NHS England announces 7 “Test Beds”

NHS England has announced a series of “Innovation Test Beds” that will be used to “harness technology to address some of the most complex issues facing patients and the health service”.

“Front-line health and care workers in seven areas will pioneer and evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and ways of working which will help patients stay well and monitor their conditions themselves at home”, according to the NHS press release.

The projects have been set up in collaboration with several major companies such as Google, Philips, IBM, Accenture and HP.

Of the seven Test Beds in the announcement five are described as “health and care” and two as “Internet of Things”. They are
– Care City Health and Care: To test technologies to manage health conditions to allow independent living
– Long Term Conditions Early Intervention: To identify people at risk of LTCs and most likely to benefit from telehealth, telecare and telemedicine.
– Lancashire and Cumbria: support elderly people with LTCs to remain well reducing hospital admissions
-Perfect Patient Pathway: to create an “integrated centre” to help LTC patients avoid hospital admissions (doesn’t sound too different from the previous one)
-Mental Health Urgent Care: Identify and support people at risk of mental health crises.
-Diabetes Digital Coach: Enable patients to better manage their diabetes using wearable sensors etc.
-Tech Intergrated Health Management: Help people with dementia to live in their own home for longer using sensors and other devices.

More details are available in the press release

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