News and blogs

Innovation Agency Chief Executive Dr Liz Mear has been appointed as non executive director of Health Education England (HEE), the body responsible for NHS staffing, training and development.

She is one of five new non executive directors at HEE, alongside Professor Andrew George, Professor Soraya Dhillon, Andrew Foster and Professor John Latham.

I entered the NHS five years ago after spending 20 years in the private sector, latterly in banking. From finance to health is an unusual career trajectory but it helped me bring into the NHS some valuable insights, particularly about attitudes to change.

Merseyside-based surgical training device manufacturer Inovus Medical has secured £1 million from SBRI Healthcare, an NHS programme supported by the Innovation Agency and the wider AHSN Network.

The funding is to develop the company’s augmented reality laparoscopic simulator, which was backed in its earliest stages by an initial £100,000 from SBRI Healthcare.

The Innovation Agency’s Healthcare Business Connect (HBC) Programme is successfully supporting small businesses to make inroads into the NHS market, according to a report by Lancaster University.

Research conducted by Dr Kostas Selviaridis and Professor Martin Spring, of Lancaster University Management School’s Centre for Productivity & Efficiency, looked at the perceived quality and impact of the support small firms receive from the programme across Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Cheshire and Warrington.

My placement has been a journey of opportunities to learn and gain experience. Working here at the Innovation Agency has enabled me to develop significant understanding about how much impact the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), especially the Innovation Agency, have on improving health and care through the spread and adoption of technology and innovation.

The Innovation Agency is part of a new network focusing on applied health and social care research.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) new Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) are based on the same regions as England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks and the Innovation Agency will work closely with the North West Coast ARC.

Innovation Agency Chief Executive Dr Liz Mear has joined the main board of Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

She is one of three new LEP main board members, appointed to help drive forward the city region economy. Liz’s role is as champion of the health and life sciences sector.Also appointed are Laura Pye, Director of National Museums Liverpool, as visitor economy champion; and Mike Hulme, Director of Alstom Transport UK, as advanced manufacturing champion.

A new approach to wellbeing is teaching emotional intelligence, resilience, empathy and self-awareness to schoolchildren in Cheshire – with the aim of helping young people improve their mental health.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service is testing the pulses of vulnerable residents as a trailblazing partnership to detect cases of atrial fibrillation and prevent strokes spreads through the county.

A new round of funding is on offer through the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare, focussed on cardiovascular disease and integrated care and social care.