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£4m innovative Digital Health Hub will support patients across South Yorkshire

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is one of the key partners in a three-year project to develop a £4m digital health hub which will support patients across South Yorkshire.

A £4m innovative Digital Health Hub has been set up to support patients across the region.

The South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub, led by the University of Sheffield, will bring together academics, researchers, NHS organisations, GPs, mental health services, patient and public groups, industry partners, engineers, designers and computer scientists, to fast track the development of a wide range of digital health technologies.

The cutting-edge research will include combining NHS data with smartphone technology to monitor symptoms of neurological disease via video assessments, using wearable devices to track symptoms in patients with cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurological disease, evaluating home-based fingerprick testing to measure kidney function and using artificial intelligence to develop new clinical tools.

South Yorkshire is one of five UK-wide University-funded Hubs.

Professor Wendy Tindale, Scientific and Innovation Director for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals said: “The Digital Health Hub is an excellent example of collaboration and partnership across South Yorkshire which aims to make a more immediate difference to patients’ lives through digital technology. The hub will also have a focus on training to ensure we make the best use of new digital technologies to improve patient care and quality of life. Partnerships with industry will enable us to have a laser focus on what will make a difference.”

Professor Tim Chico, Director of the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub, said: “People in South Yorkshire are affected by widening health inequality and high levels of disease, including heart and lung disease, cancer and mental health issues. This investment in cutting-edge health technology research aims to tackle the issue by developing digital healthcare to use in the NHS and benefit patients in our region and beyond. The hub will allow colleagues from healthcare, academia, business and patients to come together to drive pioneering digital health which will transform the way we treat and diagnose diseases and most critically improve health.”

The South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Health Ageing and Wellbeing and Tackling Infections UKRI Strategic Themes.

ENDS