The trust, which integrated in April, is the latest in the NHS to host Elevate – a programme of health tech showcases that bring curated and relevant technology together with healthcare staff for an entire day.
Technology providers able to respond to the trust’s priorities can request their place in the showcase at Warrington Hospital, where they will show leaders and the wider workforce the art of the possible.
Held at a time the trust is reshaping services, the showcase will allow innovators to inform and inspire ways the organisation can bring care closer to home for patients and enable prevention of ill health. Ideas are also expected to help inform new digital and clinical strategies.
Sue Caisley, interim CIO, North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This health tech showcase is particularly important as we consider how we deliver the three shifts – from hospital to community, from treatment to prevention, and from analogue to digital. Digital will be a key enabler of all three, but we need to start with the challenges facing our services and our patients.
“Insight we gather will help inform our future digital and clinical strategies, and our transformation roadmap. I look forward to welcoming a curated mix of technology providers into the trust aligned to our priorities: from AI and automation to remote monitoring and connected devices, virtual care, patient access, workforce productivity and technologies that enable more care to be delivered closer to home.”
AI, remote monitoring, hospital at home, joined-up records, neighbourhood working, and technologies that enable patient access and a smarter safer estate, are of key interest. A detailed list of technologies the trust would like to explore is available online.
The showcase is also open to other technologies and ideas the trust isn’t aware of, especially if they can help address strategic priorities and frontline challenges across the trust’s acute and community services.
Mark Venables, CEO of Highland, which launched Elevate last year, said: “North Cheshire and Mersey’s showcase comes at a key time for the trust, and with it a great opportunity for technology companies to listen, learn, and create answers to challenges. The trust is the latest to want to engage people from across its workforce in shaping future direction, equipped with a greater awareness of what is out there and how it can help.
“We’ve seen wonderful engagement within trusts that have already embraced Elevate, and have received highly positive feedback from technology vendors who can connect with everyone they need to in a single day. With more trusts signing up this Autumn and into 2027, the opportunity to bring technology to the NHS has never been greater.”
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, and the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, have all drawn on Elevate showcases to inform either the creation or delivery of their digital strategies.
At the Royal Derby Hospital some 500 NHS staff from every level of the trust engaged with curated technology companies onsite, with trust leaders and digital teams using the day to better understand what their staff need.
Technology companies taking part in the NHS health tech showcases have reported reaching stakeholders not otherwise possible. Companies have described achieving engagement that would have taken months to arrange, condensed to a single day.
Health tech providers wishing to discover more about North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust’s interests and needs can visit the trust’s Elevate health tech showcase page.
