LIMITLESS STRIDE: Integrated Innovation for Equitable Obesity Care Across NHS Lothian and UK Defence Medical Services
Lead Participant:
MIDLOTHIAN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PARTNERSHIP
Abstract
We're creating a new digital weight management platform that offers more capacity, choice and personalisation than current NHS or private providers. It will be fair, effective, safe and quick and easy to access. This project is a partnership between **NHS Lothian**, the **Defence Medical Services (DMS)** and the **Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI)**, to support patients in the Lothians and UK Armed Forces personnel and their families.
Our aim is simple: **shorter waiting times, fairer access, and safe, person-led, long-term care.**
Here's how it works:
* People start with **online checks and psychological screening** via an app, so they're directed straight to the right level of support without delays.
* Virtual **education, behavioural support** and **obesity medicines** (sometimes known as weight loss medicines) prescribing.
* People will be directed to **physical training and physical activity** local to them, to support strength, fitness and whole-person health.
* At all times, the virtual **systems will** **speak to your usual weight management clinician and/or GP** in the community or hospital, to ensure joined-up, completely safe care.
* For UK Armed Forces families, the programme **continues regardless of postings and deployments**, combining virtual support with in-person rehabilitation and in-person fitness assessments.
We're testing two programmes:
* **LIMITLESS** - for NHS patients
* **STRIDE** - for UK Armed Forces personnel and families.
Key features:
* Digital systems to guide people quickly to the right care
* Personalised support based on data, so access is fair and fast
* Choice: participants get to decide what elements best suit them (with the option to be seen in-person)
* Flexibility: pathways that fit around everyday life
* A step-by-step approach to prescribing anti-obesity medicines: expertise accessible locally
* Built-in referral and long-term care planning, so people cannot get 'lost' in the system
* Outreach and hybrid (online/ in-person) options to tackle health inequalities
* Participants will be offered in-depth, in-person assessment of their health and performance using gold-standard body composition scans, strength, fitness and wellbeing measures.
All of this can be accessed through a single app, which integrates with existing NHS/ DMS healthcare
By combining NHS and military expertise, we're building an effective, modern, flexible system which people can trust. It will improve obesity, health and wellbeing, reduce inequalities, and support occupational readiness. This approach follows national clinical guidelines and government priorities, and by testing it in both NHS and military settings, we're proving it can be used across the UK, setting a new standard for obesity care innovation.
Our aim is simple: **shorter waiting times, fairer access, and safe, person-led, long-term care.**
Here's how it works:
* People start with **online checks and psychological screening** via an app, so they're directed straight to the right level of support without delays.
* Virtual **education, behavioural support** and **obesity medicines** (sometimes known as weight loss medicines) prescribing.
* People will be directed to **physical training and physical activity** local to them, to support strength, fitness and whole-person health.
* At all times, the virtual **systems will** **speak to your usual weight management clinician and/or GP** in the community or hospital, to ensure joined-up, completely safe care.
* For UK Armed Forces families, the programme **continues regardless of postings and deployments**, combining virtual support with in-person rehabilitation and in-person fitness assessments.
We're testing two programmes:
* **LIMITLESS** - for NHS patients
* **STRIDE** - for UK Armed Forces personnel and families.
Key features:
* Digital systems to guide people quickly to the right care
* Personalised support based on data, so access is fair and fast
* Choice: participants get to decide what elements best suit them (with the option to be seen in-person)
* Flexibility: pathways that fit around everyday life
* A step-by-step approach to prescribing anti-obesity medicines: expertise accessible locally
* Built-in referral and long-term care planning, so people cannot get 'lost' in the system
* Outreach and hybrid (online/ in-person) options to tackle health inequalities
* Participants will be offered in-depth, in-person assessment of their health and performance using gold-standard body composition scans, strength, fitness and wellbeing measures.
All of this can be accessed through a single app, which integrates with existing NHS/ DMS healthcare
By combining NHS and military expertise, we're building an effective, modern, flexible system which people can trust. It will improve obesity, health and wellbeing, reduce inequalities, and support occupational readiness. This approach follows national clinical guidelines and government priorities, and by testing it in both NHS and military settings, we're proving it can be used across the UK, setting a new standard for obesity care innovation.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| MIDLOTHIAN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PARTNERSHIP | £7,776,696 | £ 7,776,696 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Kathleen Scullion (Project Manager) |