CreaTech and Digital Creative Health
At the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH), we've always believed that creativity plays a vital role in supporting health and wellbeing. Now, a new frontier called CreaTech -the fusion of arts, culture and digital innovation - is opening up. This, along with the call for digitalisation in the government's 10 Year Health Plan, has made it the perfect time to think more deeply about Digital Creative Health.
We want to hear from you, specifically for case studies that showcase how CreaTech solutions are driving innovation in health systems, improving service delivery, system efficiency, patient outcomes or experience. Your case studies will help inform NCCH on how we can support digital innovations moving forward, ensuring that we reference quality CreaTech in our advocacy and evidence summaries, and informing our development of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) event on Digital Creative Health and the 10-Year Health Plan (spring 2026).
Criteria for Digital Creative Health Case Studies:
We are looking for examples that illustrate at least one of the following submission criteria:
- Innovative approaches to accessing and engaging with culture, health and wellbeing, via digital artistic and immersive technology.
- Examples of cross-sector collaboration between artists, technologists, clinicians, and researchers.
- Non-artistic digital innovations that positively impact the accessibility and measurement of creative health provision in health systems, in line with the NHS 10-Year Plan’s aspiration to shift from analogue to digital.
We are particularly keen to see measurable outcomes - whether quantitative data or qualitative feedback - illustrating system or patient benefit.
You can submit your case studies via this survey: https://airtable.com/appzWNpQN5QQLOY66/pagcjSA2eTUHNBUnh/form
Please submit by 12th January 2026 to be considered for inclusion in our spring APPG event.
What is Digital Creative Health, and Why Now?
Digital Creative Health brings together digital tools - such as AI, VR, gamification and immersive platforms - with creative practice to address health challenges. We already see innovations like:
- Art-based interactive health platforms for asthma management and spirometry testing
- Biofeedback VR for heartrate control and VR environments for pain management, rehabilitation and trauma recovery
- Gamified apps that encourage healthy behaviours and support mental wellbeing
- AI-driven interactive art responding to users’ emotions and sensory spaces to reduce anxiety whilst waiting for medical treatment
- Innovative data-collection techniques that support the tracking on creative health outcomes, whilst mitigating patient’s feedback fatigue.
- Digital-storytelling platforms amplifying lived experience
In an NHS landscape pushing for personalised, accessible care, these technologies are becoming essential to achieving the goals of the 10 Year Health Plan.
Equity and Ethics
We acknowledge the anxieties and risks around data privacy, copyright, and algorithmic bias when blending creativity with health tech. NCCH is committed to values of ethical governance and equitable access, ensuring wherever possible that innovations:
- Tackle digital exclusion and accessibility barriers
- Respect cultural and intellectual property rights
- Promote workforce development and new skills
- Distribute technological benefits fairly across communities
- Protect personal data, in line with GDPR
This balanced approach recognizes both the promise and the precautions necessary in the creative health landscape. As we develop our understanding of CreaTech and AI across our organisation, we seek to better understand the nuance that comes in applying these principles in practice. We welcome discussions from leaders in the field.
More about NCCH’s plans for Digital Creative Health
Our plan is to gather intelligence through these case-study submissions, and attendance at a Digital Creative Health event in parliament by p_ART_icipate! Research, to better understand the types of activity and actors that exist. The NCCH Board and leadership team will review insights early in 2026 to shape future strategies. Moreover, our staff are engaging in AI training and risk assessment, and our Research and Policy Manager, Jane Hearst, is looking into opportunities to embed creative evaluation into healthcare digitalisation plans, ahead of our APPG event in spring 2026. Read an article by Jane on Immersive Arts and Creative Health here.
For any queries about submitting to this call out, please email: research@ncch.org.uk
We look forward to shaping the future of creative health together.
