Funded by the Department of Health, the University of Bristol is one of sixteen1 organisations across the region that will form the ‘Health Innovation and Education Cluster South West’ (HIEC SW) partnership. Together, they will shape an integral part of the academic health alliance that is key to the region’s future by ensuring effective and timely implementation of new developments in health.
HIEC SW’s vision is to promote uptake and diffusion of innovation into healthcare, to measure the improvement in quality of outcome achieved, and to ensure the development of a workforce that is actively engaged in innovation.
HIEC SW will focus initially on three key areas of work that are also priorities for the Strategic Health Authority, these are:
- Maternity and newborn care
- Planned care
- Prevention – avoiding needless emergency admissions to hospital
One of 17 clusters announced by Health Minister, Ann Keen, in December, HIEC SW will share £11 million of funding in the first year.
Peter Mathieson, Dean of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bristol said: “This is a very pleasing demonstration of the power that we have as a biomedical community in this region if we work together. We will work with the Strategic Health Authority to ensure that the HIEC SW brings tangible benefits to the population of the South West and to the workers in the sector.”
John Bewick, Director of Strategic Development at the South West Strategic Health Authority, said: “We are looking forward to working with the universities and NHS organisations in the South West to accelerate the pace of service improvement for local people.”