The ALLIANCE Digital Health and Care programme 2021 review

Working together to help people understand and navigate digital health and care.

Last year began with a holistic look at our health, recognising our wellbeing is impacted by wide a range of factors (that aren’t always medical) like our environment or job. My World My Health was one of four projects commissioned by Nesta on behalf of the Scottish Government, to explore the attitudes of people living in Scotland on data sharing and service design. In partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, we used innovative ways to engage with people and found that there was a good appetite for this type of discussion, which you can explore further in our full project report.

May saw the launch of our Digital Citizen Panel. The Panel aims to shape and inform the delivery of digital programmes and approaches across health, social care and housing across Scotland. The panel has brought together 250 people, by recruiting an impressive 90 members and delivering 10 successful events. We delivered these together with stakeholders from across health, care, housing and Scottish Government. In 2022 the Panel is looking to broaden its representation by recruiting more people with lived experience and seldom heard voices.

With the challenges of the pandemic, Discover Digital had to be adaptive and innovative throughout 2021. The project was guided by a set of refreshed aims: enabling outreach and inclusion, promoting digital and health literacy, developing meaningful signposting and supporting the wider landscape. Through this need to adapt, the Discover Digital Guide was created to support people to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence that they require to effectively engage with digital health and care tools.

Discover Digital also awarded small grants to seven organisations to engage with seldom heard groups. With digital expanding at such a rapid rate, people from these communities can often be left behind and we wanted to better understand their needs and barriers to accessing digital health care wellbeing services. You can explore the insights through project reports or snapshot animations (this link will take you away from our website)

Last year saw human rights in digital health and social care being brought to the forefront. We worked in partnership with Scottish Care and VOX (Voices Of eXperience) to support the development of rights based digital health and social care policy and practice across Scotland. This involved the formation of five principles which were developed and refined by speaking to individuals and stakeholders across Scotland. Following this, we didn’t just focus on the theory of these principles, we brought together examples of these principles at the heart of organisations and work being delivered. These are showcased in our latest Human Rights Principles paper.

The ALLIANCE continued to influence the wider Scottish Digital Health and Care landscape, through our response to refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy and by providing evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on Data and Digital Services in Health and Social Care. This influence will not end in 2022, we will continue to be involved in the development Scotland’s first ever Data Strategy for Health and Social Care and other opportunities to promote the voice of lived experience and our growing membership.

Be a part of helping to shape digital health and care innovation in Scotland. Get involved in our upcoming opportunities by keeping an eye on our web pages or Twitter (this link will take you away from our website).

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