Local change, national impact: Meet Health Innovation Wessex

Every health innovation network is rooted in its local health and care system, understanding the unique needs of its population, and bringing together the right partners to find, test, implement and scale proven innovation. 

Every place is different. Every challenge is different. Innovation, like any large-scale policy or transformation plan, requires a level of local translation and personalisation to ensure its appropriateness for the unique needs of different populations. Innovation is not a one size fits all solution. 

In their own distinct regions, the 15 local networks deliver local change, and coming together as the Health Innovation Network they collectively drive national impact —improving patient outcomes, increasing NHS productivity and supporting economic growth. The successful implementation of innovation, at pace, would not be possible if they weren’t operating a local level, and connecting at a national one.  

Wessex region at a glance: 

Population served: 2.7m  

Number of ICSs: 2  

Signature programmes/priorities: Cardiovascular, renal and metabolic health; cancer and genomics; healthy ageing; digital and AI; medicines optimisation; women’s health; insight and evaluation.   

One standout impact statistic: In 2025–26, Health Innovation Wessex supported more than 300 companies and 310 innovations, providing over 4,200 hours of support.   

What are the biggest health and care challenges facing your region right now? 

Health Innovation Wessex (HIW) serves the regions of Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, catering to an approximate population of 2.7 million people. Wessex spans urban centres, rural communities, a long coastline and the Isle of Wight.  

This diversity is one of our strengths, but it also creates different patterns of need and barriers to accessing care. Despite some areas in our region being among the most affluent communities in England, there are pockets of stark health inequalities. Some communities experience deprivation, digital exclusion, transport challenges and poorer access to services, while our ageing population is increasing demand for support with frailty, dementia, multiple long-term conditions and independent living. Tackling this inequity is central to our missions. 

We are concentrating our local work where Wessex has both significant need and the partnerships to make a difference:  

• Cardiovascular, renal and metabolic health, with an emphasis on prevention, earlier identification and reducing inequalities 
• Cancer and genomics, helping more people benefit from earlier diagnosis, precision medicine and innovative models of care 
• Healthy ageing, supporting prevention, proactive care, rehabilitation, dementia support, falls prevention and care closer to home 
• Medicines optimisation, including pharmacogenomics and reducing harm from problematic polypharmacy in an older population. 

What's one example of an innovation that's making a real difference locally? 

Pocketalk: helping maternity services communicate more safely and effectively  

Clear communication is fundamental to safe, equitable maternity and neonatal care, but conventional interpreting arrangements are not always immediately available when staff and families need them. Health Innovation Wessex supported the piloting and evaluation of Pocketalk, a handheld translation device designed to help people communicate across language barriers at the point of care.  

We worked with local maternity and neonatal partners to understand how the technology could be used in practice, build the evidence for implementation and support adoption. This work helped the local system make an informed decision to purchase 300 devices.  

The programme shows the value of a well-connected, embedded regional health innovation network: identifying a practical solution, testing it in a real NHS setting, generating evidence and helping the system move from a promising idea to wider use. The evaluation estimated that reduced reliance on interpreter services could potentially generate annual savings of £6.3 million from just one device in a ward saving an hour per day of interpreter time, alongside faster communication between staff and families. 

“Health Innovation Wessex provided exceptional support throughout the implementation of the Pocketalk device and proved to be an excellent partner in helping enhance communication for non-English-speaking service users. We look forward to continuing this collaboration throughout the evaluation phase and beyond.” 

Alison Lambert, Family Experience and Inclusion Midwife, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust 

Who are your most important partners, and what makes those partnerships successful? 

In Wessex, we have a uniquely collaborative ecosystem. We successfully harness the collective skills of the NHS, academia, industry, local government, the voluntary sector and communities to identify, adopt and scale innovations that address the challenges that matter most to our population. Drawing on these unique strengths, we accelerate the journey from evidence to adoption, drive economic growth, and ensure more people benefit from proven innovation, more quickly. 

Key partnerships include our two integrated care systems, Wessex Cancer Alliance, NHS Central and South Genomics, universities and NIHR infrastructure, the Wessex Secure Data Environment, and Wessex Health Partners, the region’s Academic Health Science Partnership. These collaborations are enabling earlier cancer diagnosis, faster adoption of genomic medicine, stronger research translation, real-world evidence generation and greater connectivity between NHS, academic and industry partners. We also work directly with patients, citizens and community organisations so that innovation is shaped by lived experience and does not widen inequalities.  

Through a co-funded Genomics Innovation Director and collaborative programmes, Health Innovation Wessex is helping position the region as a leader in personalised medicine and innovation adoption. Partnerships with Wessex Cancer Alliance are accelerating uptake of technologies that support national ambitions to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages 1 and 2 by 2028, while research and implementation partnerships are helping move evidence into practice more quickly. The Wessex Secure Data Environment partnership includes a jointly funded role of Chief Commercial Officer to support innovators to access opportunities in research and data-enabled transformation through greater use of secure NHS data. 

These partnerships are successful because they combine complementary strengths: local insight, clinical leadership, research capability, commercial expertise, robust evaluation and practical implementation support. Health Innovation Wessex acts as a convenor, helping partners align around a shared need and to move evidence-based solutions into routine care. 

What are you most proud of achieving in the last 12 months? 

A major regional achievement is the ‘Wessex Working Together’ initiative, which has brought together leaders from health, care, academia, industry and local government to develop a shared vision for Wessex as a leading life sciences and innovation cluster. This has strengthened regional collaboration, is raising the region’s national profile, and has laid strong foundations for future investment, innovation and economic growth across the region’s health and life sciences sector. 

We are also proud of the breadth of innovation support delivered across Wessex in 2025–26. We supported more than 300 companies and 310 innovations and provided over 4,200 hours of support. Behind those figures is practical work to help innovators navigate the NHS, strengthen their evidence, understand local need and prepare for adoption, while helping health and care teams find, evaluate and implement solutions that can improve outcomes and productivity.  

Tell us one thing people may not know about your region.  

Wessex is developing a distinctive One Health proposition that connects human, animal, plant and environmental health. The One Health Enterprise Network brings these capabilities together, with TESTBED Dorset providing a distributed, place-based environment spanning farms, protected landscapes, coastlines and communities. It gives innovators the opportunity to develop and evaluate solutions under real social, environmental and regulatory conditions, including approaches to biosecurity and climate-related health risks.  

This sits within a wider life sciences ecosystem that links discovery, research, evaluation, NHS adoption and economic growth across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Dorset and neighbouring partners.