Turning innovative ideas into reality

Every year, a great number of NHS staff have ideas for exciting new products or services that will fulfil an unmet need, increase efficiency, or improve the experience for patients and save costs. But how can these ideas be turned from a concept into reality? Health Enterprise East (HEE) is the NHS partner organisation for innovation and, as such, is committed to improving healthcare through supporting the development of innovative new products and services which meet the needs of the NHS. The organisation consists of a team of professionals who are able to provide a broad range of services to provide expert advice, funding and support to NHS innovators to translate these good ideas into practice, along with the provision of consultancy services to medical technology companies. Stuart Thomson, HEE’s head of medical technology explains the process: “The first thing we ask staff to do is to talk to their Trust innovation lead and fill in one of our innovation disclosure forms which can be downloaded from our website. We treat the information disclosed as completely confidential and as soon as we receive the form, one of our team of innovation managers will be in touch to arrange a meeting. “At this initial session, we will look at the idea and assess it in a number of ways. For instance, what is the intellectual property (IP) position? Can the idea be protected? What is the size of the commercial opportunity? How feasible is it technically, and in terms of time and cost, to bring it to market? What will the potential benefits be for patients and for the Trust? “Once the initial review is completed, we make a recommendation on whether and how to proceed with the project. If we go ahead, HEE works with external professional advisers, such as patent agents, to seek the appropriate IP and idea protection. Once this is done, an assessment can be made on the help and resources needed to take the project forward. This could include supporting the design and manufacture of prototypes through HEE’s Development Fund or finding commercial partners by marketing the idea to targeted companies. HEE works with the inventors and Trust throughout the entire process.”

Industry services

HEE also provides consultancy services to medical technology companies wishing to access the NHS market, with a focus on gaining access to, and feedback from, clinical stakeholders. “Interacting with stakeholders is key to the product development process as it ensures the technical and business needs of the target market are being met,” explains Sue Watson, head of industry services at HEE. “By interacting with stakeholders, unmet healthcare needs can be understood and translated into the development of products that have an increased likelihood of adoption. While a vital activity, identifying relevant experts is time-consuming and can often rely heavily on personal contacts.” An initiative to facilitate the process of the medical technology industry interacting with the NHS has recently been launched by HEE and has already won a Fast Forward Award for 2012. The Clinical Expertise Database provides a portal for industry to identify relevant clinical experts. The web-based system holds information relating to the clinical specialties and research interests of experts who are willing to be contacted. The service aims to provide industry with rapid access to relevant stakeholders. To ensure the integrity of the service, HEE acts as the gatekeeper, vetting requests from industry prior to contact with clinical experts.