Bupa and University College London have announced a new joint digital health project.
The Global Institute for Digital Health Excellence (GLIDHE) will see the international healthcare group and London-based university collaborating on digital tools to promote healthier lifestyles.
GLIDHE will also provide funding for PhD and MSc students at UCL.
Alan Payne, Global Digital Director at Bupa, said: "I am very proud that Bupa is partnering with one of the world’s leading universities, UCL, on such an exciting project.
He added: "A common challenge for digital health is developing an evidence base to demonstrate the success of a mobile or online tool.
"However, with this partnership, we are combining Bupa’s global health expertise with UCL’s world leading behaviour change and computer science capabilities, so we have a fantastic opportunity to develop scalable tools that are proven to genuinely help people to adopt healthier habits and reduce their risk of chronic disease in the future."
Professor Susan Michie, Director of the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, said: "GLIDHE is an extremely exciting initiative in the field of behaviour change. The project’s digital initiatives will provide us with unprecedented scale and scope, not only to improve people’s health, but to learn what works and continually improve what we are offering."
To mark the project’s launch, Bupa is supporting the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change Conference 2015, which will run between 23-25 February.
