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Two organisations working with the NHS have received national funding for their healthcare innovations. Liverpool-based cloud services provider AIMES and South West professional digital healthcare company Brain in Hand, which has staff in Preston and Warrington, have each received over £700,000.

The Innovation Agency and its fellow 14 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) have generated nearly £500m in inward investment in the last two years, new figures reveal. The Network also created or safeguarded nearly 2,000 jobs in the same period.

A ground-breaking new career route for psychology graduates to enter the NHS is being launched in the North West Coast.

Around 140 strokes will be prevented in the North West Coast in the coming year thanks to a programme to detect and treat irregular heart rhythms resulting in over £16 million in savings to the public purse.

Six days of activities to boost the health of mums and babies is taking place this week, 16-22 November, with the support of the Innovation Agency.

An NHS trust and two innovative suppliers claimed top honours at this year’s NHS in the North Excellence in Supply Awards. The awards were in three special categories to recognise the response of the health and care sector to COVID-19.

A manufacturing facility for civilian and surgical masks has been launched by Lancashire family business Issa Group. The new facility, Walton Mill, is based in the heart of Lancashire.

The Innovation Agency has appointed Dr Phil Jennings as chief executive, four years after he joined the organisation as medical director, later becoming deputy chief executive.

The former managing director of BAE Systems Corporate Services, Steve Fogg, has been appointed as chair of the SEED alliance - a multi-sector collaborative set up to contribute to ‘health and wealth’ in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

The AHSN Network, of which the Innovation Agency is a part, has published a rapid-learning report on the role of Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) during the pandemic. PSCs are just one part of the health and care system which responded quickly to the immediate crisis from COVID-19 in March. They reprioritised their day-to-day work and took on new programmes at speed, such as promoting safer tracheostomy care.