Musculoskeletal team's partnership with digital healthcare company lauded at HSJ Partnership Awards

A musculoskeletal (MSK) team based in south west London is celebrating after its partnership with digital healthcare provider getUBetter was praised at last week’s HSJ Partnership Awards 2023 (24 March).

The judges – who said the four-year-old initiative ‘consisted of a great range of partners working in collaboration’ – handed the project the HealthTech Partnership of the Year award.

MSK team's latest 'accolade'

Their submission was titled 'Meeting the needs of patients, clinicians and the health system across an ICS [Integrated Care System]'. In response to receiving the award, the ‘multi-award winning MSK physiotherapy team’ at St George's University Hospitals NHS Trust tweeted its pleasure at receiving ‘another accolade’ for an ‘amazing’ MSK team. Twitter: @STGSKPhysio

The HealthTech award was one of 21 handed out at a ceremony at Evolution London, which attracted about 900 guests. The winning organisations were judged to have ‘forged the most outstanding collaborations with the NHS during one of its most challenging years’.

Other categories included environmental sustainability, elective care recovery, addressing health inequalities, primary care, procurement, not for profit, mental health, pharmaceutical, cancer outcomes, clinical safety and staffing solutions.

Overcoming 'disruption' in the NHS

Integrated care boards have replaced clinical commissioning groups as the purchasers of care; while the procurement of goods and non-clinical services has undergone three 'new dawns' in as many years [Alastair McLellan, HSJ]

Alastair McLellan, who edits HSJ, said the way the NHS buys had just gone through the biggest change in a decade. ‘Integrated care boards have replaced clinical commissioning groups as the purchasers of care; while the procurement of goods and non-clinical services has undergone not one but three “new dawns” in as many years.’

Mr McLellan added: ‘Through all this, suppliers and their NHS partners needed to find a way to do business that worked, despite all this disruption. Tonight’s finalists are those who succeeded in that goal – and then went further.’

A team of 90 judges, which considered the merits of 141 projects in a two-stage process, identified 21 winners and named 18 as highly commended.

What the HSJ said about the HealthTech award winners

‘NHS South West London ICS has been working with digital healthcare provider getUBetter in an innovative co-production partnership for four years. They have co-developed a system-wide digital self-management solution for all common MSK conditions, supporting self-management across the entire ICS care pathway.

‘It helps people with new, recurrent or long-term conditions to have the confidence to self-manage, trust their recovery and use less healthcare resources. We have significantly reduced over treatment and prescription.'

HSJ added: ‘getUBetter is now providing its technology to 30 per cent of integrated care systems, is an NHSE digital playbook case study and is an NHS Innovation Accelerator company. The judges felt that this winning project consisted of a great range of partners working in collaboration.’

To find out more about getUBetter, visit: https://www.getubetter.com