New £1m tech fund to reduce health inequalities

A Tayside health initiative has launched a £1m funding call for medical technologies which could help relieve pressures on the health sector and reduce health inequalities.

Successful applicants will get support to develop and commercialise their projects, which are hoped to bring health and care closer to communities and “prevent unnecessary visits to the hospital”, Professor Marc Desmulliez, a medical devices engineer at Heriot-Watt University, said.

The funding call is underpinned by four “grand challenges” which are hospital at home, rehabilitation, testing, and prevention and prognostics.

These challenges were identified following a series of workshops with NHS Tayside patients which covered disadvantaged, affluent, city and rural areas and focused on lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and substance use.

Professor Desmulliez said: “We are looking for existing outputs from engineering and physical sciences research that can be applied to community healthcare – rather than ideas for new technologies. 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.”

The funding call will be separated into two rounds, with the first focusing on smaller, shorter projects needing support for the proof of market or proof of concept stages, and the second targeting larger, longer projects of up to two years ready to take their innovation to the next technology readiness level.

Potential technologies could include anything from those that enable at-home testing and support rehabilitation exercises to those that help to maintain positive mental health, or remote monitoring that flags when expert oversight is needed.

Desmulliez added: “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.”

Tay Health Tech is led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Dundee, in collaboration with NHS Tayside Innovation and Dundee City Council.

These partners and another three universities from the Tay Health Tech consortium – the University of St Andrews, University of Glasgow and Edinburgh Napier University – are included in the funding call.

Professor Michael MacDonald, a biomedical photonics expert at the University of Dundee’s Centre for Medical Engineering and Technology, said: “We’re excited to be launching this call for innovations that can help us transform healthcare delivery in Tayside. Our long-term goal is to improve how patients experience healthcare, by decentralising healthcare delivery, and also reduce pressure on the NHS.”