A Liverpool digital technology company secures £96,000 grant to improve health information for new parents from minority groups. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool digital technology firm Damibu, which has developed a health information platform, has won £96,000 in grant funding.

Damibu, based in Baltic Triangle, developed its Damibu Feeds platform during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. It delivers NHS information to places where it can be accessed by the public, such as GP websites.

This latest funding, from the Small Business Research Initiative was secured with the help of the Innovation Agency. It will help the company explore how information can be ‘hyper-localised’ to meet the needs of minority groups.

Damibu’s five-strong team will focus on new parents in Liverpool city region to ensure they receive the information they need to fully access health services.

Dave Burrows, founder and chief executive of Damibu, said: “A large part of the work will focus on engaging with local people so we can better understand cultural and linguistic differences.

READ MORE: Entrepreneurial duo reach out to 100,000 people

“Firstly, this is to overcome any change in nuance during translation and, secondly, to see if NHS information can be more culturally relevant.

“We’re excited to start working with our partners on this project. The research and technology developed will flow into our work on maternity and early years self-care information, and our work with NHS primary care.

“In 2019 to 2020 the NHS spent £66 million on translation and interpreting services. Our platform will allow this spend to deliver more by targeting factors that lead to inequalities in health information, such as language, culture, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and location.”

Andy Cairns, the Innovation Agency’s commercial manager for Liverpool city region, said: “We have a relationship with Damibu going back several years so we’re delighted to have played some part in their latest success.

“Damibu is all about delivering social benefits in an innovative way and this latest piece of work promises to improve services for people from disadvantaged communities.”