Health innovation doesn’t just happen; it’s a complex agenda that needs local structures and support services to flourish. This presentation describes the importance of dedicated support, the frontline clinical professional, bridging the demand-supply gap and multidisciplinarity in making real-world frontline NHS innovation happen. We share experiences on how innovation can work beyond conventional top-to-bottom strategies. The presentation discusses strategic and operational learnings from frontline innovation but also limitations and challenges that still lie ahead.

With its fragmented structure, complex decision-making processes, and sometimes disjointed funding mechanisms, the NHS can be a difficult nut to crack. But it treats over one million patients every 36 hours, and has recently published its Long Term Plan, outlining priorities in prevention, personalised care, and mainstreaming digital technologies.
The NHS therefore also represents a huge potential market for companies looking for validation and business expansion.
In this session, a panel of technologists, policy makers, and former NHS decision-makers will tackle the practical question of how engagement with, and uptake of digital innovations in the NHS can be accelerated.

The first wave of results from a ground breaking trial with the NHS

In the new era of wearable devices, more advanced functionalities are being implemented, yet the demand for low power consumption and smaller sized devices remains a primary requirement. With performance margins already being stretched, eventually something has to be sacrificed: power consumption efficiency, communication link reliability or overall device size.
Bespoke antenna design could be key to addressing these issues. We demonstrate that antenna designs can be adapted to increase the performance of exisiting wearable wireless systems such as those featuring Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. for medical and lifestyle applications.

Harry will talk about his innovation journey in the NHS, from developing patient support tools whilst working as a clinician, to joining and supporting the clinician entrepreneur program at NHS England and designing, selling and deploying innovations at scale across the system. Drawing on experience from roles at my mhealth, Upright Pose, and Carerooms to discuss barriers and opportunities in UK healthcare innovation.

See one. Do One. Teach One. This was the traditional approach to teaching surgeons in residency programs. While we have shifted away from this model out of concern for patient safety, surgeons, surgical teams and particularly residents still do not receive sufficient cognitive and technical training when learning new procedures. The risks of insufficient training are real - higher complication rates, errors in setup, increased adverse events, variable patient outcomes, and so on. As the capabilities of virtual and augmented reality improve, and the costs come down, these types of simulations are increasingly helping to fill the training gap in an effective, lower-cost manner. Now, rather than practice on patients, or expensive cadavers or animals, surgeons, surgical teams and residents can practice at their leisure in VR or AR, simulate being in an OR and practice tasks or entire procedures to enhance their skills. Not only will this help improve actual performance in the operating theatre, but ultimately it will help drive better patient outcomes as well - the aim of any useful surgical tool.

Toshiba joins us for an exclusive presentation discussing the link between wearables and the intelligent edge, the growing number of use cases of such technology within numerous sectors, and a first-look at its own innovations in this area.