Introducing Health Innovation North West Coast

The Innovation Agency has been renamed Health Innovation North West Coast.

The renaming follows NHS England’s decision to relicense England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) for a further five years until 2028.

The new title aims to better reflect the goals of Health Innovation North West Coast and its partner organisations – to boost the adoption and spread of innovations that improve patient outcomes. 

Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive of Health Innovation North West Coast, said: “I’m hopeful the new name will become familiar to our partners in the region very quickly because our mission will remain the same, to drive the adoption of innovations that deliver better care.

“This new licence is recognition of the support we’ve given in the past decade to our colleagues in the health and care system as they tackle their challenges.

“It’s also a mandate to continue building relationships with health service colleagues, industry, academia and the third sector and bring a collaborative approach to spreading innovation.”

The relicensing allows Health Innovation North West Coast to continue to support healthcare systems partners in their patient safety and care improvement work.

It will also work to boost economic growth by supporting small companies – in the region and overseas – that develop health and care innovations.

AHSNs were launched in 2013 to act as the innovation arm of the NHS, supporting the spread of all types of innovation in the health and care system, including new technologies, new ways of working and service improvements.

In the North West Coast, the Innovation Agency has in the last 10 years:

• Delivered Restore2 training, designed to improve patient care, in more than 400 care homes
• Established a safety improvement programme for maternity services in all 11 maternity units in the region
• Secured £191m of inward investment
• Helped secure 689 jobs and supported more than 1,800 innovative companies
• Delivered coaching to around 3,000 individuals and teams
• Provided facilitation and coaching for system change programmes such as redesign of a pulmonary rehabilitation pathway; a new lipids pathway; development of a clinical and care system leadership framework

AHSNs have delivered 11 national adoption and spread programmes and supported the rapid uptake of 28 NICE-approved products. These initiatives alone have benefited more than 2.3 million patients. Since 2018, AHSNs have also helped to leverage investment of £1.8bn for the UK.