.
Moray is the test bed area for the project, meaning people in Moray will be the first in the UK to be able to access these innovative services.
Digital Moray is represented by project Manager Lorna Bernard, of Moray Council Social Care, executive lead Andrew Fowlie of NHS Grampian and clinical lead Dr Jamie Hogg.
The investment which will flow to the projects is anticipated to bring benefit for the digital and technology companies already involved in the Digital Moray partnership as well as attracting new investment to the Moray area.
Andrew Fowlie of NHS Grampian said: "Everyone at Digital Moray is thrilled to be involved in two of the four winning bids in the dallas scheme. Moray is already leading the way in using technology to improve the health and well being of people here and throughout Scotland and it’s fantastic to receive this kind of national recognition and funding for our projects".
Lorna Bernard of Moray Council Social care said of ‘Living It Up’: "With the ever increasing pressures on the health and care systems, we need to find new, smart and efficient ways of reaching patients. Living It Up is trialling the use of all sorts of technologies, including something that most people use every day – the TV – to deliver key information and services to patients."
Digital Moray’s clinical lead, Professor Grant Cumming, who has been at the forefront of many of the developments said: "Year Zero is a fantastic project which introduces the idea of using technology to improve health right at the start of a life.
"Parents rely on the traditional Red Book but this opportunity to create a digital version dovetails with their modern lives much more powerfully."
Digital health is about using technologies to prevent, predict, treat or control illness and disease.
Examples include automated body monitors that can relay information such as blood pressure directly to a doctor’s PC.
•Nano technology that allows patients to swallow minute gadgets which can pass critical information to doctors about the patient’s body.
•Online programmes to change behaviour; incentivising people to be more responsible for their own health and well-being.
Scotland is already the world’s only country with a digital health record for every member of the population and Moray is ideally placed to be a test bed for the future.
As a small authority, it is easy to implement ideas quickly across the area, and Moray has a full health system, from hospital to primary care practitioners, linked closely with social care.
