Innovation and systems development

Systems Development

Our vision for software development in NHSGGC and the West of Scotland region is to bring development functions together to share resources, showcase current developments and create a model for success. By collaborating and communicating with colleagues across the region, we can all benefit from new developments and innovations, while avoiding unnecessary duplication. The West of Scotland Development and Application Group (led by NHSGGC) is coordinating this work. 

NHSGGC have successfully created partnerships for development with NES Digital on a number of initiatives such as the COVID-19 Assessment tool. The Regional Stroke Application has been developed by NHSGGC using a common stylesheet. 

This will enable a sustainable, supported, safe environment for innovation and development to thrive both locally with NHSGGC and across the West of Scotland, to include: 

• Ongoing support for Cancer Services across the region 
• Development of applications to support regional MDT meetings 
• Molecular Genetics 
• Further rollout and development to regional centres of excellence for stroke application 
• Cancer treatment summaries 

NHSGGC experience in innovation already shows such approaches have the potential to: 

Change how care services are provided

Reduce the requirement for routine outpatient appointments through regular real-time patient monitoring from their home, as already being applied in the NHSGGC Dynamic Scot COPD innovation project. 

Improve sustainability

Reducing the need for patients to travel, e.g. for regional and national services provided by NHSGGC, a capability already being provided by the Board’s vCreate-Neuro video innovation project. This helps reduce indirect emissions and alleviates road traffic, reducing air pollution and travel expenditure. 

Assist and speed up clinical decisions

Supporting clinicians with risk stratified data and inputs from Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning models, as already being evaluated in chest x-ray triage and pathology prostate cancer detection in the NHSGGC iCAIRD Programme (iCAIRD being the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital diagnostics, a partnership with multiple universities and industry partners). 

Reduce waiting lists and emergency admissions

Enabling more rapid diagnosis and earlier intervention, as already being applied in the NHSGGC Opera Early Diagnostic Heart Failure innovation project. 

Remove manual processes

Automating and capturing data which in turn also enables further research, as being delivered by the NHSGGC TraumaApp innovation project in support of the national Major Trauma Centres. 

Robotic process automation (RPA) pilots to reduce the burden of routine tasks. 

Proactively identify patients at risk

Through analysis of health data already captured during other treatments, as being explored by the NHSGGC Osteoporosis risk identification using Machine Learning innovation project. 

Support the NHS Recovery Plan post COVID-19

Through all of these approaches, and transferring innovations proven successful in one disease-area into further priority areas. 

NHSGGC track record in delivering digital innovation has already been recognised nationally: 

As one of the largest healthcare organisations in the UK, NHSGGC has a strong research and innovation culture (see also R&I Strategy 2020-23) which responds to the challenges and priorities of the Board and wider health services, and seeks to maximise the health and economic benefits for our population. This supports community wealth building and contributes to our sustainable development ambitions. 

The Board has an Innovation Governance Group which draws on expertise including Research and Development, Medical Physics, Clinical, eHealth, Planning, ethics, regulatory and support services, and undertakes dozens of digital innovation projects each year. 

These are structured into programmes and partnerships which operate innovation models appropriate to their areas of focus; and include the West of Scotland Innovation Hub, iCAIRD and Living Lab programmes and Health Data Exchange partnership. Each provides processes for rapid assessment and prioritisation of proposed projects; supports clinical leads and innovators; and supports development of funding bids through Scottish, UK and international life-sciences sector opportunities. In addition, they co-develop, implement, and trial the new solutions; build evidence for their effectiveness; provide project management and regulatory support; and where agreed, support scaling the innovations into mainstream services. 

Continue to provide and develop its innovation Test Bed infrastructure where innovators can work within health and care environments; will continue to work with specialist clinical, medical, academic, technology and research specialists from across the life-sciences sector; will aim to keep NHSGGC at the forefront of digital healthcare; will focus on innovation aligned to NHSGGC and national priorities; and will establish further innovation programmes of work and collaborations where these can bring external resources, accelerate, and operationalise successful innovation in priority areas. 

West of Scotland Innovation Hub

Through hosting the West of Scotland Innovation Hub on behalf of the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, NHSGGC will continue to provide support and leadership for innovation across the West of Scotland; will continue to support all stages of innovation to deliver innovation activities focused on NHSGGC and national priorities; will scale-up and operationalise successful innovation, including in Respiratory, Cardiology, Neurology, and further areas as innovations and their evidence develop; and in 2023 and 2024 host national Innovation Clinical Fellow roles and Open Innovation Challenges as part of national collaborations with the Scottish Health and Industry Partnership. 

iCAIRD

During 2023 NHSGGC will complete its role in iCAIRD, which has allowed NHSGGC to build expertise and capabilities in early stages of AI development and evaluation. We will establish an NHSGGC-specific successor programme focused on AI innovation, evaluation, business cases and operationalisation where solutions are proven to improve efficiency of services, improve patient outcomes, automate tasks, and deliver improved value. 

Digital Pathology

A business case will be established to sustain the NHSGGC digital pathology service which the programme has delivered and has transformed NHSGGC’s pathology services. 

Health Data Exchange

NHSGGC will continue working with partners, including Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, to develop and deepen this innovation-enabling infrastructure and build evidence of benefits across health, care and third-sector use-cases. The Board, with its partners, will develop routes to operationalise this infrastructure. 

Living Laboratory

The Board will continue working with University of Glasgow and partners such as Stratified Medicine Scotland to deliver collaborations focused on bringing the benefits of precision medicine, research and innovation to Govan, Glasgow and beyond.