Centre for Digital Innovations in Health and Social Care (CDIHSC)

We are a multidisciplinary team of researchers working together to develop and commercialise new health and social care technologies, and evaluate their impact on patients, service users, carers and health and care professionals.

Our level of in-house research expertise was recognised by Research England with a transformative £4.86 million grant from its Expanding Excellence in England Fund. This financial support will help us realise our potential and deliver meaningful impact on individuals and communities.

A medical student showing a tablet device to a patient

What we do

CDIHSC is a research centre that drives advancements in digital health technologies to address challenges in health and social care. The Centre focuses on understanding the challenges faced by health and care providers while developing digital solutions that prioritise end-user needs and experiences to ensure sustainable outcomes in the healthcare sector.

Our two flagship research programmes are:

Creating novel technologies to enhance decision-making and reduce the burden of electronic documentation. (DocuLess)
Developing and evaluating technologies that reduce the health and care system’s carbon footprint and improve patient care. (REDUCTIFY)

Current projects

Computer Aided Risk Scoring (CARSs)

National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC)

EVEREST-HN Research Studies

Completed projects

Falls risk assessment and prevention in acute hospital settings (FRAMES)

Our consultancy and knowledge transfer

We regularly collaborate with health and care partners and with digital health companies, undertaking research to evaluate and inform the design of the technology.

How we can help

Identify requirements for a new technology or technology-based service

Co-design a new technology with service users

Evaluate a new or existing technology, providing recommendations for improvement and/or for increasing uptake of the technology. Our evaluation expertise ranges from usability evaluation of prototype products to real-world evaluation.

We use of a range of research methods to provide you with evidence-based recommendations.

What it costs

The cost of our consultancy packages are dependent on the needs of each organisation and so packages are costed on an individual basis. We can tailor our consultancy services to meet your financial requirements and budgets.

Doctoral Training

Through our doctoral students, we aim to create future leaders in digital health.

Our PhD projects focus on how technology can be used to improve the delivery of health and social care, and our advertised projects are typically developed in conjunction with our health and social care partners. We have recruited 5 PhD students for 2025, and plan to recruit further.

PhD students in the Centre have access to the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, where they and the team work one day a week.

The Wolfson Centre is home of the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Applied Research Collaboration, the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration, and the Yorkshire Quality & Safety Research group, so provides a vibrant environment with a strong network of researchers and clinical colleagues.

Apply for the PhD (Faculty of Health Studies).

We have previously supported healthcare professionals to successfully apply for NIHR pre-doctoral and doctoral fellowships – if you are a health or care professional who is interested in pursuing this route, email [email protected].