West of England AHSN‘s business support for Bath-based RIVIAM Digital Care has resulted in funding of £48,450, awarded by Innovate UK, to enhance its new Wellbeing platform, for integrated health and social care.
RIVIAM Wellbeing is currently used in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) by Virgin Care, BaNES Council, 3SG and many third sector organisations (including Age UK BaNES, Citizens Advice BaNES and Bath MIND) to co-ordinate the provision of food, mental health, wellbeing and welfare support for vulnerable people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
From April to September 2020, 7800 calls have been managed, 1520 volunteering tasks have been completed helping 1455 people, 357 food parcels and 22,600 frozen meals (including 5,660 children’s meals) have been delivered quickly and efficiently by these partner organisations collaborating together online using RIVIAM in a BaNES Community Wellbeing Hub.
The funding provided by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, will be used by RIVIAM to extend its current Wellbeing service, transforming the ability for health, social care and third sector organisations to work together.
RIVIAM is hugely appreciative for the support provided by the West of England Academic Health Science Network during the Innovate UK application process, where the input from our Innovation and Growth business advisor helped shape and focus the proposal on how the innovation will create most value.
New capabilities on RIVIAM’s platform will enable authorised users to set and share tasks and instant message each other about cases – all securely with strict security measures and consent management. Each organisation will continue to use its own IT system but RIVIAM acts as a secure ‘digital bridge’ to share information and provide a single view of a person’s care.
Paul Targett, Managing Director of RIVIAM Digital Care, says:
“People only want to tell their story once and to receive a timely, personalised response from different agencies working together. But it’s currently really hard for organisations using different IT systems to share information securely and co-ordinate care. Also, providers in the third sector don’t have the digital capabilities to communicate easily with their health and social care partners.”
“With RIVIAM Wellbeing, organisations in different sectors can collaborate as one team harnessing their collective power to deliver for people in need. The funding from Innovate UK allows us to develop a new way for multi-agency care to be delivered making taxpayers money go further.”
Claire Thorogood, Head of Contracting & Performance, BaNES Council, says:
“Providing a system whereby partners can share information securely and work more collaboratively has been and will continue to be crucial to the success of the Hub. This has transformed how we have worked in partnership.”
“RIVIAM has contributed to the success of the Hub because all partners can track the support we offer to individuals to best meet their needs. It also enables staff across all organisations to work more flexibly whether that is from the Hub or at home. We welcome this additional funding that has been secured.”
Dr. Nigel Harris, Director of Innovation and Growth at the West of England AHSN, says:
“We were delighted to be able to support Riviam Digital Care with their application – it’s a fantastic product that has very significant potential to improve the delivery of services across health and social care.”
Posted on November 6, 2020
