Digital circular economy company Ditto Sustainability has been chosen to transform product reuse strategies for NHS Scotland, helping to advance the circular economy by using its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to reduce waste, provide cost savings and develop skilled jobs.
NHS Scotland procures goods and services worth more than £2 billion every year, but much of this is not used to its full potential, with many of the medical devices purchased each year discarded after their first life cycle, despite over 50 per cent of these items being suitable for remanufacturing and reuse.
CivTech, a Scottish Government initiative that links public sector expertise with private sector innovation, launched a challenge to find an efficient and robust data system to monitor NHS resources and ensure their maximum utilisation.
The required system needed to be able to track resources from their first deployment through to their return to service, monitoring them through the refurbishment process to ensure that they are fully compliant with NHS standards and ready for reuse.
Ditto Sustainability’s AI platform was chosen to supply this service. The company has previous experience with NHS Scotland, having provided digital waste management monitoring solutions to allow all 14 NHS Boards in the country to input, update and amend their waste data, making it easier for NHS Scotland to report its national data. Other projects for Ditto Sustainability have involved the University of Kent, ACM Environmental and packaging company DS Smith.
Commenting on the new contract, Ditto Sustainability CEO Dan Botterill said: “The project represents a considerable challenge due to the scale of NHS Scotland and the diversity of goods and services procured. This was a huge attraction for us as a technology company. The lessons learned here will not only help NHS Scotland but help us to develop a platform approach relevant to any organisation, big, or small.”
You can find out more about Ditto Sustainability’s digital services on the company’s website.
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