A new digital health hub in Bristol will bring together 50+ partners—from care home directors to intensive care doctors, femtech founders to analytics teams—to work side by side in shared office space alongside a doctoral training centre. This matters because digital health tools often fail when they ignore the messy realities of design, user experience, and business viability. The partners identified these gaps directly: technology alone is not enough if no one can use it, afford it, or integrate it into a hospital ward or a care home. If the hub succeeds, it could reshape how the NHS and social care adopt digital tools—moving from isolated apps to systems that genuinely work for patients, clinicians, and providers. The research focuses on two themes: transforming care beyond hospital walls, and improving disease prediction, diagnosis, and intervention. A global network links the hub to expertise in the US, China, India, Nigeria, and Australia, recognising that UK breakthroughs may have greater impact abroad. The hub also plans the world’s largest taught digital health programme and five fellowship schemes to develop future leaders across academia, industry, health, and the community.
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The LEAP Digital Health Hub is a partnership of the South West's leading Universities, more than 20 supporting companies nationally, many NHS Trusts & Health Boards, 4 social care organisations, the region's Local Authorities, the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), the award-winning business incubator SETsquared and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK). The 50+ partners that shaped this bid ranged from the research director for a provider of residential care homes, to a chief clinical information officer working in an intensive care unit; from the founder of a femtech startup to the head of the healthcare analytics team for a multinational consulting firm. In workshops through June and July 2022 they told us that Digital Health is as much about design and user experience as health data analysis; it is motivated by patient benefit but must also consider viable business models for industry. All Hub partners will have access to dedicated physical office space in central Bristol alongside the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Digital Health and Care. There, they will train, network and research together across disciplines and sectors. They will engage with partners across the UK- and beyond. Recognising that UK breakthroughs in Digital Health may be equally (or more) impactful abroad, the Hub's new "Global Digital Health Network" links the Hub to Digital Health expertise from the US, China, India, Nigeria and Australia (sections B1.2, B5). The Hub's unique Skills and Knowledge Programme is designed to address the professional training needs of industry, health and social care providers and academia within the two Themes of Transforming Health & Care Beyond the Hospital and Optimising Disease Prediction, Diagnosis & Intervention. This is proposed to be the world's largest Digital Health taught programme. The Hub's Fellowship programme will comprise 5 different schemes to develop future leaders, within not only academia, industry and the health/care sector, but also within the community - as patients or informal carers. The Hub's Research programme focusses on pre-competitive research within the Hub's two thematic areas of Transforming Health and Care Beyond the Hospital and Optimising Disease Prediction, Diagnosis and Intervention. The Hub will add value by surfacing health priorities from its partner health and social care organisations, working with the West of England AHSN and also with Hub members such as Chief Nursing Information Officers, with charities, social care providers, patient and community groups.
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