Innovate Awards 2022 finalists announced

The finalists for The Innovate Awards 2022 have been revealed following a rigorous round of judging over the summer.

In its inaugural year, The Innovate Awards saw a grand total of 194 entries from health and care teams across the country covering ten award categories. The ten eventual winners will also compete for ‘Innovation Champion of the Year’ to be announced on the evening of the award ceremony in September.

The two finalists from the Wessex region are:

Shortlisted in the Innovation Helping Address Health Inequalities category

Written Medicine and London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, Reducing language barriers with bilingual medication information

Written Medicine is a tool that supports medication labelling in languages other than English, and is shortlisted with London North West Healthcare (LNWH) NHS Trust as the first NHS trust to provide bilingual pharmacy labels using this innovative solution. The collaboration with LNWH will soon make this process interoperable across prescribing, dispensing and discharge.

Wessex AHSN's Medicines Optimisation team hosted a round table discussion to explore how the tool could be more widely deployed within pharmacy teams to ensure patients understand their medicines, and to support compliance with the General Pharmaceutical Council standards around patient-centred care and effective communication. In November 2021 a round-table discussion report was produced. Our Industry specialists have also supported the innovator with a range of services to address health inequalities and realise growth opportunities.

Read more about Written Medicine

Shortlisted in the Innovative Health System of the Year category

Dorset Innovation Hub, Dorset Integrated Care System

The ‘Innovative Health System of the Year’ category recognises health and care systems where a culture of innovation is the bedrock of how things are delivered. It celebrates Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) with the culture, capability and track record of adopting and spreading innovation at scale.

Wessex AHSN supported the Dorset Innovation Hub during its setup phase (October 2021 to March 2022) and continue to provide support and advice on horizon scanning, adoption and spread methodologies, workforce development, and evaluation capabilities.

Read more about Dorset Innovation Hub

Commenting on the awards, Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation said:

“Judges across all the award categories have remarked on how impressive and inspiring the work contained in these submissions has been. It has been a delight to see the wonderful efforts taking place in terms of innovation in the health and care sector and it is hugely important to recognise and celebrate this.”

The 43 judges included prominent healthcare figures from NHS England, regional NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards, universities, patient involvement organisations, health equality organisations and innovation specialists. Read more about the judges. 

The award ceremony will take place on the evening of 29 September at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in Tower Bridge, London. Tickets are now available to book here.

The new Innovate Awards are brought to you by NHS Confederation and The AHSN Network.