Gathering insight to increase impact Sophie Knight, Principal Advisor at Eastern AHSN, explains how we have ensured that we understand the impact of innovation on health inequalities so that we can improve outcomes for everyone. We know that health is improved when great ideas are put into practice. But how do you know that implementation has been a success? How do we ensure that implementing a new way of delivering a service wont further entrench health inequalities? We have been working with partners to develop insight from real-world validation of innovation projects across the East of England. In this article, we briefly describe three ongoing projects that will deepen our understanding of how some important healthcare technologies work in practice for patients and staff. Two of these projects have not yet reported in full and will feature in subsequent annual reports, but we are delighted to have expanded our work into this area, working closely with our partners at the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England (NIHR ARC EoE). Assessing how remote-monitoring pathways affect different patient groups Over this year, we have worked in partnership with the NIHR ARC EoE to evaluate how remote monitoring can track a wide range of conditions at home, and who it can help most. The project has received funding from the NHS Insights Prioritisation Programme (NIPP) to create practical and accessible implementation guidance for healthcare organisations and patients, highlighting how to make the best use of remote monitoring. Findings will also support healthcare providers and commissioners looking to implement new remote-monitoring pathways, including key factors for consideration during planning, set-up and delivery, as well as how to engage hard-toreach groups. We worked with the East of England Citizens Senate to ensure representation of a Lived Experience Advisory Panel to help steer the project. The team is currently analysing the data with a view to publishing the findings in the summer of 2023. Find out more about our work supporting remote-monitoring pathways. Addressing health inequalities through innovation at a system level The Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme (InHIP) has been commissioned by NHS Englands Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), in partnership with the AHSN Network. The programme offers funding and support to integrated care systems (ICS) to enable the adoption of NICE-approved technologies and medicines that address clinical priorities within the NHS Core20PLUS5 framework. We have been working with our local ICS partners to launch four projects within InHIP, aimed at improving the detection and management of atrial fibrillation (AF), supporting lipid management, and increasing the uptake of bowel cancer screening in prioritised Core20 and/or PLUS populations. To date, our system partners in Hertfordshire and West Essex have held three community engagement events, in areas with a high prevalence gap for AF. The heart health check events provide education on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and offer health checks. From these events, 15 patients have been identified as at risk of CVD and supported to access follow-up in primary care. A patient, giving feedback on a session, said it was good to have this information for people from ethnic communities. A full report on this work will be published in March 2024. Find out more about our work helping ICSs in our region to address health inequalities here. While the pandemic provided an incentive to quickly redesign outpatient services, it also shone a light on health inequalities arising from how services are delivered How do digital rehabilitation programmes impact health inequalities? We partnered with engagement specialists to gain a clearer picture of how rehabilitation support was being delivered remotely, and the impact on health inequalities. Commissioned by the East of England Rehabilitation Network and the East of England Trauma Network, the project involved a rapid evidence review of current guidelines and Find out more about this work, and download the final report, on our website a service provider survey, to develop a report that shares quality improvement recommendations and case studies of the patient and provider perspective. We presented our findings to 46 rehabilitation and health inequalities professionals and facilitated discussions on how we can best embed the reports recommendations in services across our region. Rachel Wakefield, regional chief allied health professional for the East of England, NHS England, said: While the pandemic provided an incentive to quickly redesign outpatient services, it also shone a light on existing health inequalities arising from how services are delivered. As we continue to explore how digital solutions can be best applied in rehabilitation pathways, its important that we understand what effect they have on different parts of our population. This wasnt easy, but this project enabled us to identify best practice for digital rehabilitation services and embed it throughout services in our region. This will hugely benefit patients and was only possible because of Eastern AHSNs expertise, adaptability and perseverance. Share this article |f you have an idea to tackle health inequalities, get in touch; enquiries@eahsn.org. Return to About Us Up next: How we have been tackling the cancer challenge in our region.