Scotland’s National Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI) will support the remobilisation of health and care services in Moray.
The centre is a collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde and will be the first project to commence as part of the Moray Growth Deal.
DHI has worked closely with the Moray community and partners since 2018 to identify and refine the key challenges and opportunities digital health and care innovation could bring to the local region and takes into consideration experiences over the last 18 months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor George Crooks OBE, chief executive, digital health and care innovation centre, said: “The Moray Growth Deal, having digital health and care as one of its key priorities ensures that we can position Moray and Scotland at the forefront of digital health and care innovation.
“This will not only benefit the people of Moray and Scotland but will create opportunities for Scottish businesses to grow and develop innovative products as well as secure inward investment. DHI is very pleased to be a strategic partner in the Growth Deal.”
The funding programme aims to support the remobilisation of health and care services and the economic recovery of the Moray region, by investing in research and innovation activities aligned to the digital health and care agenda.
The programme will include the creation of a state-of-the-art, anchored, demonstration and simulation environment (DSE) and enabling cloud infrastructure along with a spread of five co-designed Living Lab testbeds across the Moray region.
The Living Labs will focus on remobilisation and recovery of care services from COVID-19. The Living Labs will be open to all and focus on co-managed wellness, home first, mental health, smart housing and communities, and unscheduled care, reflecting the priorities identified through stakeholder engagement.
All research and development projects will be co-designed with person-centred needs at the heart of programmed activity and will deliver real-world evidence that will enable the innovations to be embedded in local services and potentially scaled to other parts of Scotland, the rest of the UK and globally.
The digital health investment will help support Moray to create a dynamic and creative digital health and care cluster enhancing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and secure the provision of sustainable public services whilst creating inclusive growth through the creation of new jobs, developing future skills and equitable access, and also contribute to the Net Zero ambitions of the UK
Simon Bokor-Ingram, chief officer for the Moray health and social care portfolio, said: “I am delighted that health and social care services have this opportunity to contribute through transformation to the lives of our residents, not only directly through how we deliver services, but also to the wider potential prosperity of our communities”.
