Innovation scans are an important way for Health Innovation Wessex to identify new ways of working.
We have just delivered two innovation scans with very different focuses: one on wearable technology that will monitor vital signs continuously and the second on innovations that will support the reduction of isolation and loneliness and improve social connectedness. Both aim to share with colleagues safe, evidence-based innovations that are ready to be adopted. We will be holding an ICB marketplace event to explore the innovations further. A number will be prioritised for innovation adoption to support strategic ambitions
The starting point is often a conversation with a system partner who has an issue within their service or any area they want to improve. For the first scan, the team wanted to find out about new ways of remote monitoring of vital signs, wanting to know if there was there something to replace the traditional blood pressure cuff and heart monitors. This would be easy to use for people when they are unwell and would allow for continuous monitoring, so the nursing team would see any changes in real-time. For the second scan, the team wanted to find new tools, systems or support mechanisms that would encourage interactions between people and make these easily accessible to all, with no associated cost.
The Innovation Adoption team developed a brief for both scans, which explained the problems and defined the scope of the ask. The Industry and Innovation team then undertook searches across the Health Innovation Network and other information sources, gathering lots of detail about the innovation, its current use cases, any evidence of impact etc.
The final innovation scan report contains some background, summary and comparison tables, a long list of innovations that meet the need and next steps with the relevant teams.
