At the Health Innovation Network we have always had a dual focus on improving both the health and wealth of the nation and have demonstrated the huge contribution that the health and life sciences industry can make to economic growth. Since 2018, our support to innovators has leveraged £2.6 billion for the UK economy.
We’re playing our part in maximising the impact in the life sciences sector. Piers Ricketts, Chief Executive at Health Innovation East, explains how.
Supporting the NHS to benefit from innovation
The Health Innovation Network plays an integral role in modernising and future-proofing the NHS, benefiting more than 3.2 million patients in the past five years through ideas we have helped to discover, develop, and deploy safely into our health and care system.
We are a network of 15 local organisations who provide specialist support to the NHS in the selection and implementation of the most appropriate innovations in medical technology and care pathways. We also support the UK’s thriving health and life sciences industry in the positioning of their products for the NHS.
Our primary purpose is to ensure that as many patients as possible can benefit from the best that innovation has to offer. Achieving our purpose also generates significant economic benefits through the increased uptake of UK-sourced innovations that arise through our work.
The NHS is also one of the key anchor institutions in the UK. By providing the bulk of the nation’s healthcare and employing over 1 million people, it is a significant contributor to the country’s economy.
The work of the Health Innovation Network leverages this benefit further by providing a wide range of implementation support to the NHS in selecting and deploying new technologies, whose increased sales benefit UK plc as a result.
The £2.6 billion contributed to the wider economy through the external funding that our work has enabled the UK’s health and life sciences companies to raise, equates to an adjusted return on investment of nearly three times our core funding over the period*. Put another way, every £1 invested in the Network has delivered almost three times as much in return.
Bridging the gap
We ‘bridge the gap’ between the health system and industry by identifying promising innovations and supporting their safe deployment into the NHS. Currently, there are more than 3,000 innovations in our curated ‘national pipeline’ at various stages of realisation, and since 2018 we have safeguarded or created over 10,000 jobs through our support to innovators.
We do not carry out or fund the early-stage science or technological discovery underpinning these products, but we undertake the vital support and change management activities that enable them to be implemented in our health and care system, safely, speedily and at scale.
Local change, national impact
Being 15 organisations across England is integral to our ability to deliver this health and economic contribution across the whole country. Innovation adoption is not taking an off-the-shelf product to be ‘delivered’ into health and social care. The need for flexibility in how we innovate in different areas – from rural, to metropolitan, to coastal – cannot be underestimated.
Deep understanding of local systems is key: inspiration might happen nationally, but it’s perspiration locally that delivers innovation to patients.
Our position as a national network of 15 local partners means that we enjoy the trusted local relationships needed to bring about clinical change at ward and practice level whilst being able to scale the most effective innovations at a national level right across England.
A good illustration of this is our work with Qbtech, a company which has developed technology to significantly reduce the time taken to test for ADHD in children and young people.
Initially supported by Health Innovation East Midlands, Qbtech launched a real-world demonstrator project, brokered connections with NHS trusts, and trialled the technology in three mental health trusts. Health Innovation East Midlands provided guidance around issues such as business case development, market access, and connecting with research partners. The learning from these endeavours proved the value of the product for patients and the health service, demonstrated the pathway changes needed to create the right conditions for successful adoption, and led to the product becoming an integral part of the national FocusADHD programme delivered by all 15 local networks.
Qbtech’s product technology is now being used in 79 NHS trusts, benefiting more than 77,000 children and young people.
After adopting the technology, evaluation showed that the time from assessment to diagnosis reduced by an average of 153 days. This increased staff capacity by reducing the number of appointments needed for diagnosis. The release of clinical capacity costs resulted in an estimated saving to the NHS of over £24M, enabling redirection of resources to other parts of the ADHD care pathway.
Before its national roll out, Qbtech experienced annual growth of 20%. Since the Health Innovation Network supported it to be adopted nationally, growth has accelerated to 40% year-on-year and is anticipated to exceed this level in the years ahead.
Qbtech’s innovation is now available in many countries in Europe and the USA, with plans to expand into many more international markets in the next 18 months.
Thinking pathways not products
The UK remains one of the most lively countries in the world for generating and supporting early stage research and development in medicines and health technology. However, the change management support needed to implement new products into the complex environment of hospitals and health systems is significant and is frequently overlooked.
At the Health Innovation Network, we will continue to ensure that the UK’s best and brightest health and life sciences companies are able to not only create huge benefit for patients and our health service, but also to maintain their substantial contribution to our economic growth.
Creating an environment where the NHS is incentivised and supported to increase the uptake of innovation that will improve productivity, reduce demand and support a more economically active population is crucial if we want to see further growth and prosperity. We stand ready to support the new government to realise this ambition.
*Health Innovation Network internal calculation using HM Treasury Green Book analytical method.
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