We are committed to the creating a culture of innovation across the NHS. Health Innovation North West Coast is a catalyst for the spread of innovation, and to stimulate collaboration between companies, healthcare professionals and academics, our approach includes:
The Innovation Scouts Programme - a network of healthcare professionals who stimulate the creation of ideas and drive a culture of innovation within their respective organisations. Involving training and workshops, the Innovation Scouts Programme offers NHS Partners an opportunity for senior management to work with like-minded individuals to understand the challenges and cultural implications needed to adopt innovative practices.
Innovation Centres - we support Innovation Centres which act as hubs for health, academic and industry partners involved in joint projects. Our role includes attracting major investment from European and other sources; and introductions to potential investors and other collaborators in healthcare and academia.
Ecosystem events - partners from health and social care, industry, academia and patient organisations meet to discuss topical issues in health and care. The focus is on improving health across the North West Coast and generating regional economic benefits.
Hackathons - involvement in large scale events uniting diverse industries and individuals to find solutions to healthcare problems. People from different backgrounds and expertise join forces to focus on a specific healthcare problem (eg. children’s health, patient care in care homes) Teams create innovative, disruptive ideas and solutions which are pitched to a panel of judges who score the viability.
Health Innovation North West Coast also runs regular events which bring together healthcare professionals, academics, science, industry and public contributors. Recent events have covered health service innovation, funding opportunities in digital health and the use of Big Data to promote healthcare solutions.
