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Five projects are being supported with a total of £1.5 million government funding as part of investment into occupational health services and reducing in-work sickness.
Funding will support new and innovative ways to improve occupational health services which can eventually be scaled-up and made available to small businesses to help them support their employees to stay in work. The new technology developed through the Fund aims to help unlock opportunities to improve people’s work and wellbeing as part of the government’s efforts to drive down economic inactivity.
Minister for Employment, Jo Churchill MP, said:
“Time off work due to sickness costs British business £100 billion every year. The innovative solutions developed through this funding will benefit businesses as we harness AI and technology to support a healthier and more productive workforce.
“Delivering through our Back to Work Plan and Occupational Health Taskforce, we are driving down inactivity and helping people reach their potential both in work and their daily lives.“
Among the organisations successful in securing funding is Kinseed, which is developing a cloud-based occupational health platform for employers. Their new service “MediWork” is uses data and AI to monitor individual health trends and identifies early warning signs of ill health. It will tailor suggestions to improve workplace wellbeing, and help clinicians do their job more effectively and quickly than before.
Pal Bhusate, Chief Executive Officer at Kinseed Limited, added:
“We’re very excited to be working with cutting edge technology in AI and Cloud systems to keep people healthy and safe at work – and this fund has been absolutely critical in helping us do precisely that.
“Supporting small and medium businesses in these areas is the only way that industries like ours can rapidly adapt to and get value from these incredible developments – and it’s brilliant to see such positive and active support from government to encourage that agility and innovation.“
The latest funding announcement for occupational health innovation follows the launch in February of a new Occupational Health Taskforce, led by Dame Carol Black, to improve employer awareness of the benefits of Occupational Health in the workplace.