Healthier Together West Yorkshire (HTWY) website, led by Bradford Teaching Hospitals, has received a high commendation at the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Digital Awards 2023 for their exceptional work in ‘Improving out of hospital care through digital’. This recognition marks the first-ever HSJ Digital Awards, aimed at celebrating excellence in the digitisation, connectivity, and transformation of health and care services.
Launched just a year ago, the HTWY website has already proven to be a valuable resource, offering a wealth of up-to-date information presented in an easy-to-understand format, complete with informative videos, covering various health conditions, with a special focus on childhood and adolescence.
The website’s creation was a collaborative effort involving a diverse panel of healthcare experts from across the region. Carly Plunkett, the ‘hospital at home’ ambulatory care experience (ACE) nurse at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, played a pivotal role in implementing the website locally in Bradford.
The project’s clinical leadership was provided by Bradford GP, Dr. Nicole Alshorn, and supported by Consultant Paediatrician, Mat Mathai, and Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Dr. Bob Basu, both of whom were key members of the website’s steering group.
Organisers of the HSJ Digital Awards believe that the recognition will serve as a catalyst for the widespread adoption of specific digital health initiatives. Building on the momentum created by NHS England’s Year of the Digital Profession in 2022, these awards aim to inspire digital leadership throughout the country.
Dr Mathai, said: “The team were delighted to have got this far within the first year. This ‘highly commended’ award from the HSJ is fantastic news as we want the website to be the number one place that parents, carers, and professionals think of when they need help, advice or information on child and adolescent conditions so that people can navigate our complex health and social care system even better than before.”
“I believe the website’s success has been down to the strategy of getting all experts across West Yorkshire to develop content and work collaboratively, with a cross-system approach, which included the voices of children and young people. This approach was inspired by the original vision of the ‘Healthier Together’ creator, Dr Sanjay Patel, Consultant Paediatrician in Southampton, who has been incredibly successful at replicating the site across many areas of the UK.”
HSJ editor, Alastair McLellan, added: “For several years, we’ve noticed that more and more projects, with digitisation at their core, were being entered into other awards within the HSJ’s awards programme – and it increasingly felt that this emerging and important category needed an awards ceremony of its own.
“So, what better opportunity to launch the HSJ Digital Awards than in the follow-up to NHS England’s recent Year of the Digital Profession? It was no surprise to us that the level and quality of entries in the inaugural HSJ Digital Awards were absolutely outstanding, presenting our panel of judges with some difficult decisions.
It, therefore, gives me great pleasure to personally congratulate the Healthier Together West Yorkshire (HTWY) website team on being ‘highly commended’ in the Improving out of hospital care through digital’ category at the 2023 HSJ Digital Awards.
The full list of winners and those highly commended can be found at https://partnership.hsj.co.uk/winners-2023
