A region built for innovation
The North West Coast has the assets needed to lead the development and adoption of emerging health and care technologies, including world-class universities, NHS organisations, local government partners, advanced computing expertise, engineering capability, manufacturing strength and research infrastructure.
Our role is to bring these partners together around real-world challenges, creating opportunities to explore, test and scale innovations that improve outcomes and strengthen services.
What we do
- Convene partners across health and care, academia, industry and government.
- Identify and prioritise opportunities that address real system challenges.
- Explore emerging technologies before they reach widespread adoption.
- Support co-design, transformation, testing, implementation and evaluation.
- Generate evidence on safety, usability, adoption and impact.
- Connect the North West Coast to national programmes, networks and policy discussions.
We leverage our well-established partnerships with:
- our two integrated care systems (ICS): Cheshire and Merseyside; and Lancashire and South Cumbria
- regional universities
- research centres, including Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL) and Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC)
- the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC)
- industry
- NHS England
Evaluation
Our collaborative approach to evaluation:
- delivers real world testing and evaluation in partnership with innovators and health and care systems, including with experts in change management, pathway transformation, and clinical and patient engagement.
- uses an implementation science-informed approach to understand the impact of an innovation in a real-world setting.
- surfaces enablers and barriers to spread through rapid-cycle evaluations that identify actionable insights in real time - this facilitates optimal implementation going forward.
- supports early adopters to capture the value of their work and prepare the innovation for accelerated adoption at scale.
Data
We connect partners, expertise and data to generate insight and support better decisions, services and outcomes.
- Convene people around shared data opportunities
- Navigate complex data environments
- Connect expertise and help turn insight into practical improvements for patients, communities and services.
Our current work
Learn how we're building partnerships, identifying practical use cases and preparing the North West Coast for the responsible adoption at scale of next-generation technologies.
Ambient Voice Technology
Helping health and care organisations evaluate and adopt Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), using real-world evidence to understand its impact on clinical documentation, workforce productivity and patient care.
Emerging health and care technologies
Our aim is to help the North West Coast understand emerging technologies early, identify credible opportunities and build the partnerships, skills and evidence needed to translate innovation into meaningful impact.
Evaluations
Implementation of Blinx Patient and Care Optimiser (PACO) Read more
An evaluation of the Blinx PACO (patient and care optimiser) pilot, launched in 2024 to test a UK-developed digital platform designed to enhance patient access, communication and operational efficiency at a practice level
Understanding the value of innovative prehabilitation services Read more
A Health Innovation North West Coast service evaluation of prehabilitation for thoracic and cardiac surgery patients at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and for laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Medication Awareness Pathway Support (MAPS) Read more
A shared-care, co-designed pathway for high-dose opioid patients in Fleetwood PCN.
Executive summary: The Net Zero Journey Planner by Redmoor Health Read more
Health Innovation North West Coast (HINWC) conducted an independent evaluation of the new Redmoor Net Zero Journey Planner for primary care staff.
Full report: The Net Zero Journey Planner by Redmoor Health Read more
Health Innovation North West Coast (HINWC) conducted an independent evaluation of the new Redmoor Net Zero Journey Planner for primary care staff.
Acute respiratory infection: test and treat Read more
Health Innovation North West Coast has worked with regional clinicians to co-design an innovative test and treat community pathway for acute respiratory infections.
Understanding the benefits of a switch from single-use to reusable surgical and... Read more
A Health Innovation North West Coast report for the NHS England Net Zero and Sustainable Procurement team.
Surgical tray rationalisation Read more
Health Innovation North West Coast has been key in an interesting project on the benefits of reducing the number of items in surgical trays, how to make this reduction and how to replicate this process. This work has now been pulled together in a detailed report.