Health inequalities are differences in health across the population that are systematic, unfair and avoidable. They are caused by the conditions in which we are born, live, work and grow. Reducing health inequalities is key to our strategy and underpins Health Innovation East’s purpose – helping the best innovations in health and care reach the people, places and problems where they bring most benefit. 

Whilst we consider the potential impact on health inequalities of all the projects and programmes we deliver, we also run a portfolio of focused projects, currently 16 in number, that we expect to have a positive impact in tackling health inequalities for the people and communities they serve across the East. 

Innovations in Health Inequalities Programme (InHIP) in the East of England

InHIP is a collaboration between NHS England’s Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme and the Health Innovation Network – delivered in partnership with integrated care systems (ICS). The programme offers resources to support the adoption and spread of innovations and technologies that address clinical priorities in the national Core20PLUS5 strategy. 

Health Innovation East is working with ICSs across the East of England to support the adoption and spread of innovations aligned to the Core20PLUS5 approach to address healthcare inequalities. The approach applies both for adults and children and young people (1). 

Building on the success of the first wave of the InHIP programme (2022–24) – which in the East of England resulted in over 3,300 interventions and enabled 109 people to directly benefit from innovative treatments – we are working with ICS partners to deliver wave 2 – an even broader portfolio of projects. These include: 

Early cancer screening in Norfolk and Waveney 

As part of InHIP wave 1, ‘trusted communicators’ (people with trusted relationships rooted in the communities they serve) employed in the voluntary sector held 322 health-focused conversations with refugees, migrants and people experiencing homelessness. Almost 30% of these people went on to request a qFIT kit (aa screening tool for bowel cancer that measures the amount of blood in a stool sample) as a result, improving their access to early bowel cancer screening.  

Wave 2 of InHIP extends its scope to conversations focused on women’s health, promoting cancer screening (breast, cervical and bowel) as part of wider sexual health and menopause services. At project end, in March 2025, 130 conversations had taken place with people that otherwise wouldn’t have had access to cancer screening. 27% of which were found to have improved a person’s understanding of cancer signs and symptoms and how to access relevant screening programmes. 15% of the conversations resulted in a patient with symptoms being signposted to a GP surgery, with people being supported to register with a GP if necessary. 

Working with voluntary sector partners in Hertfordshire and West Essex to promote awareness of and education around cardiovascular disease. 

Working in collaboration with One Vision (3) to offer testing for people identified as at high risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) and hypertension (high blood pressure) we facilitated and funded the development of a series of events in a range of community settings. In partnership with faith and community leaders these sessions offer health promotion messages. The messages are designed to help overcome any cultural barriers to engaging with health services and to reduce stigma or discomfort that could be experienced accessing them, thus enabling more local people to make best use of what’s on offer. 

The project’s overall aim is to reach people within Core20PLUS5 groups most at risk of undetected AF and hypertension and to promote awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its prevention. The project launched in March 2025 with a badminton event at Watford Tamil Association, attended by 150 people – predominantly from the South Asian community. 80 blood pressure checks were carried out and 20 checks were made using KardiaMobile, a NICE approved device for detecting AF (4). A further eight events are planned to take place by September 2025. 

Improving access to treatment for Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) in the East of England 

ILD encompasses a wide range of conditions affecting the lung tissue (as opposed to asthma and COPD which affect the airways). The symptoms experienced by patients with ILD include breathlessness, a cough and fatigue. Some individuals may also experience anxiety and depression. We worked with the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the regional respiratory network to set up virtual Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings, which from November 2024 forwards enable clinicians to come together and collaborate when reviewing ILD patient cases. 

Bringing clinicians together to share knowledge and experience supports patients with more equitable access to more expert diagnosis and treatment. It enables patients access to an optimised service close to where they are, which minimises the cost of accessing previously distant appointments and reduces pressure on people who are already unwell. An estimated 96 patients will experience these benefits each year.  

Preventing CVD in the East of England 

Preventing cardiovascular disease remains a top priority. There is a strong association between health inequalities and the prevalence of CVD (5). As a result of our work, between March 2024 and December 2024, with local and regional partners, an additional 7,635 heart failure patients have been detected, shifting the East of England’s recorded prevalence from 1.16% to 1.28%; an additional 129,2155 a hypertensive patients have been treated to appropriate thresholds and 96,955 extra patients have been prescribed a lipid-lowering therapy along NICE guidelines. Together these outcomes are estimated to prevent 7,000 CVD events and 850 deaths over the next five years. 

Implementing community-driven health interventions – Healthy Hearts in Lowestoft 

The Lowestoft Healthy Hearts project aims to improve the cardiovascular health of people most in need. Working with Suffolk County Council and Norfolk and Waveney ICB, Heath Innovation East offered expertise in enabling CVD prevention programmes and provided deep insight into innovative solutions to addressing the specific needs that were identified through community engagement work.   

Innovations identified and subsequently adopted by the Healthy Hearts project include SiSu Health and ExpertCare.  

Delivering a familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) hub in the East  

Our work with NHS East Genomics – a collaborative of regional NHS organisations – has resulted in the East being the first region in the country to expand access to genetic testing in primary care for people at risk of or suspected to have familial hypercholesterolaemia.  

The project provided education and training to improve detection of FH in primary care. In all 720 primary care practitioners have taken part in training events.   

Analysis of patient record data and the subsequent application of risk stratification methods (6) to that data enabled the identification of people on GP registers at high risk of FH who were eligible for referral for genetic testing. To date, 141 patients have undergone genetic testing with 27 positive FH cases identified – leading to treatment when appropriate and the option to test family members as a follow-up. A further 692 patients were identified with secondary causes for high cholesterol. Without risk stratification, identifying the same number of FH cases would have required screening 6,250 people (7), a scenario which would place a far greater strain on NHS resources.  

The virtual population health management approach taken by this important programme shifted care that would traditionally require people to attend hospital into their own homes – ensuring patients received timely interventions without needing to step into a secondary care clinic.  

Local projects  2024/25 in the East of England: we continue to support a range of exciting regional projects including; 

• A rapid review of population health management approaches for hypertension management (due to report end of April 2025). The review is set to identify the features of an effective model (costed) for adoption across the East of England as part of the new models of care work in the region.  

• Improving understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We collaborated with NHS England and ICS colleagues to deliver a public health approach addressing common misconceptions and promoting responsible antibiotic use.  

There is emerging evidence of increased rates of infection and resistant infection, as well as higher levels of antimicrobial exposure among people experiencing factors commonly associated with health inequalities (8). The interactive online quiz we co-designed sought to enhance health literacy and encourage preventative behaviours to combat the spread of AMR.  

A short true / false quiz was developed in partnership with Cambridge and Peterborough ICS with public and patient involvement facilitated by Antibiotic Research UK. The quiz was shared via social media platforms during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. It received 31,629 post views on Facebook and 576 quizzes were completed. The quizzes findings will contribute to future awareness campaigns that address gaps in the publics AMR knowledge. The work has been shortlisted in the Public Engagement category for the Antibiotic Guardian Shared Learning & Awards (9).