Responding to a Holyrood motion from Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, on 'The Adoption of Innovation in Health and Social Care’, InnoScot Health has championed the role of NHS Scotland staff in making a valued contribution to such transformative ambitions.
"Scottish Government investment in national healthcare innovation programmes is vital, but inspiring progressive thinking from within the NHS workforce is equally important," commented the health service partner.
Last Thursday, Mr Gray asked the Scottish Parliament to back his belief in the power of innovation to help address “the urgent and critical need for health and social care recovery and renewal to meet the changing demands on the NHS”.
Acknowledging the need for significant acceleration of a digital-first approach, he urged rapid national adoption of research-proven innovations to drive further improvements for patients.
Mr Gray said: “We are seeing rapid advances in the use of precision medicine, robotics and diagnostics and in the application of artificial intelligence to diagnose and treat disease, as well as to keep people healthier for longer.
“Scotland’s life sciences and technology businesses, our universities, and the NHS are driving that scientific revolution.”
Formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health supports the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement that some £6.4 million is being invested into technological and scientific health projects as part of the Accelerated National Innovations Adoption (ANIA) programme – but insists we must not forget the ability of experienced NHS staff to identify challenges and find innovative solutions to them.
The organisation’s Executive Chair, Graham Watson said: “The government’s renewed focus on investment in innovation aimed at transforming our pressured NHS is of course to be welcomed, but at the same time, we have a resilient, diversely skilled NHS workforce which is keen to contribute ideas that meet challenges head on.
“We believe there is a real thirst for involvement there and that harnessing the workforce’s forward-thinking capabilities is where a significant part of our national focus must be placed.
“Inspiring, encouraging, and empowering staff also makes for a sustainable, efficient long-term solution – it engenders a workforce that innovates from within and knows exactly where the issues lie thanks to first-hand experience.”
The Scottish Government’s £6.4m investment will support people with type 2 diabetes, stroke patients, and babies who are born with a rare genetic condition.
Mr Gray said that the first project is a national digital intensive weight management programme which is aimed at helping 3,000 people to reverse recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes, in turn tackling related conditions and easing pressure on NHS Scotland.
That project – which will see £4.5 million invested over three years – is expected to help around 40% to achieve remission by the end of the programme’s first year.
The second project, amounting to a total investment of £1.1 million, will investigate whether recent stroke patients have a genetic variation that impairs the benefits of a drug commonly prescribed to reduce the risk of secondary stroke.
The third programme, set to receive £800,000 funding, will provide a genetic test for newborn babies to determine if they have a genetic variation which puts them at risk of permanent hearing loss if they are treated with a common emergency antibiotic.
Mr Gray said that the Scottish Government will publish an operational improvement plan later this month detailing how it will deliver immediate improvement.
He added that it was vital for innovation to drive the “triple helix that we want to thrive for the benefit of our people—industry, academia and the NHS working together,” including Scotland’s three regional innovation hubs.
Mr Watson continued: “It is undoubtedly an exciting time for innovation which has vast potential to drive improved health outcomes and a better quality of life for Scotland’s population, and delivering transformation at scale is an essential facet of that.
“Yet, there are also many collaborative, cost-efficient ways to reduce pressures and work smarter across every health board when the right support, expertise, and advice is harnessed.”
InnoScot Health’s first spinout from 2002, Livingston-based Touch Bionics, was noted in the parliamentary debate as a significant success story.
InnoScot Health continues to closely support other NHS spinout success stories, including CardioPrecision which recently made a global breakthrough in robotic heart surgery and whose technology is used in 75% of Scotland’s cardiac centres; and Aurum Biosciences which is developing its ABL-101 technology for advancing the management of acute stroke patients, among other potential healthcare applications.
