£3 million invested in Scottish digital health tech

One of Scotland’s Innovation Centres has facilitated over £3 million investment in budding digital health technologies and systems that could lead to a new digital health and care economy worth £400 million by 2020 and position Scotland as a world leader in digital health and care.

The Digital Health Institute is leading the way in health technology innovation in Scotland. Picture: Mark Bastin

The Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI), which is celebrating its second anniversary, has awarded over £1.1 million for approved projects to fund academic research and input to projects exploring the use of new technology and information services that will improve health and care for Scotland’s communities.

In addition, DHI has facilitated contributions from private and public sector companies and organisations in time, resource, product and licensing costs to the value of £1.9 million, providing a total project portfolio worth in excess of £3 million.

The DHI is one of Scotland’s eight Innovation Centres and was set up in 2013 to bring together individuals and organisations in the health and social care, charity, technology, design and academic sectors to develop new ideas for digital health and care products and services that will meet current and future demographic challenges and improve the delivery of health and care services for Scotland’s communities.

Currently, the DHI is supporting 85 live projects involving 150 partners and 5,000 patients and health care professionals.

Justene Ewing, chief executive at DHI said:

“Our first two years of operation have been hugely successful, with above target projects currently being developed and tested and we have ambitious plans for the future, including the development of a purpose-built simulation facility to allow projects to be quickly prototyped and tested in realistic environments such as GP surgeries, hospital wards, pharmacies, care settings, back office support and patient homes.

“Scotland has the digital infrastructure, capability, expertise and innovative spirit to become an international centre of excellence in the growing field of digital health and care. Our role is to encourage and facilitate the innovation process with a range of partners to transform how care is delivered.