East Lothian’s Rehabilitation Service were confirmed as finalists of the Data Driven Innovation Award and Technology Enabled Independent Living Award, at the Digital Health and Care Awards 2025.
The Digital Health and Care Awards recognise the achievements of the individuals and teams working in the health, social care, and housing sectors, whose innovation and creativity continue to put Scotland at the forefront of the digital revolution.
The Data Driven Innovation Award sought to recognise digital solutions that have proven to transform health and social care, by leveraging the power of data to unlock new insights that deliver preventative medicine, improve treatment of save lives.
ELHSCP’s Inreach Pathway team were recognised for their digital innovation approach to patient-centred care, delivering early specialist assessment and discharge planning for East Lothian residents presenting to or admitted to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Fostering a shared vision across health and care providers, community teams and local stakeholders, and using data-driven coordination, the Inreach team ensures that East Lothian residents benefit from streamlined care and timely discharge. Their interventions have highlighted that assessments do not have to be conducted within a hospital setting. Through early intervention, the home-first approach can be applied enabling patients to recover at home with support from the community.
Over the last 23 months, the Inreach initiative has supported 1,601 patient discharges, which has mitigated the need for approx. 3573 bed days, equating to savings of £1.4million.
Lesley Berry, General Manager and Chief Allied Health Professional for the ELRS comments, “The Inreach service has been truly transformative in improving the hospital-to-home journey for East Lothian residents. While we are thrilled to finalists for this aware, the true success of this initiative is from the human stories, and feedback we receive from patients and families who express their gratitude for the personalised support provided that enables them to return home safely and with confidence.”
The East Lothian Rehabilitation Service were also finalists in the Technology Enabled Independent Living Award category which recognises innovative approaches to harness the power of digital health technology to transform lives.
Through the Technology Enabled Care service, ELRS are championing staff development, integrating consumer technology into clinical practice, and engaging with the public to empower individuals to live independently and safely in their communities. The approach taken by ELRS is to seamlessly integrate technology enabled care solutions into daily activities has prevented unnecessary hospital admissions, and facilitated safe, timely discharges, ensuring people can recover in the comfort of their homes.
A key component of this initiative is the bi-monthly public drop-in sessions that take place at the Well Wynd Technology Hub in Tranent. These community engagement sessions provide hands-on demonstrations of consumer technology. The impact of these free drop-in events extends beyond individual users, fostering resilience within families and carers while creating a supportive community that embraces digital health solutions.
Fiona Wilson, Chief Officer of East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership comments, “Digital technology plays a crucial role in supporting patient recovery and preventative interventions to support individuals to live independently at home. Our focus is to deliver “home-first” solutions to enable people to recover safely in the comfort of their own homes. Consumer digital technology has made a real difference in this area, and we’re thrilled that the efforts of our technology enabled care team have been able to intrinsically weave digital solutions into our clinical recovery pathways, which truly embodies our ethos of promoting person-centred care and independence.”
For further information about the East Lothian Rehabilitation Service and how digital technology can support independent living at home visit www.eastlothian.gov.uk/elrs.