Two apps aimed at supporting mental health during pregnancy and motherhood have won a global innovation award for women’s health.
The Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge programme is delivered by n0-code digital health platform Cogniss, the Health Innovation Network, and Amazon Web Services.
An app for to support women suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a debilitating condition that causes severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, and an app for mothers supporting children with mental health or developmental challenges, have been announced as winners of the challenge.
The two winning app aim to close the gap on women’s health by offering support to women with their mental wellbeing.
Both solutions will be developed on the Cogniss platform, before receiving support from the Health Innovation Network, including identification of pilot sites, study design, evidence generation, economic evaluation, with the aim of supporting adoption into NHS pathways.
Baroness Gillian Merron, women’s health minister said: “Closing these gaps in women’s health is key. It is unacceptable that so many women are waiting too long for the care they need, and we are changing this through renewing the Women’s Health Strategy.
“Through our 10 year health plan, we are also making access to severe morning sickness medications easier, ending the postcode lottery of treatment.
“What is so encouraging about the winning solutions is that they bring frontline clinical insight, lived experience and academic rigour together to address real, persistent gaps in care through digital solutions. I am excited to see these solutions coming to life and reaching women that need them.”
The app ‘NVP Minds’, led by associate professor Fiona Challacombe, an academic and registered clinical psychologist from the University of Oxford, aims to support women suffering from HG, which affects 30,000 pregnancies in the UK annually.
Professor Challacombe said: “Several of the health experts building this app with me have lived through HG themselves. We bring the clinical reality and the first-hand understanding of the condition.
“With the national charity Pregnancy Sickness Support beside us, we want to build a solution that makes a difference to the 3.6% of pregnancies impacted by this devastating condition.”
The other winning app, ‘HearHer’, was developed by Dr Faith Martin, clinical and health psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Bath.
It targets maternal mental wellbeing for the more than two million mothers in the UK supporting children with mental health or developmental challenges, who are known to experience chronic stress and emotional exhaustion.
Dr Martin said: “Mothers supporting children with mental health or developmental challenges are often coping at home, waiting for for CAMHS [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services] support, or managing their child’s distress between appointments and trying to keep everything else going.
“HearHer is designed to provide evidence-based, personalised psychological support during those critical gaps, helping mothers to sustain their own wellbeing while they care for their children.”
Meanwhile, Innovate UK has launched its Women in Innovation Awards for 2025-26 in December, offering up to 60 awardees a grant of up to £75,000.
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