The event was organised by the Welsh Node of the National Virtual Incubator (NVI) Network, based at Swansea University’s eHealth Industries Innovation Centre (ehi²) in the College of Medicine.  This unique network links up, via Cisco telepresence, 12 nodes based in science parks, HE institutions and business incubators across the UK – with an aim to stimulate innovation and inter disciplinary interaction.

This pilot competition aimed to facilitate collaboration and reward new innovative eHealth solutions and applications in the field of Digital Healthcare. 

A series of workshops were held in September offering delegates at NVI Nodes in Swansea University and at Digital Greenwich London an opportunity to collaborate on new digital health solutions at their venues and virtually over telepresence through the NVI Network.

Attendees were encouraged to develop ideas in categories which included mHealth (mobile health); well-being and lifestyle; Clinical Information systems and data; and Telemedicine and Homecare.

Delegates came from a variety of backgrounds including the NHS, patient groups, academia and business.  The interactive atmosphere at the workshops resulted in teams coming up with a wide range of eHealth solutions, on the theme of ‘empowering patients and healthcare professionals’.  

From the 12 ideas generated at the workshops, teams then voted through the best five ideas to the competition final, which saw teams from Swansea and Greenwich in London given 10 minutes to pitch their new and innovative digital eHealth solutions to a panel of experts.

The winning team – SENSEi – impressed the judges with their innovative idea for a new  wearable technology and took the top prize, which included £5,000 and mentor support covering areas such as finance, funding, business planning, IP and Marketing. 

The winning team comprised Paul Lee, ABMU Health Board; Isobel Taylor, Graduate Researcher, Newport; Sara Boltman, Butterfly Project, Caerphilly and Ben Bacon, YScan, Oxfordshire.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart said: “The Welsh Government is pleased to have supported this innovative competition which encourages the development of e-health solutions and new technological opportunities and innovative approaches that could help improve healthcare and healthcare delivery for both the patient and the professional in Wales and across the UK.”

“We are very proud to have won this award,” said Isobel Taylor, from team SENSEi – a collaboration of people working across industry and academia.

“This event offered up a unique opportunity to work with a wide range of people, skills and expertise – from across the UK.  It has been a very rewarding experience for us all. 

“As a team we are passionate about our idea and the positive impact it can have for both the clinician and the patient.  We now look forward to taking our idea onto the next stage of development.” 

The Welsh NVI Node is supported by the Welsh Government

Welsh Government sponsors of the Challenge eHealth Innovation Awards 2014.

Pictured above are the winning team SENSEi, who impressed the judges with their innovative idea for a new wearable technology and took the top prize.