Researchers have been invited to apply for a share of £1m to aid development of medical technologies aimed at tackling health inequalities and bring health and care closer to home for people living in Tayside.
The funding is being provided by Tay Health Tech, a consortium led by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University and the University of Dundee, in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University and the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews.
It aims to supports projects that enable patients to access healthcare in their homes or local communities from proof-of-concept through to commercialisation.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Tayside region is characterised by a blend of rural and urban communities, from primarily rural Angus to the urban centre of Dundee, which Tay Health Tech believes presents challenges to accessing healthcare facilities.
Professor Marc Desmulliez, a medical devices engineer and manufacturing technology expert at Heriot Watt University, said healthcare innovations could play a central role in tackling these inequalities:
“For example, in rural parts of Tayside, the nearest hospital can be many miles away and only reachable for people with easy access to transport. Healthcare innovations – for example, a device that could help patients with rehabilitation at home – can potentially remove this inequality and also help clinical staff by reducing hospital visits.”
Hospital at Home, rehabilitation, testing, and disease prevention and prognostics were chosen as the key ‘Grand Challenges’ by the Tay Health Tech team following feedback from a series of workshops conducted with NHS Tayside patients across the region.
Researchers at universities in the consortium and NHS Tayside are invited to apply for funding to further develop medical devices targeted at these areas.
Two levels of funding are available, to support both smaller, shorter projects at an earlier stage of development and larger, longer projects of up to two years that will take a project to a higher technology readiness level through further development.
Professor Desmulliez said the consortium is not looking for new technology ideas, and will instead focus on projects from engineering and physical sciences research that can be applied to community healthcare.
He added: “It’s all about accelerating the impact that these devices and technologies can make for communities. We think researchers will have current projects, but also maybe research they’ve worked on previously – that could open exciting new possibilities in community-based patient care.”
Funding application forms are available on the Tay Health Tech website.
Read more: Digital tool aims to tackle long dermatology waits; Adopting innovation can be ‘Once for Scotland’; Collaboration will reimagine patient pathways; Insight: Mapping pathways to transform the NHS;
Sign up to our bulletin sent twice a week so you don’t miss out on the latest health and social care news.
link