New Wellcome Trust and Dept of Health Funding Award
19 Mar 2010
The Wellcome Trust and Department of Health have recently launched a joint £100 million funding initiative the 'Health Innovation Challenge Fund' to stimulate the creation of healthcare innovations for the benefit of patients in the NHS and beyond.
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF) is a £100 million, five-year parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health. The funders are collaborating to stimulate the creation of innovative healthcare products, technologies and interventions, and facilitate their development for the benefit of patients in the NHS and beyond. The HICF will have a succession of thematic calls for proposals, each selected to focus on unmet needs in healthcare relevant to the NHS, and will support innovative developments that are within three to five years of launch or adoption.
Early recognition of symptoms, prompt diagnosis and effective intervention can have a significant impact on acutely ill patients. Delays or inappropriate treatment can lead to short-term morbidity, long-term disability or even death. For the health and social care systems it can result in increased costs due to an extended hospital stay, the need for long-term support and a range of socio-economic factors e.g. impact on family and work.
Effective time-critical intervention is relevant in many settings e.g. paramedics, pre-hospital care, military medicine, emergency departments, intensive care units, surgery, perioperative care and hospital inpatients.
By providing health professionals with greater diagnostic and treatment capabilities it is suggested that they will be able to better deal with emergency situations such as trauma, improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.
The Department of Health is uniquely placed, as both a healthcare system provider and a major R&D funder, to pioneer the evaluation of innovative products within the context of the patient treatment pathway at all levels of healthcare, including the community.
Deadline for preliminary applications is 4th May 2010
For further information please click here