Dorset Innovation Hub University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Dorset has an older population and is 20 years ahead of the UK average, with rising incidence of long-term conditions and significant variation in life and healthy life expectancy.

To help improve health and social care outcomes, equity and accessibility across Dorset, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust is implementing a Dorset Innovation Hub. It will seek to address the unique challenges of caring for the population of Dorset, and the need to innovate and transform care.

The Hub will support adoption of proven innovation across the Dorset ICS. It will coordinate horizon scanning approaches and prioritise which innovations to bring into Dorset for rapid adaptation and adoption, at scale. A core project team of innovation multidisciplinary professionals will be assisted by a wider well-established network of subject matter experts.

The Hub will focus on supporting proven innovations and understanding their impact in the local context before they are scaled up, and ensuring their sustainability is understood and maintained. The Trust workforce will be encouraged, through the Hub, to use their networks to identify proven innovations that respond to local needs, and will be provided with practical support with implementation of these.

A Hub website has been developed, as the ‘front door’, highlighting innovation work via case studies and learning points.

Patient and public involvement will be embedded within the Hub to ensure the local priorities, context, service user and wider population needs and values are taken into account to inform adoption, service user testing and supporting appropriate spread.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Sarah Chessell, Head of Innovation, University Hospitals Dorset.