Innovation, Adoption and Women's Health
Topic : Innovation, Inequalities Type : Press Release
Our second theme we are taking a deep dive into from our Women’s Health Summit is Innovation, and to promote the understanding that innovation must be recognised, adopted and made accessible across the health system to drive equality.
Innovation, and the barriers of adopting it into the NHS, has always been a hot topic. However, we find women’s health faces additional and distinct barriers, where many women’s health conditions have for too long been under-prioritised, under-research or normalised within clinical practice and society. A recurring theme throughout the Summit was that the innovation for women’s health is already here, yet the innovations remained trapped in cycles of local pilots, fragmented procurement process and inconsistent commissioning pathways. The main challenge is therefore not simply innovation, but adoption and integration into routine care.
The current innovation landscape in women’s health is characterised by a disconnect between availability and implementation. For example, in cervical cancer prevention, innovations such as self-sampling and urine-based HPV testing have the potential to remove barriers associated with traditional screening, including embarrassment, inconvenience and fear of invasive procedures. These approaches may also improve access amongst underserved populations and support the wider ambition of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040.
For innovation to be adopted at scale, it must align with the priorities and realities of the NHS, which requires closer collaboration between innovators, policymakers and healthcare providers. Innovation must be developed in partnership with the system it is intended to serve, not isolated.
At ABHI we are committed to highlighting these barriers and supporting the adoption of solutions that can improve outcomes for women.
Read the full report below: