What are Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs)?
Health Innovation and Education Clusters, known as HIECs, are formal partnerships between NHS organisations, leading education institutes, industry and academia, whose purpose is to promote innovation, quality and productivity in the NHS through training, education and the sharing of best practice across the region. Their purpose is to enable high quality patient care and services by bringing the benefits of research and innovation directly to patients through improving and coordinating professional education and training so that it has the breadth and depth to support excellence. HIECs were first announced by the Department of Health in the Next Stage Review: High Quality Care for All. Seventeen successful HIECs were chosen by an independent award panel in December 2009 after a six month open application process. Projects are being developed across many clinical and disease areas. This work includes the identification and evaluation of new models of delivering care closer to home, emp
