Norfolk and Waveney NHS Integrated Care Board has awarded a £1.2 million contract to Prescribing Services (Norwich) for their population health management and risk stratification digital services.
The contract is to September 2027, with the ICB noting bespoke data analysis through technical solutions and digital platforms as a key requirement for their PHM strategy, helping to “support the prioritisation and delivery of interventions”. Security and “compliance with all information governance requirements” have also been outlined as two important deliverables for this digital solution, with emphasis put on analysis and enabling access to the PHM information at all levels across the NHS and wider partners as a way to “support a strategically aligned approach to population health”.
This follows another contract recently awarded by Norfolk and Waveney ICB, which was given to tech supplier Pungo for their social prescribing digital platform. Worth £250,000, the two-year contract aims to improve care for the local community by using the digital platform to “support resilience and maturity of social prescribing offers”.
Population health: the wider trend
NHS Devon’s recent updates on their five-year Joint Forward Plan highlighted the role of digital in achieving its system strategic aims and noted the importance of progress on the Devon and Cornwall Care Record and the One Devon Dataset. In line with the ICS’s aims around population health, tackling inequalities and enhancing productivity, the agenda for digital and data outlines several objectives for years 1-2, years 3-4, and year 5+. This includes a focus on increasing NHS App usage, implementing the national Digital Inclusion Framework and working with the PHM team to increase accessibility to digital health resources amongst underserved populations.
Earlier this year, NHS England published guidance for progressing and delivering neighbourhood health, asking ICBs to plan a neighbourhood health and care model, with an initial focus on people with the most complex health and care needs. It notes the need to develop a consistent, system-wide population health management approach and to “utilise quantitative data and qualitative insights to understand needs and risks for different population cohorts”.
Since its launch in December 2023, the Warm Homes for Young Lungs project has reportedly helped 156 children at risk of developing breathing problems and worsening respiratory conditions. Run by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the project uses the region’s population health platform to identify and support children aged two to seven with a respiratory condition within the most deprived areas in the St Helens region.
