A new culture of innovation in Scotland - the case for Digital Health & Care Institute: an example of a new innovation model for the delivery of digital health and care in Scotland

Following the spending review of 2011, the Scottish Government decided that all the public service organisations should have a role to play in growing the Scottish economy. To that effect, £124m were invested for setting up eight Innovation Centres in Scotland to create sustainable and internationally ambitious open-communities bringing together universities, academics, research institutes, businesses, health and care professionals and providers, third sector organisations and citizens, as well as the Scottish Government to deliver economic growth and other benefits for Scotland.

This good practice case drills into the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) set up by a consortium formed by the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow School of Arts and the NHS24. The remit of the DHI is to transform the way health and care is delivered within Scotland by constructively disrupting health and care provision through idea generation, innovating the right products and services and establishing a new digital health and care economy for Scotland. The DHI operations are based on a unique triple-helix innovation model, which consists of an Exploratory (helping to define an area of investigation or innovation), Laboratory (product design and development) and Factory (moving a known solution towards a marketable product). Since opening its doors in October 2013 the DHI has supported and facilitated nearly 90 research and development projects in different phases of maturity.