Alder Hey Innovation Lab

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is one of Europe’s largest and busiest children’s hospitals, renowned for its leadership in healthcare innovation.

The Alder Hey Innovation Lab was created to address healthcare challenges by improving operational efficiency and enhancing the patient experience. It focused on integrating user experience (UX) into patient care and optimising hospital operations.

The 10-week Accelerator programme enabled senior executives at Alder Hey to collaborate with innovative companies new to the NHS, introducing fresh ideas and technologies to add value to the hospital. They identified market disruptors whose values aligned with Alder Hey’s mission and whose products and services could bring significant benefits to patients, families, and staff. This initiative also gave Alder Hey’s clinical teams the chance to explore new solutions to address their challenges.

After receiving over 100 applications, Alder Hey invited 15 teams to Pitch Day on 2nd November 2021, hosted within the hospital’s grounds. Over the course of the Alder Hey Innovation Lab, clinicians, practitioners, and other staff engaged with 2 startups to address the 2 opportunity areas: BlockDox and Orbital.

After the programme concluded, Alder Hey extended its partnership with BlockDox by installing the remaining sensors from their use case. This implementation allowed the hospital to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively, enabling budget reallocations to frontline services and patient care.

RESULTS

BlockDox

BlockDox is a Net Zero energy innovator using proprietary technology and artificial intelligence to collate data and provide actionable insights to building managers.

Collaboration

BlockDox worked closely with Alder Hey to answer specific challenges faced by the children’s hospital. They were able to adapt their technology to help the hospital review their air quality as well as identify patterns and provide insight reports. The pilot sensors were rolled out across different parts of the hospital to address each of the challenges.

Outcomes

It was recognised beyond the programme that BlockDox enabled the hospital to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively while helping manage operations effectively and maintain compliance with industry standards. Alder Hey extended its partnership with BlockDox by installing the remaining sensors from their use case

Beyond the program, BlockDox was recognised for helping the hospital operate more efficiently and cost-effectively, while also supporting effective operations management and maintaining compliance with industry standards.

“We have had a lot of exposure to the clinicians and innovators at Alder Hey which is just what we wanted. There are regular meetings in the diary which is really useful for keeping up momentum and commitment”

Orbital

Orbital is an innovative digital agency that leverages technology and marketing strategies to connect people with brands. On the innovation front, they address healthcare challenges through the use of AI, extended reality (XR), and gamification.

Collaboration

Orbital joined the Lab to help Alder Hey integrate user experience (UX) into patient care by developing a personalised app that offers educational exercise and meal plans focusing on child obesity for the hospital’s CEW clinic.

Outcomes

By the end of the programme, Orbital made significant strides, developing wireframes that were showcased at Demo Day and commissioned for additional projects. They are currently awaiting further feedback from clinicians on these final outputs before proceeding with production. This product has the potential to serve as a model for other departments, such as the respiratory department.