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2 October 2020

King’s Fund Projects Director Ben Collins, founding chief executive of the Innovation Agency, Dr Liz Mear, and chair Gideon Ben Tovim OBE.

A new report from The King’s Fund explores the evolution of the Innovation Agency since it began seven years ago as ‘a curious experiment’.

Health Innovation North West Coast was one of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) set up to focus on spreading innovations, to improve health outcomes and generate economic growth.

Now, the AHSNs are firmly established as the innovation arm of the NHS and key connectors with businesses and researchers, to speed up the adoption of innovations in health and care.

King’s Fund Projects Director Ben Collins was commissioned by the Innovation Agency to produce an independent report about how the organisation has evolved and his narrative shines a light on some of the challenges and the changes over the past seven years.

He interviewed more than 40 staff and stakeholders earlier this year, just before the pandemic, before producing his reflections and conclusions.


   Hear the podcast interview discussing this report with Ben and the founding chief executive and chair of the Innovation Agency – Dr Liz Mear and Gideon Ben Tovim OBE


He writes: “The AHSNs must be an almost unique experiment in relatively unstructured approaches to transformation in the NHS: What happens if, rather than defining precisely what needs to happen, you give people some resources and a degree of flexibility to work out how best to support a local health system?”

Ben’s report then explores the ways in which the Agency developed – and the experiences of staff, entrepreneurs, academics and NHS partners, with conclusions about the key factors in the Innovation Agency’s success.

 

Read the report >

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Clinicians in Cheshire and Merseyside have collaborated on a new lipid management pathway aimed at improving outcomes for people with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Mental health innovators to benefit from £20m programme Read more

Health Innovation North West Coast is backing a programme to support innovators working at the forefront of mental health therapeutics    

“Real world validation” being validated by the academic community Read more

A recent report demonstrates the acceptance of “real world” data from health care settings and the impact on patients being used to inform academic research. 

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