Around 40 industry innovators, researchers, health and care professionals and regional leaders joined the Health Innovation Leeds’ event ‘Partnership is our superpower’ this week.
They heard how innovative work is shaping new ways to solve some of the hardest health challenges in Leeds, nationally and beyond.
From tackling the global challenge of increasing numbers of people with multiple long-term health conditions to enabling faster, more effective diagnoses of ill health through digital pathology, Leeds continues to lead the way as a top UK city for health innovation.
Panel member and Director of Leeds’ HomeFirst programme Megan Rowlands explained how their work is transforming ‘intermediate’ care for Leeds’ people. That is, providing quicker and more personalised care to support people who are ready to leave hospital as well as helping them avoid hospital admission in the first place.
HomeFirst’s pioneering digital solutions include a mobile app for frontline health and care staff to share real-time updates and an interactive shared care record which staff can read and update. They’ve also created a unique data dashboard, updated daily to enable timely decision-making by multidisciplinary health and care teams across the city.
“All health and care systems are seeing increasing demand, especially from people living with frailty and multiple long-term conditions. It’s a huge challenge”, explained Megan.
“In Leeds, we have been transforming intermediate care with a ‘home first’ model. Already we are seeing fantastic improvements with significantly fewer people needing to be in hospital and more going directly home because the right support is in place, in good time.
“We wouldn’t have achieved what we have without our strong partnership culture in Leeds, and our commitment to using data to drive decision-making. These have enabled us to implement change and improve outcomes, all within our existing resources.”
Enabling these ‘real world’ insights is the exemplary Leeds Data Model. Considered a national exemplar, it unites the city’s health and care services and will be linking these data sets with those in children’s services and wider local authority data, such as transport, air quality and housing.
Partners are analysing the data through the lens of the city’s Healthy Leeds Plan, which galvanises the city’s priorities, and are using this to inform research and redesign healthcare around local people’s needs.
Director of Enterprise and Innovation, Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber Neville Young explained that connectivity, partnership and the ability to use data to transform care is one of the region’s superpowers.
“It’s not just what the data is showing us but how we apply an innovation, test and evaluate it. Because we offer innovators those opportunities, they’re attracted to our system. People want to come and work where this is happening and where the energy is,” he said.
“We can’t go on pedalling faster, there are no more gears on the bike. We need to work differently. These challenges are global, so we think global and we have the ingredients to grow global companies.”
Outlining some of the city’s strengths and challenges, many of which are common to other large UK cities, Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Professor Phil Wood explained these present important opportunities to bring lasting change.
He said: “We are a wonderfully diverse city but, like any other, there are challenges, such as chronic ill health and economic inactivity. These challenges are also opportunities for us, and innovation is a significant part of how we can drive forward improvements for the people of Leeds. This isn’t an NHS, council or university role in isolation; it’s vital that we work together in partnership.”
As one of the UK’s leading healthtech hubs, Leeds’ innovation infrastructure supports health industry entrepreneurs from around the world. It is home to around 3,000 digital and data companies, the world’s largest national digital pathology network, the National Pathology Imaging Cooperative, and many global, health-related businesses.
Leeds hosts the largest tech event in the North. With more than 200 events across the fortnight, Leeds Digital Festival is in its ninth year and is going from strength to strength.
Stuart Clarke, Leeds Digital Festival co-founder and Director, said: “The exciting discussions at the Health Innovation Leeds event underline the pace, energy and vision here and across the region to pioneer and embrace digital technologies to help improve healthcare.
“It’s just one of the reasons Leeds is absolutely a first-choice location for industry innovators. Its burgeoning healthtech sector is apparent throughout the Festival, reflecting the city’s internationally-competitive healthtech strengths.”
Research from Leeds Digital Festival and The Data City [1] found that tech firms within the city are growing 125 per cent faster than the national average. The study examined data from 5.3 million companies and reported an annual growth rate of 3.6 per cent for Leeds firms, against 1.6 per cent nationally.
Event panelists were
- Professor Phil Wood, Chief Executive Officer, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Chair of Leeds Academic Health Partnership
- Richard Irvine, Chief Data Officer, Leeds City Council and NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Megan Rowlands, Programme Director, HomeFirst
- Neville Young, Director of Enterprise and Innovation, Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber
- Kate Lodge (Chair), Partnership Director, Leeds Academic Health Partnership
