NHS Digital Fund Council Led Projects

NHS Digital awards £1.4 million to fund council-led projects that aim to improve social care with technology.

14:59 26 September 2018

18 council-led projects that aim to improve social care using the latest technology will be funded by the NHS Digital. Each council will receive between £25,000 and £179,000 that they can use to support data sharing and benefit from machine learning technology that can boost early intervention. Winning bidders can use technology, such as Skype to share information when discharging patients from hospitals into care and predictive analytics that can identify people who are at an early stage of high-risk admission. 

 

NHS Digital's head of the social care programme James Palmer said: "The successful projects span a wide range of areas and give a glimpse into the future of social care. From giving care providers access to hospitals' electronic patient records in real time, reducing delayed discharges, to providing healthcare professionals with live social care alerts," said NHS Digital's head of the social care programme James Palmer.

 

"There is great potential for these projects to be replicated easily to deliver benefits quickly for the system and pave the way for a truly integrated future. The work on predictive analytics is significant given its potential to support people at earlier stages which may help to reduce the need for long-term social care.

 

"Through the use of predictive models that forecast service need and target interventions, we have the chance to help people remain independent, in their own homes, for longer."