Member Article

NHS Innovations North doubles workforce

A team of specialists devoted to helping North East firms benefit from lucrative healthcare opportunities has almost doubled in size.

The NHS Innovations North team has taken on seven new staff to boost their number to 15 professionals following £520k worth of European Regional Development Fund support to help small and medium-sized companies develop innovative new products for the NHS.

The team based at RTC North in Sunderland will now be able to offer even more specialist advice through its team of advisors specialising in the healthcare market, intellectual property protection and the commercialisation process as well as the extensive NHS reforms.

They are the first point of contact for businesses working on new ideas, devices and technology to improve healthcare for patients and are working with the Academic Health Science Network North East and Cumbria to stimulate new ideas and innovation amongst staff within the NHS.

Two days of free specialist support is available from the team, focussing on harvesting new ideas, protecting intellectual property and spreading innovation across the region’s NHS Trusts.

Since it was created 13 years ago, NHS Innovations North has assessed more than 4,000 ideas, commercialised 80 medical technologies and helped create multiple new businesses.

The new additions to the team comprise:

• Ailsa Anderson, programme manager
• Wayne Bryant, health innovation officer
• Nick Harrison, health information officer
• Carolyn Horrocks, project manager
• Steph Oxley, science graduate trainee
• Jonathon Coates, science graduate trainee
• Tony Antoni, IP specialist

The NHS is looking to new products and processes both from business and its own staff to help it meet growing demands on its services, such as an ageing population and increased strain on accident and emergency departments.

Martin Porton, operations director at RTC North, with responsibility for the NHS Innovations North team and all RTC projects, said: “The NHS is tackling the huge challenge of rising costs with an innovation agenda – if it makes no changes it is estimated it faces a £30bn funding gap by 2020.

“A lot of what we do is about making introductions for North East companies, supporting them, assessing their idea, advising on IP – there is a lot of change and opportunity that comes with innovation and we want to ensure that local companies get a slice of that with all the economic benefits that can bring.”

Ailsa Anderson, NHS Innovations North programme manager, said: “Our team has almost doubled in size because innovation is a growing area for the NHS, it has to change the way it delivers its services.

“The only way it can do that is by prioritising the adoption and spread of innovation and good practice - driving the uptake of high impact medicines, technologies, devices and diagnostics.

“As the NHS innovates it creates new business opportunities for North East firms, particularly in sectors such as life sciences, and our team is here to help companies take advantage of that.”

Gordon Ollivere MBE, CEO of RTC North, added: “It has always been tough for companies to break into the healthcare sector or to understand how to best deal with the NHS.

“The NHS Innovations North ERDF Programme will give companies access to valuable expertise on how to turn their ideas into successful products, while at the same time making a real contribution to improving patient care.”

The NHS Innovations North team is a service delivered by RTC North which for the past 25 years has been working with businesses, universities and NHS Trusts across the North of England with the aim of taking new products and services to market.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .