Brain in Hand, a digital self-management system for people suffering from autism, learning difficulties, and mental challenges have been announced as one of the 12 high-impact innovations for the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) for 2021.
The NIA fellowship has also been awarded to Heather Cook, the Director of Partnerships at Brain in Hand. The fellowship with avail him the opportunity to collaborate with policymakers and leading influencers to have a progressive understanding of the problems and prospects of digitally supported care in the health and health care system.
The NIA, a leading English NHS initiative collaborates with the 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) to provide highly proactive and evidenced-based innovations across the NHS and the large healthcare system, assisting them with the delivery of the long-term plan. Beneficiaries of the highly competitive fellowship opportunities are provided with the infrastructural needs, links, and necessary materials needed to enable execution as at when due.
Practical support, a user-friendly system that combines self-managed, user support, and digital technology to assist people with autism and neurological differences to control anxiety, plan their activities and manage themselves. This self-managed support technique enables people to manage their lives and take control of phenomena around them and reduces the burden traditional caregivers experience while leveraging modern digitalized methods of caregiving.
This is the second achievement award of Brain in Hand, having being awarded the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Health Care Phase 2, worth €800,000 in autumn 2020. Overall, this program will achieve wide-scale deployment within the NHS.
Effective collaborations between industry, academia, and the health and social care system are germane to a progressive transformation of service provision and delivery. Brain in Hand has maintained a sustained collaboration with relevant stakeholders since its inauguration and is its driving force. The NIA fellowship provides an opportunity to work with stakeholders (Clinicians, Commissioning bodies, academia, and users) to solve the problems and technicalities of the use of digitally enabled tools in caregiving, minimizes health inequalities for neurodivergent people, and improve the integration of health and social care. This is in line with the vision of Brain in Hand to make vulnerable people independent and access self-managed health care support.
Heather Cook, Brain in Hand’s Director of Partnership said “It is my pleasure to be appointed a fellow on the highly prestigious NHS Innovation Acceleration Programme”. It is an honor for Brain In Hand to be accorded recognition as an evidence-based innovation, with the prospect to develop wide access to the health and social care system. Critical and progressive collaboration is our watchword. Giving the opportunity to leverage and work with peers and to collaborate with decision-makers and influencers within the Health and Social system will allow us to execute solutions that will be of immense benefit to users and service providers.
Speaking on Brain in Hand’s collaborative medium to positively effecting a change in the present model of care delivery, Lorna Green, director of enterprise and growth at the Innovation Agency, the Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast remarked “It is fulfilling to give our support to an innovative local company and see their outputs yielding positive results”.
There are numerous work of innovation going on in the industry prospects for all in the health care system. We are excited about this collaboration and are optimistic about a robust future partnership with Brain in Hand.