WMWHIN is the innovation delivery partner on the UHUK Innovation Programme. Cohort 1 convened 9 UHUK organisations to solve their highest priority challenges and build a platform to co-create solutions and discover efficiencies.
The challenge area for cohort 1 was workforce optimisation. The UHUK Innovation Programme was split into two phases, the first focusing on challenge definition and selection of innovators, and the second on product development.
During phase one, key stakeholders from UHUK were consulted in a series of meetings and workshops to identify their highest priority challenges. From this guidance, the WMHWIN team were able to scout 74 potential solutions, which through screening against industry standard benchmarks and a selection panel, were narrowed down to the 4 innovators on the programme.
Challenges Defined
- Creating ways to share information to improve call handling time and pathways assessments.
- Providing symptom specific worsening advice to save time, improve safety and reduce inappropriate re-attendance to services.
- Improving patient expectation by providing access to queue management and coordination information.
Phase two saw the WMHWIN team holding a number of expertise sharing workshops with both UHUK members and the innovators. This kicked off with the discovery sprint, a four day event held at Warwick University where the 4 innovators and UHUK were able to meet and ideate their solutions.
The remainder of this phase of the programme focussed on developing those solutions, iterating and improving on their prototypes based on feedback from participating UHUK members. This culminated in demo day, a showcase of the 6 solutions developed over the programme, witnessed by senior ICB colleagues and industry experts.
Outcomes
Take away
WMHWIN’s innovation programme has brought about two collaborations which is a frequent outcome of an innovation programme led in this way. The environment that is created encourages co-creation and collaboration amongst innovators. It creates value in identifying the problem solution fit in making the direct link from host to the innovator, whilst also finding value in collaboration from innovator to innovator and strengthening their proposition.




