Holly Health, a UK digital health company, has launched a £320,000 Prevention Innovation Fund, aimed at supporting Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) across the UK to implement large-scale preventative health initiatives.
As rates of long-term conditions (LTCs), mental health challenges, and multimorbidity continue to rise, lifestyle-related risk factors remain the primary cause.
This trend is placing considerable strain on the NHS, with over £18.4 billion—more than three-quarters of its annual expenditure—spent on long-term care.
Additionally, 38% of working-age individuals on long-term sickness report living with five or more chronic conditions
The NHS has an opportunity to shift towards a proactive, preventive and personalised care system, with the help of technology
Despite the growing need, most individuals facing these challenges currently receive no tailored support for improving their lifestyle-related health.
In response, Holly Health is offering up to four ICSs—or their equivalents in Scotland and Wales—credit worth up to £80,000 each to deploy its clinically validated, psychology-based digital health coaching service.
The aim is to enhance self-management support across regions and to drive progress in line with the NHS’s strategic priorities: shifting from treatment to prevention, from hospital-based to community-based care, and from analogue to digital services.
Holly Health provides a fully digital, yet highly personalised, health coaching service that helps patients build sustainable habits related to both mental and physical health, addressing a broad range of lifestyle risk factors.
More than £18.4 billion—over three-quarters of NHS expenditure—is spent on long-term care annually
The service has already been adopted by over 200 GP practices across the UK and is backed by the NHS Innovation Accelerator.
Clinical outcomes from the platform show significant average improvements in key health areas, including exercise, mental wellbeing, weight management, and blood pressure.
Furthermore, data indicate a consistent reduction in GP appointments following the use of Holly Health, especially among frequent service users.
Grace Gimson, Chief Executive at Holly Health, said: “We’re extremely excited to make this double announcement: the launch of our Prevention Innovation Fund, and the go-live of our partnership with PKB. Both have the potential to drive huge systemic changes in UK healthcare, advancing prevention and personalised patient care at a population level.”
The vast majority of people living with long-term conditions currently receive no tailored support for lifestyle health improvement
Steve Woodford, Non-Executive Director at NHS England, said: “The NHS has an opportunity to shift towards a proactive, preventive and personalised care system, with the help of technology. Services like Holly Health can help to drive these changes affordably and efficiently. This is a great opportunity for ICB teams, enabling scalable self-management support for people living with or at risk of long-term conditions.”
ICSs will be able to implement Holly Health at scale via two main channels. The first is through traditional deployment via primary care and public health services.
The second, more in line with future NHS ambitions, is through direct public access via the NHS App, enabled by a new collaboration with personal health record platform Patients Know Best (PKB), also announced today.
The vast majority of people living with long-term conditions currently receive no tailored support for lifestyle health improvement
PKB allows patients to view and contribute to their own health records via its platform and through the NHS App.
This new integration with Holly Health enables the two systems to synchronise, allowing users to input lifestyle and blood pressure data directly into their personal health records.
ICS teams will, for the first time, be able to facilitate access to Holly Health coaching through both PKB and the NHS App—advancing the government's vision of a unified digital platform for health management.