In this episode of The Business of Healthcare Podcast – How It Got Commissioned, Tara is joined by Alison Gardiner, Founder of Born Digital Health and Co-Founder & CEO of Sleepstation, a digital health service focused on improving sleep at scale across the NHS.

Alison shares the real story behind how Sleepstation was commissioned, scaled, and sustained through major system change, offering practical insight into what commissioners look for, how digital services succeed at scale, and why understanding budgets and context is critical.

This episode is about:

• How Sleepstation moved from a local project to national and regional commissioning

• Why digital does not automatically mean scalable

• Understanding NHS budgets and the percentage you're really asking for

• Working in partnership rather than relying solely on tenders

• Navigating system change, competition, and shifting commissioning structures

• The role of data, outcomes, and real-world impact beyond access

• Why many pilots fail to scale, and how to avoid getting stuck there

Alison shares openly what worked, what didn't, and what she's learned from delivering digital services at significant scale within primary care and wider NHS systems.

If you're building, commissioning, or supporting digital health innovation, this episode offers grounded, experience-led insight into how services really get commissioned, and sustained, in practice.

Visit the Sleepstation website

Connect with Alison Gardiner on LinkedIn