‘Let’s Get Digital’ will run for a year and will be looking for innovators who are working to develop solutions that deliver real benefit to professional health and care staff, patients, service users or carers using a digital platform. These innovations can come from entrepreneurs and teams working in SMEs, health and social care organisations, and the voluntary sector as well as patients and carers themselves.
John Farenden, Director of EY ‘Let’s Get Digital’, said: “It’s not a competition; it’s about giving people a chance to showcase what they are doing more widely.
“We want to seek out digital-based innovations that can reduce costs for the NHS and local authorities, have a measurable impact on improved health and social outcomes, reduce health inequalities, and which also make life easier for patients, their families and their carers.
“Recent findings from the #PdDigital15 conference highlighted the need for greater collaboration between patients and developers; for new forms of financing such as seed funding and crowdsourcing; and access to support and business skills. Let’s Get Digital allows EY to play its part in helping create these opportunities.”
Victoria Betton, Programme Director for mHealthHabitat, a digital health organisation and joint organiser of #pdDigital15, comments: “The potential for people driven digital innovation from the ground up should be recognised, understood and supported at a strategic level. It is only by people driving digital innovation that a change can be achieved and outcomes in health and care transformed.”
Successful applicants will have the chance to participate in a range of events and activities across the UK. They may apply for the EY Foundation’s Accelerate programme which provides coaching and business workshops to help SMEs and social enterprises grow, or simply to use the programme events to network with others.
Entrants will also have the opportunity to join the EY Start-Up Challenge, which last week saw ten tech start-ups embark on an intensive six-week innovation programme. The scheme provides access to mentors, training workshops and investor networking opportunities, as well as guidance around funding.
Participants will be invited to demonstrate their innovations to panels of experts from the fields of health and technology. The most impactful innovations of the year will be recognised at a ceremony in June 2016.
The Let’s Get Digital programme will accept applications from June until November 2015.
Please visit www.ey.com/uk/dip for more information.