New report sets out pathway to a Space-Enabled Region for health and care in the East of England

Health Innovation East and Space East have published a new report, Towards a Space-Enabled Region: strengthening health and care delivery in the East of England, setting out how space-enabled technologies can address pressing health and care challenges across the region. 

The report follows a roundtable that  brought together NHS leaders, Combined Authorities, industry and national partners to test the proposition: ‘treating resilient connectivity and space-enabled data as shared clinical infrastructure can accelerate out-of-hospital care, strengthen system resilience and improve operational flow’. 

A case study in the report highlights work with East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Excelerate, where hybrid terrestrial and satellite connectivity supported digital ambulances, hospital-edge handovers and mobile stroke services, averaging more than 3,000 connections per day at key sites. 

The report sets out five priority recommendations to enable the move from isolated pilots to a coordinated regional approach: 

• Focus on a small number of high-value regional challenges where space-enabled solutions can deliver measurable benefit  

• Use connectivity as a foundational enabler for digital, community and preventative care models  

• Establish the East of England as a testbed for space-enabled health and care innovation  

• Strengthen enabling conditions for adoption, including interoperability, procurement and workforce capacity 

• Use a follow-on roundtable to move from opportunity to implementation 

Aligned with national policy and the UK Space Agency’s Unlocking Space for Government programme, the report positions the East of England as well placed to host integrated demonstrators that generate evidence for adoption at scale.