University of Edinburgh Digital Health Portal
A secure sandbox environment and super app for innovators to rapidly prototype, co-design, deploy and user-test digital health solutions
Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh's innovation and commercialisation service, seeks to support early-career researchers in translating academic research into practical digital health tools. Building on the success of its iTPA Translational Community programme, which generated £12.2 million in follow-on investment from just £1.8 million seed funding, they wanted to support more early stage researchers to be able to build digital health apps to secure funding and generate IP.
Edinburgh Innovations saw an opportunity to amplify its impact by providing researchers access to infrastructure that would remove traditional barriers such as the time, costs and complexities of code-based software development. Their aim was to create a structured pathway that could support multiple innovators to design, test and validate new digital tools that accommodate diverse clinical needs.
To achieve this, Edinburgh Innovations partnered with Cogniss to launch the Digital Health Portal. Built with Cogniss infrastructure, the portal provides innovators with a no-code, compliant platform to build, test and iterate apps in real time. Cogniss also delivered a a six-month bootcamp with a structured cohort process. This enabled researchers to rapidly prototype, co-design and deploy apps in their Super App without coding, while simplifying compliance through Cogniss infrastructure.
Key features of Digital Health Portal
A no-code innovation sandbox, in which participants can create, test and refine digital health apps prior to launch
A super app that acts as the platform to publish apps and offers a forum to connect with fellow innovators
Infrastructure that supports compliance-readiness
An e-learning platform training participants on using no-code
Access to Edinburgh Innovation’s events, services and resources
Designed to accommodate NHS data protection standards
“Through Cogniss’ structured training programme and bespoke guidance, innovators were empowered to test their ideas quickly and iterate – without spending unnecessary time and cost in development,” said Amelia Hodgson, the Wellcome Trust iTPA Project Manager at Edinburgh Innovations. “Validating their solutions has helped position them to secure future funding, with one innovator already attracting over £300K to take their solution forward.”
Five innovators went through the six-month bootcamp and published apps through the Digital Health Portal within weeks, without requiring external development support. Three of the apps secured follow-on research funding and have continued development beyond the bootcamp, validating the long-term value of the programme.
Through partnership with Cogniss, Edinburgh Innovation proved that digital health innovation in academia can be fast and sustainable.
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