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The 2023 Innovate Awards Winners

The second annual Innovate Awards were held on Thursday 21 September at a ceremony in London, attended by NHS leaders, innovators, and partners.

The Innovate Awards, delivered in partnership between the AHSN Network and NHS Confederation, celebrate innovation in health and care.

Technology thought-leader and Countdown arithmetician, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, hosted the ceremony. The keynote speech was delivered by Dr Vin Diwakar, the incoming National Director of Transformation in NHS England.

With more than 190 entries received, the expert panel of judges selected the following winners:

Net Zero Innovation of the Year

Winner

Open Medical: Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Achieves Remarkable Carbon Emission Savings with PathpointⓇ eTrauma and VFC

Highly Commended

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Kent and Medway: A recipe for emissions reduction success – A transparent and standardised methodology for carbon emission measurement through the NHS Emissions Quantification Recipe Book

The Diversity in Innovation Award

Winner

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: Use of oVRcome Virtual Reality Headsets to reduce social anxiety and phobias associated with Hospital visits in patients with Learning Disability and Autism in Mid and South Essex

Excellence in Patient and Public Involvement in Transformation and Innovation Award

Winner

University of Southampton: Championing patient co-design of an innovative resource to transform cancer genetics care pathways

Highly Commended

Breast Cancer Now: Breast Cancer Now’s Service Pledge: Using the power of the patient voice to improve breast cancer services

Innovation Spread Award

Winner

AHSN & Qbtech: Focus ADHD: Improving ADHD is diagnoses in children and young people

Highly Commended

Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System: Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System – Use of WHZAN for Remote Monitoring

Best Workforce Innovation Award

Winners

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals: Using robotic automatic to improve workforce systems

Highly Commended

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust: The NHS Community workforce of the future

Innovation Helping Address Health Inequalities

Winner

The Real Birth Company: The Real Birth Digital Programme

Highly Commended

NHS GM Bury: myHappymind in Bury

Outstanding Contribution to Population Health Through Innovation

Winner

Eastern AHSN (EAHSN), Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and BFB Labs: The power of 3: an AHSN, a NHS Trust and a Tech developer

Highly Commended

Holgate PCN and Energy Systems Catapult: Scaling up Warm Home Prescription in England and Scotland: a collaboration in Middlesborough between a PCN, social prescribers and energy advisors

Innovative Health System of the Year

Winner

Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System: Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System – Continuing to Push the Boundaries around Innovation

Highly Commended

NHS Cheshire & Merseyside: NHS Cheshire and Merseyside – World’s 1st Multimorbidity Multispecialty Heart Failure MDT

Outstanding Collaboration with Industry

Winner

Definition Health & Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust: Definition health and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust: Adoption of a digital solution to recover from COVID-19 and transform surgical pathways

Highly Commended

NHS Lothian and vCreate: Secure video integration and innovation by NHS Lothian

Enabling Safer Systems of Care Through Innovation

Winner

NHS South Yorkshire ICB, Doncaster: Safer Prescribing of Opioids in Doncaster

Best use of Data in Health Innovation

Winner

C2-Ai + Cheshire and Merseyside ICS – Prioritisation of the elective waiting list and prehabilitation

As well as the 11 categories open to entries, there was also a grand prix prize for the overall ‘winner or winners’ – the ‘Innovation Champion of the Year’. The winner of this award was selected from across all the winners by Dr Vin Diwakar, the incoming National Director of Transformation in NHS England.

The winner of the Innovation Champion of Year Award in 2023 is:

C2-Ai + Cheshire and Merseyside ICS – Prioritisation of the elective waiting list and prehabilitation

Richard Stubbs, Vice Chair of the AHSN Network and Chief Executive of Yorkshire and Humber AHSN, led the coordination of the awards.

He said: “As always it is incredibly humbling and inspiring to be able to recognise and celebrate the amazing work of our NHS staff and their partners as they improve the ways in which the health service provides patient care.

“There is so much energy and dedication shown by frontline staff to make sure that we all have the best outcomes and experiences when we need to use the NHS.

“Our job now is to make sure that all this amazing work is spread to every corner of the country so that everyone can benefit from these innovations.

“Well done to everyone who applied for the Innovate Awards, and congratulations to the fantastic winning teams.”

Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive at NHS Confederation, added: “Innovation is happening across the healthcare system – it’s essential that we take time out both to recognise and celebrate the achievements of NHS organisations and staff and highlight this to the wider NHS.

“Through shared learning, these innovations can reduce operational pressures and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery for patients. This second year of the Innovate Awards is a fantastic way to acknowledge the continuing hard work and creativity of NHS staff and help share this more widely across the whole service.

“We are delighted to have received over 190 submissions this year – thank you to everyone who shared their expertise and inventiveness and took the time to enter the awards.”