The digital healthcare company is offering the money to Integrated Care Systems to deploy its digital health coaching service.
London-based digital healthcare company Holly Health has announced a £320,000 Prevention Innovation Fund, offering up to four Integrated Care Systems, or the equivalents in Scotland and Wales, up to £80,000 credit each towards deploying a proven, psychology-based digital health coaching service, to increase self-management support across their region.
The goal of the fund is to help NHS system leaders to move forward with large scale prevention initiatives efficiently, supporting progress towards the three new UK healthcare strategy ‘shifts’, from treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital.
Holly Health is a fully digital health coaching service which supports patients to develop sustainable health habits across mental and physical health and most lifestyle risk factors. Backed by the NHS Innovation accelerator, and with more than 200 GP practices partnerships around the UK, outcomes from using the app show average health improvements across areas like exercise, mental wellbeing, weight and blood pressure.
Additionally, GP appointments show consistent reductions after using Holly Health, especially in more frequent service users.
Preventive and personalised care
“The NHS has an opportunity to shift towards a proactive, preventive and personalised care system, with the help of technology,” said Steve Woodford, NHS non-exec director of NHS England.
“Services like Holly Health can help to drive these changes affordably and efficiently. This is a great opportunity for ICB teams, enabling scalable self-management support for people living with or at risk of long term conditions,” he added.
There are two main ways in which ICSs will be able to launch Holly Health at scale. One is via traditional routes, deploying Holly Health via primary care and public health services. The second is to launch Holly Health to members of the public, via the NHS App. This is now possible thanks to a partnership between Holly Health and personal health record platform Patients Know Best.
“Holly Health’s new Innovation Fund is a great opportunity for NHS systems to deploy evidence-based solutions at scale,” said Catherine Davies, director of the Digital Healthcare Council.
“Its digital health coaching helps accelerate the government’s three shifts, particularly from treatment to prevention, delivering measurable outcomes for the NHS while empowering patients to take control of their health.”
