Case study: Evidence Generator Bootcamp enables efficient evidence building for multi-sector tool, Pivot  

Pivot Support Services is a stigma-free, 24/7 digital recovery and wellbeing platform supporting people affected by addiction and harmful coping behaviours, including alcohol use, drug use and gambling harm, from before they reach crisis through to sustained recovery. Designed for both individuals and their families, Pivot addresses a significant gap in digital support by providing accessible, everyday tools for recovery and wellbeing. The platform is aimed at an estimated five million people in the UK who currently have no dedicated digital support option. 

Founder and CEO Anna Miller participated in Cohort 3 of the DigitalHealth.London Evidence Generator Bootcamp to understand the evidence required for adoption and develop a clear strategy to demonstrate value across a number of sectors.  

Capturing impact across different sectors 

Pivot operates across health, social care and recovery support services, providing digital support for people affected by harmful coping behaviours and their families. Demonstrating the platform’s impact has therefore been a particular challenge for Founder and CEO Anna Miller. Unlike pathway-specific innovations that can draw on a single dataset or stakeholder perspective, Pivot’s benefits are felt across multiple sectors, including healthcare, housing, employment, justice and family wellbeing. Capturing this broader impact requires a tailored approach to evidence generation which can demonstrate value across a diverse range of systems and stakeholders. 

Anna joined the DigitalHealth.London Evidence Generator Bootcamp to strengthen this approach. She was keen to connect with other early-stage innovators and learn from their experiences, while also gaining a deeper understanding of how to develop Pivot in line with adoption requirements. Most importantly, she wanted to build her confidence in generating meaningful evidence that could clearly demonstrate the platform’s value and support its adoption across health and care settings. 

Understanding routes for building an evidence base 

The programme provided Anna with valuable perspectives on evidence generation. Peer learning sessions, real-world insights from later-stage innovators and expert-led discussions helped Anna to better understand how to build an evidence base that reflects Pivot’s impact on individuals, families, services and society. Anna has also established a valuable relationship with the Health Innovation Network South London (HIN), connecting with the Innovator Support team for tailored feedback and support as the company continues to develop and grow. 

One of the most influential sessions for Anna explored how commissioning decisions consider the social impact of products over the course of life, alongside traditional clinical outcomes. This helped Anna to rethink how Pivot articulates its value proposition, reinforcing the importance of capturing evidence of broader outcomes such as recovery, quality of life, health and care utilisation, and wider social and economic benefits. 

The Bootcamp also supported Anna to gain knowledge of the evidence required to demonstrate value to commissioners and decision makers. Initially, the company considered using Freedom of Information requests to access NHS data due to the scarcity of information. However, discussions with data analysts, programme experts and fellow innovators from the Bootcamp highlighted that this approach alone would likely be slow, challenging and unlikely to provide the complete picture needed.  

This led the team to identify alternative ways to build their evidence base. By also drawing on existing national datasets and published literature, they developed a more practical, credible evidence generation strategy. This helped them focus on the data and outcomes most relevant to demonstrating Pivot’s value and supporting future adoption. 

Aligning system priorities, evidence generation and product development 

Another key insight from the programme was the importance of focusing on the specific outcomes and cost drivers that matter most to commissioners. Taking these learnings back to the team, Anna refined Pivot’s evidence generation approach to focus on the health economic outcomes and system-level impacts. This means that Pivot can now generate evidence that is most relevant to decision-makers in its target health and care markets, helping to build a clearer case for adoption. 

This learning is also shaping the platform’s development. Reporting functionality is being built directly into the product ahead of pilot deployments, so outcome data is captured automatically as users engage with the platform. Each pilot is also being designed around clearly defined evidence objectives, ensuring the company can demonstrate the specific costs and outcomes required to support adoption. 

This shift in the team’s approach is ensuring that any evidence can capture both individual and system-level impact, bringing together outcomes data, service utilisation measures and recognised value frameworks to create a more complete picture of the platform’s benefits. 

“The programme gave us the confidence to stop trying to prove everything and focus on what actually matters. We are now narrowing our evidence strategy to the health economics and cost outcomes commissioners care about most, then testing this directly with pilot partners to generate real outcome data as we build, not after.” 

– Anna Miller, Founder and CEO, Pivot Support Services Ltd 

Next steps 

As the company enters its next phase, its focus is on generating robust real-world evidence through pilot partnerships. Drawing on insights from the programme, Anna and her team are prioritising the outcomes and economic measures that matter most to decision-makers, while embedding evidence generation into the product from the outset rather than treating it as a retrospective activity. 

The Evidence Generator Bootcamp helped Pivot move from a clear ambition to demonstrate impact to a structured and credible plan for doing so. By taking a more strategic approach to evidence generation, the company is strengthening its case for adoption and building a clearer understanding of how its platform delivers value across health, care and wider societal outcomes. 

Pivot Support Services is part of cohort three of the Evidence Generator Bootcamp.

The DigitalHealth.London Evidence Generator Bootcamp programme is funded by the Office for Life Sciences with a focus on signposting and supporting innovators to deliver economic growth. It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network South London.

For more information, please visit the DigitalHealth.London Evidence Generator Bootcamp webpage.