The Department of Health (DoH) has announced the winners of its information sharing challenge fund, which hopes to improve patient experiences through the creation of new digital services.
Almost 100 proposals were submitted to the DoH after it announced the scheme in August 2012, enabling NHS organisations to bid for up to £99,000 to build the solutions.
Today it named the 41 successful NHS Trusts which will share a pot of £.2m for the schemes.
Projects range from DrDoctor, a mobile feedback service at Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals, through to Urgent Care Clinical Dashboard, which provides real-time information about attendees at Wrightington Wigan & Leigh's A&E department.
"This money marks a significant leap forward in encouraging local innovation to allow for effective information sharing between NHS organisations, social services and the third sector," said Bill McAvoy, interim director of intelligence, patients and information at the NHS Commissioning Board Authority.
"This makes for an exciting opportunity to pave the way for more collaborative patient-centred working across the NHS," he said.
Once the pilot projects have been implemented, the idea is for Trusts to share the schemes with one another, allowing for a widescale roll-out to benefit more patients across the NHS.
Up to 60 external suppliers will be used to build the IT services, focusing on areas such as Telehealth and clinical dashboards.
A full list of the projects can be found here.
