On September 24, CW Innovation marked its two-year anniversary with a virtual webinar featuring a stellar list of guest speakers from the health sector, as well as announcing a new partnership with C-Score in continuation of their work to drive forward the very latest in healthcare solutions.
CW Innovation, led jointly by CW+ and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, tests and scales high-impact innovations that improve patient care and the way hospitals are run.
Its role is to look for new and innovative solutions which address the fundamental challenges faced by today’s healthcare bodies.
Reflecting on the milestone, Chris Chaney, chief executive of CW+, spoke about how the Covid-19 pandemic over the last 18 months has fast-tracked new technologies and innovations across the Trust, which have culminated in fundamental changes to how care is delivered to patients.
Chaney said: “Two years ago, we launched CW Innovation, a partnership between Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and its charity CW+. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a huge amount of pressure on the NHS and across our healthcare system and acted as a catalyst for innovation and new thinking in healthcare across the UK.
“We have advanced at pace in response to the pandemic and introduced a range of digital systems and platforms into our day-to-day functioning to help us continue to deliver safe, consistent and high-quality clinical care whilst helping to make things easier for our patients.”
CW Innovation boasts a portfolio of over 80 projects which have seen it recognised nationally as an emerging leader in the field of innovation and an early-adopter and designer of transformative, next-generation services and care tools. These include major advancements such as the Klick mobile app, which allows patients with stable HIV to manage their condition remotely and communicate with their healthcare team from home.
The organisation’s increased use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning over the last two years is now putting real-time data and analytics into the hands of clinicians, enabling them to correctly diagnose health conditions at the first time of asking and identify patients with deteriorating health far quicker.
The anniversary webinar’s line-up of guest speakers included a string of notable individuals, such as health secretary the Rt. Hon Sajid Javid MP; Pete Hansell, co-founder of ISLA; and keynote speaker, Professor Tony Young, National Clinical Lead for Innovation and founder of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.
Speaking on the webinar, health secretary Sajid Javid said: “The pandemic has clearly shown the necessity of our mission to transform health and social care through new technologies. The fact that the NHS was able to stand strong during this time was due to pioneers like those at CW Innovation and the commitment they have shown to embracing digital transformation.
“I have read some incredible stories of what has been going on at Chelsea and Westminster and how it has supported some 120 ground-breaking projects over the last two years. It is clear to see that they are setting the standard not just for the NHS but for the entire technology sector. The work being done will have a huge impact on patients and frontline colleagues alike.
“The way CW Innovation is striking bold partnerships with industry, by pioneering new methods of treatment and fostering a culture of innovation on the frontline, is exactly what we need if we are to fulfil our ambitions.”
Following a successful first two years of operation, Chaney explained that CW Innovation’s priorities going forward would be to continue to expand capacity and create new spaces to foster the development of real-world solutions for real-world issues in healthcare.
“The next step for CW Innovation is to continue to grow our capacity in order to capture the latest thinking and bright ideas both from our own staff and those all across the NHS. We must create dedicated spaces for innovation, where patients, staff, academics, companies and entrepreneurs can come together to create real-time solutions for the real-time problems that our teams are facing every day.
“We need to look to the future and think about next generation technologies to improve the way we provide care and also to teach the next generation of doctors and nurses.”
Indeed, the CW Innovation programme has already made further headway by striking a new partnership with C-Score, a free app developed by Chelsea Digital Ventures and global tech giant Huma that provides a holistic way for users to measure and monitor their general health.
Chaney explained that the new partnership will enable it to better support staff heath and wellbeing, while revealing that a new wellness programme is currently being developed for patients.
He said: “We are delighted to be working with C-Score in new and innovative ways to help our staff and patients improve their health and wellbeing. Never before has it been more important to promote healthy living and reduce health inequalities.
“CW Innovation’s expanding portfolio of partnerships with organisations like C-Score, has helped us to respond to the rapidly changing needs of our patients and staff. With digital innovation front and centre at the Trust, we’ve embedded people and processes internally, and attracted strategic partners externally to continue to innovate at pace and address the most urgent challenges faced by healthcare organisations today.”
