New innovation lead for mental health in East Midlands
A new innovation lead for mental health supporting the East Midlands Alliance for Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism has been appointed.
Erica Warren started in post in July 2023 and will provide a two-way channel for the development and scale of innovation, supporting the import of innovation into the mental health systems within the Alliance.
Erica has been appointed by Health Innovation East Midlands, who work with the NHS to identify, test and spread new technologies and better ways of working, but her role is hosted by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, one our Alliance partners.
The key responsibilities of her role include:
- conducting needs analysis and support the exploration and definition of priority themes where there is a need for innovation.
- reviewing innovations on behalf of both Alliance partners and Health Innovation East Midlands to establish their fit with local need.
- Exploring opportunities for real world validation projects that test proven innovation and evaluate their impact to ensure sustainability and spread.
- Broker introductions and connections into Alliance partner organisations to facilitate the adoption and spread of proven innovation.
- Identification of innovations developed within Alliance partner organisations appropriate for EMAHSN support to scale.
Erica said: “Having worked in the NHS for over 20 years with a background in research, innovation, and quality improvement, I understand the challenges trusts face in the adoption of innovation, but also the importance of embedding innovation across the health and care system to enable best practice to be spread and adopted more rapidly and at scale.
“I look forward to working closely with our partners across the Alliance, and how we drive forward innovation for the benefit of service users.”