Wales’ Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething, has agreed to fund eleven innovative projects through the Efficiency Through Technology Fund following the 2016 open call (Welsh Government, 2017).

The Efficiency Through Technology Fund (ETTF) supports health and social care projects that use innovative technology to improve the efficiency of healthcare services.

Projects that have secured funding include the Public Health Wales-led molecular diagnostics project, which will be receiving £2.5m over the next three years to improve methods of diagnosing gastrointestinal infections.

The National Welsh Informatics Service (NWIS) will use £1.18m to lead on a once for Wales approach to e-Forms development to speed up the move towards a digital patient record. An e-form is a digital version of a paper form. This will be less time consuming to complete and will eliminate the cost of printing, storing, and distributing pre-printed paperwork. Digital records will mean that important information is available at the touch of a screen during consultations. This will improve outcomes for patients by informing the decisions they make with their clinicians, ensuring they receive the most appropriate treatment. The programme will focus on Nursing e-Forms as a priority area.

Another successful project will see the development and implementation of an improved pressure ulcer reporting system within care homes. This will provide an open and transparent reporting system for deep pressure ulcers, one of the recommendations of the Flynn report.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CVUHB) has secured funding, with partners, for a system to help reduce frequent attenders calling for ambulances and/or attending A&E department in CVUHB. This project aims to work with frequent attenders to better understand their needs and thereby reduce the costs and resources burden on the CVUHB services.

Powys Teaching Health Board has been successful in their funding bid for a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy project, which will support patients with mild and moderate depression by providing quicker access to treatment.

NWIS will receive funding for the digitalisation of the lung cancer patient pathway record.

There will be further development and expansion of the existing ETTF Choose Pharmacy platform and roll out to all community pharmacies in Wales.

CVUHB will receive funding for virtual technology clinics at the All Wales Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre.

There will be funding for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) for a national telehealth scale up programme, to reduce hospital and emergency department attendances.

ABMU will receive funding for a Raman spectroscopy technology for colorectal cancer project.

Vaughan Gething said “I am pleased to be able to fund these 11 new projects that aspire to improve the efficiency of our health care services in Wales. We received 142 applications in this round of funding – the biggest response to this funding stream so far and I want to congratulate those who have been successful amid fierce competition.

“It is fantastic to see organisations coming up with innovative schemes to improve our health care services. I am looking forward to visit some of the projects in the near future to see first hand what they can achieve.”