Accolade for healthy ageing work

Health Innovation North West Coast has been awarded an international accolade for its work in driving regional innovation in active and healthy ageing (AHA) in the North West Coast.

The European-based Reference Site Collaborative Network (RSCN) awarded the region four stars – the highest rating – in the hope it will act as an inspirational ‘ecosystem’ for other areas, helping to create an environment for other regions to foster innovation in active and healthy ageing.

European Innovation Partnership AHA reference site regions bring together health and care stakeholders to ‘focus on a comprehensive, innovation-based and patient-centred approach’ to active and healthy ageing.

Innovation Agency Associate Director for System Partnerships, Eleanor Garnett-Bentley, leads on the organisation’s active and healthy ageing work and spearheaded the reference site bid.

She said: “The award recognises the hard work that a large number of partners have put in to make the North West Coast an inspiration to other regions in this country and further afield.

“The partnership brought together patients, care providers, academics, researchers, industry and others to make improvements that no single organisation could have made while working in isolation.

“We’re very proud that we’ve brought an innovative, strategic approach to healthy ageing that has been internationally recognised.”

The RSCN was set up by the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, which in turn is European Commission pilot scheme.