Regional innovation landscape takes shape

Health Innovation North West Coast is playing a key role in shaping the innovation landscape in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

System leaders and other experts are developing a blueprint that describes how the region can make the most of its innovation resources to deliver better outcomes for patients.

They also aim to increase capacity and ensure the region’s efforts in the field of health and care innovation align with the NHS’s Innovation Ecosystem Programme (IEP).

They point out that several of the IEP’s key messages coincide with findings in Lancashire and South Cumbria, including:

• The NHS faces challenges that require embracing innovation to ensure sustainability and meet population needs​
• The UK has unparalleled potential to lead globally in healthcare innovation testing and adoption through the NHS's scale
• Urgent action is needed to grow and build effective partnerships between the NHS and its suppliers. ​

Health Innovation North West Coast Associate Directors Eleanor Garnett-Bentley and Mike Kenny are members of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Innovation Subgroup, whose mission is to bolster capacity.

The group is chaired by Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB Director of Public Health Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, who said: “We wanted to spread the net far and wide to be sure we had representation from every corner of the health and care system and could make the most of all our talents.

“That’s why we’ve brought together on the subgroup not just representatives from ‘the system’ and our trusts, but from academia and industry as well.

“Having representation from Health Innovation North West Coast is important to us because they are skilled in finding innovative solutions to our area’s challenges.

“They’re also very experienced in building networks and bringing in expertise, sometimes from outside the health and care system.”

Eleanor Garnett-Bentley, Associate Director at Health Innovation North West Coast, added: “Health Innovation North West Coast has wide experience and we’re acutely aware that innovation is a team sport. It works best when all the necessary players are enabled to play their specific, but coordinated, roles.

“That’s a key factor highlighted in the workshops being delivered across Lancashire and South Cumbria.”

Mike Kenny, Health Innovation North West Coast Associate Director of Innovation and Industry Partnerships, added: “If we’re to achieve our aim of spreading innovation we need to build a coalition of people from a range of disciplines. That’s our strength and it’s why we’re so pleased to be developing the ecosystem.”

Health Innovation North West Coast has hosted a series of workshops in recent months to explore the following areas:

• Innovation ambition: the session explored what we mean by a thriving innovation culture
• Key requirements of the future state: what are our strengths and weaknesses and what must we do to close the gap between where we are and where we want to be?
• Designing the future innovation ecosystem blueprint: the session evaluated the outputs from previous sessions.

A fourth session is planned to refine the blueprint.

The Health Innovation Network, of which Health Innovation North West Coast is a part, welcomed the publication of the Innovation Ecosystem Programme report. It said the faster and more extensive adoption of health innovations was critical to delivering the Government’s ‘three shifts’: from analogue to digital, from hospital to community, and from treatment to prevention.

A Network statement said: “Innovation is not an off-the-shelf product that gets delivered to the system. While technology is often the focus, widespread adoption of innovation requires organisational and cultural shifts, which in turn need practical support and guidance to achieve.

“The Network has spent a decade building relationships across the ecosystem at local, regional and national levels, making us uniquely placed to convene all parts of the ecosystem to deliver transformation. Local change, national impact is at the heart of everything we do.”

The subgroup hopes the region can capitalise on its highly developed innovation infrastructure, which includes the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre North West, the national Cyber Force HQ, Samlesbury Enterprise Zone, Lancaster University’s Health Innovation Campus, UCLan’s Engineering Innovation Centre, and Edge Hill University’s Technology Hub.

The subgroup reports to several boards, including Lancashire’s Provider Collaborative Board, Lancashire Innovation Board, UKRI North West Health Cluster, and Lancashire’s local authorities.