Southern exposure
When the Mayor of London launched MedCity last month he talked about transforming the life sciences sector in London and the Greater South East and creating a world-leading cluster for life sciences which would bring benefits to both local and global patient populations. This ³smart specialisation² in a geographical cluster is a well-trodden path. Who hasn¹t heard of Silicon Valley?!
Last week, a group of senior leaders from across KSS visited the Region of Southern Denmark, an exemplar health and well-being smart specialisation cluster.
Of course there can¹t be a simplistic lift and shift but understanding their success can help us accelerate our own development and delivery of better solutions.
Success
Cross sector industry, research, health and social care – collaboration in Southern Denmark has led to enviable innovation for patients. This includes improvements in the patient environment, telemedicine, process re-design and diagnostic devices. My particular favourite was seeing the collaboration between the performance measurement tools for elite sports men and women, being applied to personalised rehabilitation programmes for patients.
The Region of Southern Denmark is marketing itself well as a Living Lab and testbed for innovation.
Opportunity
That¹s where I think we can challenge ourselves. The innovative technologies and products were eye-catching and improved patient care. The region-wide collaboration was equally impressive, leading us to leave with the desire to create a virtual Living Lab (for developing assisted living technologies in a real world setting) in KSS. We are now on the case!
Allow me to finish by quoting Peter Wilkinson, Consultant Cardiologist, Ashford & St Peter¹s Hospital NHS FT:
The active involvement of patients and staff from the healthcare sector in suggesting new products and improving their design was impressive in Denmark Although we talk about rehabilitation in a hospital environment in reality patients get a very limited time each day (Monday to Friday normally) with a therapist. Surely simple bits of kit, such as the elastic web which measured performance, could be developed for patients.
These would allow the patients to have a series of physical challenges during each day when the therapist was absent which would be captured electronically. I was reminded of the considerable expertise developed by our athletes and cyclists over the last decade. Could that expertise, which has been aimed at the younger age groups, be used to optimise all forms of physical therapy for our older population both within the hospital and in the community? See Dave Brailsford who is in charge of UK cycling looking at every step of the way in optimising performance nutrition, training, technique, psychology and equipment to name but some.
Partnership day 17 June
Our partnership day on June 17 is an opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the patch and across the sectors in response to the challenge of avoidable emergency admissions. It¹s also the chance to build the relationships needed to spread and adopt best practice at scale meaning more patients benefiting faster from the best innovations.
The event is filling up, so please email Georgina Margetts if you’d like to attend.
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An alternative guide to the urgent and emergency care system in England
[The Kings Fund]
A&E is often seen as a service in crisis and is the focus of much media and political interest. But A&E is just the tip of the iceberg the whole urgent and emergency care system is complex, and surrounded by myth and confusion.
Triple Helix Opportunities Workshop
A workshop on Entrepreneurial University, England Industry & Active Government: Triple Helix Opportunities is being held in Guildford, UK in May 29-30, 2013. It¹s the first joint event between the Triple Helix Association and The University of Surrey.
For further information and registration, please click here.
Launch of Regional Innovation Fund – Round 1
The Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) of £3million is available this year to support and promote the adoption of innovation and spread of innovation across the NHS. The closing date for submitting applications is 5pm on 30th May 2014.
For more information and to access the application form and guidance, please visit the NHS England¹s Innovation web-portal: https://nhs-ihw-colab.induct.no
Free webinar on Horizon 2020 learning from the 2014 call and looking ahead to 2015
[NHS European Office]
The NHS European Office will be hosting a free webinar with the Horizon 2020 UK Health National Contact Point 12.30pm on Thursday 22 May. It will review the early results of the 2014 call and look forward to the 2015 call, to be launched later this year.
Please contact Michael.Wood@nhsconfed.org to register.