Winners of Holyrood’s Digital Health and Care Awards revealed

AI-powered systems slashing waiting lists, projects offering digital support to the most vulnerable, and digital solutions helping to tackle the drug deaths crisis have all been recognised at the 2025 Holyrood Digital Health and Care Awards.

The awards, which celebrate digital innovation across health and social care, were held at The Caledonian hotel in Edinburgh last night and celebrated excellence in seven separate categories.

Hosted by award-winning health journalist Pennie Taylor, the event celebrated its eight anniversary gathering representatives from the public, private and third sector.

Kathy Harrison took home the Digital Leader Award for successfully managing the DataLoch team. The service has securely stored and linked primary and secondary care data across the Lothian region to help researchers adress important health and care challenges.

The Data Driven Innovation Award went to NHS Grampian for its GEMINI project, which uses artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer. Gathrering data from 10,000 women, combined with North East of Scotland Breast screening services and analysis by the University of Aberdeen, the project managed to boost cancer detection by more than 10 per cent.

Blackwood Homes and Care took home the Technology Enabled Independent Living Award for its 24/7 digital responder service, which allows customers to manage their care without in-person visits.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Insource were awarded the Industry Collaboration Award for their cancer pathway management solution Patient Pathway Plus, which has significantly slashed cancer waiting times in the region.

The Digital Inclusion Award went to Digital Lifelines for its work on solutions to keep those at risk of drug misuse away from harm.

IT consultancy Red Star took home the Digital Service Transformation Award for its fragility fracture management system which has cut waiting lists by more than a half and increased capacity by more than 90 per cent across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.