Health Fabric and Sandwell Council Secure Healthy Ageing Challenge Funding to Tackle Health Inequalities

Health FabricDigital health company Health Fabric is preparing to work with Sandwell Council after learning that it has secured support from The Healthy Ageing Challenge.

The company will work with public health experts and local communities on Healthy Sandwell programmes, following the successful bid to the "game changing" fund run by UK Research and Innovation and Innovate UK.

Health Fabric has created a platform called Unity that can be used to create health information in many languages and deliver it through an app. The technology is supported by a unique approach to engaging directly with BAME communities to encourage uptake and adoption.

Sandwell Council will be working with Health Fabric and local stakeholders for the next two years as part of its Healthy Sandwell initiative to improve health and well-being.

Public health experts will engage with 11 communities represented in the Sandwell Health Inequalities Programme, Sandwell BAME groups and other stakeholders to develop appropriate content and services for people with long-term conditions. These will include Type 2 diabetes and mental health conditions, as part of a wider plan of action to help people age well.

Councilor Suzanne Hartwell, Sandwell Council's cabinet member for adult social care and health said:

"This is a great digital intervention that can make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of our local residents. Receiving the right guidance and support to manage long-term health conditions can make a significant difference to people's quality of life. This digital intervention will provide this and make a tangible difference to our communities that may currently face barriers to easily access support."

Dr Lisa McNally, director of public health, Sandwell Council added: "This is an excellent achievement to have secured national backing for such an innovative project. We value and recognise the immense contribution that our community and faith groups deliver to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents and are excited to work in partnership with them again in ensuring the content of this app is meaningful and impactful."

Unity is a digital health platform that enables health and care professionals to segment their populations and create effective health and wellness campaigns.

It is designed to make access to health and wellness advice more equitable by supporting the creation of culturally sensitive information in many languages. Individuals can download this information through the Unity app.

The app also enables users to record data, such as mood or weight, and access self-help plans to address healthcare issues. Data and goals can be shared with family, friends and carers, so they can create an environment of support and encouragement.

Satnam Bains, the founder and chief executive of Health Fabric, said: "There were a lot of applicants to the Innovate UK competition, so we were really honoured to get through. This programme is the first of its kind in the UK, and it will be a great and rewarding opportunity to show how good public health initiatives can be supported by technology.

"Many ethnic minority communities struggle to access healthcare information in their own languages and this became a real issue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Sandwell saw how this contributed to the poorer outcomes experienced by some of our more deprived, ethnic communities. We are extremely pleased to be collaborating with them on this important initiative.”

The Healthy Ageing Challenge was set up to direct £14.4 million to projects that could deliver "clear, game-changing, service-led innovation to help people as they age."

UK Research and Innovation and Innovate UK were looking for projects that resolved unmet needs and supported businesses with "near to market" innovations that have the potential to scale.

The challenge fund initiative reflects the pressing need to find new ways to support the UK's ageing population. But the Sandwell project is also timely because there is a renewed focus at a national level of tackling health inequalities.

NHS England has urged local authorities and NHS commissioners, working in integrated care systems, to address inequalities and the poor outcomes that they can cause. The Unity platform is aligned with this agenda.

For example, it can support the Core20PLUS5 programme developed by NHS England. This focuses on the 20% most deprived people in society, plus communities that individual ICSs know to be at risk and aims to tackle five areas in which these groups experience poor health outcomes.

Bains concluded: "This project has been developed at just the right time. Health inequality is a really important hot topic at the moment, and we believe having this opportunity to work with Sandwell Council will show how we can help to deliver more equitable health and care."

About Health Fabric

Health Fabric is a digital health company that enables preventative models of healthcare where people proactively get the tools and support to manage one or more long term conditions. We believe digital experiences will transform the way healthcare is delivered to help people move to a self-service model of healthcare, proactively looking after themselves with trusted information, and support.

Most Popular Now

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

AI Medical Receptionist Modernizing Doct…

A virtual medical receptionist named "Cassie," developed through research at Texas A&M University, is transforming the way patients interact with health care providers. Cassie is a digital-human assistant created by Humanate...

Using Data and AI to Create Better Healt…

Academic medical centers could transform patient care by adopting principles from learning health systems principles, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of California, San Diego. In...

Northern Ireland Completes Nationwide Ro…

Go-lives at Western and Southern health and social care trusts mean every pathology service is using the same laboratory information management system; improving efficiency and quality. An ambitious technology project to...

AI Detects Hidden Heart Disease Using Ex…

Mass General Brigham researchers have developed a new AI tool in collaboration with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to probe through previously collected CT scans and identify...

AI Tool Set to Transform Characterisatio…

A multinational team of researchers, co-led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has developed and tested a new AI tool to better characterise the diversity of individual cells within...

Human-AI Collectives Make the Most Accur…

Diagnostic errors are among the most serious problems in everyday medical practice. AI systems - especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT-4, Gemini, or Claude 3 - offer new ways...

Highland Marketing Announced as Official…

Highland Marketing has been named, for the second year running, the official communications partner for HETT Show 2025, the UK's leading digital health conference and exhibition. Taking place 7-8 October...

MHP-Net: A Revolutionary AI Model for Ac…

Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer globally and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Accurate segmentation of liver tumors is a crucial step for the management of the...

Groundbreaking TACIT Algorithm Offers Ne…

Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a novel algorithm that could provide a revolutionary tool for determining the best options for patients - both in the treatment...

The Many Ways that AI Enters Rheumatolog…

High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is the standard to diagnose and assess progression in interstitial lung disease (ILD), a key feature in systemic sclerosis (SSc). But AI-assisted interpretation has the potential...