Digital innovation & the #mHealthHabitat – it’s the little things

Digital innovation & the #mHealthHabitat – it’s the little things

by | Mar 16, 2014 | #mHabitat, #NHStalktech, NHS stuff | 0 comments

Quite some time ago the lovely @amcunningham tweeted me a link to a post about why we are sometimes reluctant to share learning. The basic argument is that as we learn new things they become obvious to use and melt in to our background knowledge. As a result we don’t think it is special or worth sharing. It’s one of those little things that always stuck in the back of my mind. As we’ve been setting up the mHealthHabitat programme I’ve been reminded (and reminded myself) of the importance of capturing learning before we forget. Learning quickly becomes the status quo and when that happens we forget the potential power of sharing it with others. So this post captures a lovely learning point – about how innovation pops up in unexpected places and the importance of creating spaces for the unexpected to happen. It’s another way of celebrating the joy of serendipity which I’ve blogged about before. This week I hooked up with @FranBurrows for a coffee and a chat about Mindfull – ostensibly a chance to find out a bit more about what they do and add it to my list of interesting mHealth initiatives out there in  what sometimes seems to be a very crowded market. But Francis surprised me. His passion and enthusiasm compelled me. The care and cleverness of Mindfull impressed me. The user-centred design and development chimed with our values and orientiation to support the creation of a flourishing #mhealthHabitat in Leeds. And from our conversation exciting possibilities for collaboration emerged. The digital developments that Francis is curious about happen to align with those...
A game of two halves – from digital expert to digital exclusion

A game of two halves – from digital expert to digital exclusion

by | Nov 23, 2013 | #mHabitat | 6 comments

This week I experienced the extremes of digital expertise and digital exclusion, and it crystallised in my mind the enormous gap between them. From conversations with informatics experts about big data, through to conversations with clinicians about the challenges of mobile phone access for people with chaotic lives, I was struck by how far apart these two groups are and wondered what conversations could bring them closer together – because if digital is going to make a really positive difference to people accessing health services, it has to be solidly grounded in their experiences as well as what they need and what they want. Digital experts To begin with the experts – the launch of the Leeds Health Innovation Lab brought together mobile app developers and big data analysts as well as IT specialists and many others. The lab offers a new open platform with a variety of different data sets against which people can develop and test out digital solutions. I furiously scribbled down words such as openEHR, skunkworks, archetypes and APIs with a note to self to go home and make sense of it all later. We had a small group discussion about how to keep the patient or citizen at the heart of the lab and I was struck by the challenge of bridging such specific expert knowledge to people not already immersed in the technology and vice versa. Digitally excluded In stark contrast, I also spent time with our Assertive Outreach Team which supports the most vulnerable people, who often do not want to have any contact with services at all. People who use the...
Would you like to get involved in #DigiHealthLab?

Would you like to get involved in #DigiHealthLab?

by | Nov 17, 2013 | #mHabitat | 2 comments

Recently I attended the launch of MindTech – a Healthcare Technology Co-operative (HTC) based in Nottingham which will develop and test digital technologies in mental health care.  There is clearly tons of energy and a momentum building for digital in mental health but the range of apps and other digital tools can be bewildering. Where do you even start? In Leeds we hope to make sense of it all through #DigiHealthLab – a new locally funded initiative that aims make a positive difference to people experiencing mental health difficulties in my home city. I’ve introduced #DigiHealthLab in a previous post which you can find here. Over the next year (and possibly more) #DigiHealthLab will explore the use of digital tools in mental health services.  Our lab will bring people together to test out how digital can play a role in improving experience and outcomes. It might be about procuring existing digital products that are already out there or it might be about developing something from scratch – who knows! Working together collaboratively We do know that co-design will be at the heart of our approach – I’m really excited about the opportunity to collaborate with people accessing services and practitioners from the outset – a proper team effort from start to finish and one which I believe will be critical to how successful we are. Who we’ll be working with We plan to begin by collaborating with small teams made up of people using and working in the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders, Chronic Fatigue Service and a Community Mental Health Team. But we are keen to know who...
Welcome to #DigiHealthLab

Welcome to #DigiHealthLab

by | Sep 21, 2013 | #mHabitat | 0 comments

How can people use digital as part of their recovery and to live well? Can digital play a part in improving people’s experience and outcomes? Can digital increase choice and flexibility in mental health services? Does it have the potential make practitioner’s work more straightforward? Can digital enable services to work more smartly? These are the sorts of questions we are going to be exploring over the next year in #DigiHealthLab an initiative funded by the NHS in Leeds to test out the use of digital tools in a range of mental health services. Learning from the fabulous lab approach developed by Innovation Labs , co-production will be at the heart of this initiative – that is, both the process and the results will be generated by and for people who use services and practitioners, pulling in help and expertise that we need along the way. I will be directing #DigiHealthLab with support from project manager, Nikoo Atraki, and with a small group to keep us on track and steer us along the way. Our first job is to make sense of what is already out there that we can learn from – if you have anything to share do get in touch! We’ll be keeping a record of the journey on this blog so we can share our insights with others. If you are interested in playing a part in #DigiHealthLab then please get in touch via the comments section of this blog or @VictoriaBetton @NikooAtraki on...