Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge Cohort launches
Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge Programme expands from 2 to 26 Innovations
The Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge, first launched in 2025, has expanded the number of innovators it supports from 2 to a cohort of 26. Each participant has been selected to design, build and pilot patient-facing digital tools targeting some of the most overlooked gaps in women’s health.
Spearheaded through a partnership between Cogniss, The Health Innovation Network and Amazon Web Services, the expansion is thanks to support by Health Innovation East, the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, NHS Innovation Accelerator, NIHR Devices for Dignity and TechUK.
Joining the Challenge winners NVP Minds (that supports women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum), and HearHer (for women who support children with mental health or developmental challenges), are 24 innovations from across the UK that serve a wide range of under-supported areas, including:
NICU, a neonatal-journey companion app providing clinical guidance, emotional support, and practical tools to help mothers feel informed, connected, and confident during their baby's hospital stay.
Gracefully, a digital education app to equip maternity service workers with the skills and confidence to provide compassionate, gold standard bereavement care.
MenoSaathi, an app providing accessible symptom tracking, education, tailored guidance and triage for women from South Asian communities in managing perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms.
Jalititi, a multilingual breast health app that helps black women understand breast changes across all life stages, from puberty to menopause.
The Hormone Effect (THE), a multilingual contraceptive information app offering validated method comparisons, NHS navigation guidance, symptom tracking with red-flag recognition, and accessible resources to reduce misinformation and improve contraceptive decision-making.
Paula Brennan, a selected cohort participant from Liverpool Women's University Hospital, said: “NICU Baby was created from seeing first-hand the challenges families face during neonatal care and recognising the need for better support and clearer information for parents.
“The Women’s Digital Health Challenge gives us the opportunity to develop a more inclusive digital platform shaped around real family experiences, helping parents feel more informed, supported and connected throughout their neonatal journey. At the heart of NICU Baby is one simple goal, helping families feel less alone during neonatal care.”
Learn more about the participants and their innovations: https://www.ripplescale.org/womens-digital-health-challenge-2025-cohort
Having recently embedded ‘innovator landing zones’ in primary care organisations in the region, Health Innovation East will, over the coming year, support the development of pilots of several of the digital tools emerging from the Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge programme. Health Innovation East is committed to helping important innovations develop quickly and safely - introducing them to and testing them in real-world settings.
Commenting on this programme, Piers Ricketts, CEO, Health Innovation East said
"Without access to real-world testing, promising innovations can stall before their impact can be felt across the NHS. Access to this testing can be disproportionately hard for technologies supporting specific patient groups, Connecting innovator landing zones with the Ripple Women's Health Challenge helps overcome this hurdle”
The Ripple Women's Digital Health Challenge revealed a strong pipeline of clinically grounded, high-potential concepts reflecting the scale and diversity of unmet need in women’s health. In response, Ripple expanded its initial scope.
Commenting on the expanded programme, Kathy Scott, Deputy Chief Executive, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber said: “It’s exciting to see these much-needed innovations being given a fantastic boost through the creation of digital platforms which will be ready for testing in real world settings.
“Women’s health has been underserved for too long and the Ripple initiative is exactly what’s needed to accelerate improvements in care.”
Tobias Croft, Head of Innovation - Health, The Scottish Government, commented:
“The deep clinical insight and understanding of the target users that sits behind every one of these innovations is outstanding. It is fantastic to see the challenge supporting not just two, but all the innovators with outstanding ideas. The innovations have real potential to change the lives of not just patients, but carers, parents and beyond.”
Leon Young, Founding CEO, Cogniss, said: “What we’re seeing is a shift in how digital tools that deliver care and support to patients are built, adopted and scaled. Together with organisations and experts from across the system, we are creating a replicable pathway through which the right tools can reliably reach patients.”
Through the programme, clinicians and researchers from the UK, Ireland, US and Australia are being supported to build their solutions using the Cogniss no-code platform, without requiring traditional software development teams.
Health Innovation East, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber and other partners support innovators in planning pilots, generating evidence, evaluating economic impact and preparing for adoption. Beyond the programme, participants have the option to take their solution further by joining a curated women’s health portfolio published by Ripple Scale, the digital health publisher, designed for health providers to evaluate and procure as a single offering.
Ripple digital health challenges are designed to accelerate innovation in priority health areas globally. They connect innovators, health systems, funders, and partners to move promising ideas into scalable solutions.
About Ripple Scale, The Digital Health Publisher
Ripple Scale, the digital health publisher, exists to solve one of healthcare’s biggest missed opportunities: getting proven digital care and support tools into the hands of the people who need them. It works with health providers to identify priority needs, support experts to build solutions, curates portfolios of apps, licenses them to health providers and manages deployment at scale. In short, Ripple Scale turns digital health innovation into something health systems can actually buy, deliver and use.
Cogniss is a no-code ecosystem that enables healthcare experts and organisations to create patient-facing therapeutic and support apps without coding. It dramatically reduces the time, cost and complexity of building apps, while simplifying the evidence generation, data protection and compliance needed for adoption by health systems, providers and life sciences.
About the Health Innovation Network
There are 15 health innovation networks across England, commissioned to be the boots-on-the-ground support to local health and care teams to deliver health innovation, creating improved health and economic growth in all communities.
