Inaugural NHS Innovation Showcase a Success

The Health Enterprise East (HEE) hub for the East of England, East Midlands and North London, announced a successful first year for its NHS Innovation Showcase  event (Oct 7), which focussed on connecting academic, commercial and public sector groups to explore the latest healthcare innovations in the region.

The event, held at the Wellcome Trust Genome Centre, was attended by 27 exhibitors and over 100 delegates and included a variety of high profile speakers from both industry and the NHS. The exhibition provided the opportunity to see innovative healthcare products first hand, and to speak to the companies and NHS Trusts behind them. Breakout sessions enabled attendees to explore issues around IP development and funding, research, development and commercialisation. The day was hosted by science writer and Broadcaster Vivienne Parry OBE.

Winners of the latest Health Enterprise East Innovation competition were also announced on the day. The two projects selected were bone conduction headset technology project, a new approach to helping with hearing impairment, from Dr Tamsin Brown & Team, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, and the ulnar splint, a novel, patent pending, approach to treating common symptoms of ulnar neuropathy from Dr Andrew Michell, Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This twice yearly competition is open to all HEE member Trusts and once again attracted a high standard of entries. Each of the winners receives a £5,000 Innovation Voucher to help progress their ideas.

Elisabeth Buggins, Chair of the Eastern Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), and keynote speaker at the event, said: “At Eastern AHSN we are driven by two goals: improving healthcare and generating economic growth. We are very lucky to have in our region one of the most successful Innovation Hubs, and I would like to thank Health Enterprise East for putting on such a fantastic collaborative event.”