The Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) Hub aims to enhance health and wellbeing across the North East and North Cumbria region of the UK.
The hub facilitates responsible research and innovation in healthcare technologies (health-tech), supported by inclusive digital skills sharing, training, and making connections.
We take a people-centred approach and are committed to humanising health-tech by championing equity, participation, and investment across the region.
Our goal is to establish NortHFutures as a pioneering ecosystem working across job sectors that empowers people to engage and lead in digital health and health-tech initiatives. We practice participant-led user research and evaluation of tools and resources to strive for the design of useable and useful technologies and services.
We aim to create an inclusive environment where everyone, from health and social care professionals and industry leaders to community organisations, advocacy groups and academic researchers, can come together to collaborate, innovate and share insights and experience.
“Our aspiration is that the Hub will deliver a supportive and diverse community infrastructure that will stimulate social, economic and cultural growth, and will promote wellbeing for all.”
— Abigail Durrant & Naeem Soomro, Directors of NortHFutures
We aim to address health and social inequalities in the North East and North Cumbria through inclusive digital skills training and sharing, responsible health-tech design and development, networking and entrepreneurship.
We will:
Moving into summer, we have several exciting opportunities for people to engage with the NortHFutures programme. Read more to see how you can get involved with NortHFutures and make a difference in Digital Health in the North East and North Cumbria.
Since launching in December 2023, the team has been establishing the Hub foundations, programme, and ways of working together across the multiple sectors involved. Here's a snapshot of our journey so far.
Newcastle University is leading a ground-breaking £4.17m Digital Health Hub for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC). The Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) programme is a collaboration between six regional universities, and seven NHS Trusts within the Integrated Care System (ICS) for NENC.
