The annual SBRI Healthcare Innovation Conference 2024 was held on Monday 15 July at the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Over 130 innovators and NHS colleagues joined to share advice, inspire success and build new connections. All with the aim to develop and scale impactful health and social care innovations for patient benefit.
Avi Mehra, Associate Partner & Clinical Safety Officer at IBM and Co-Founder of Doctorpreneurs was the lead Chair of the day, and the conference was opened by Emily Henderson, Director of Innovation at NHS England.
The first session focused on sustainability and social value for NHS procurement, with 3 minute pitches from Tom Dawson, Founder of Revolution-Zero, Rosie Scott, Co-Founder of Definition Health and Christopher Law, Co-Founder & Medical Director of Apian.
The innovators were joined by Alexandra Hammond, Associate Director, Net Zero and Sustainable Procurement at NHS England, Rebecca Waters, Health Improvement and Inclusion Manager at NHS North East London ICB, Arup Nath, Commercial Director of UCL Partners, and Fanny Burrows, Senior Lead for Greener NHS, for a panel discussion chaired by Kathy Scott, Deputy CEO of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber.
The second session of the day focused on accelerating innovation for more equitable access to care. Four innovators pitched and gave their top tips - Louise Morpeth, CEO of Brain in Hand, Dan Mullarkey, Medical Director of Skin Analytics, Kerstyn Comley, Co-CEO of Tellmi, and Angie Doshani, Consultant Obstetrician Gynaecologist of University Hospitals of Leicester.
The pitches were followed by a session on harnessing the power of neurodiversity for innovation with Sascha Evans, Founder and Creative Director of We the Creators, a talk from Mayur Vibhuti, Chief Clinical Information Officer, NHS Kent & Medway ICB, and panel discussion chaired by Richard Booth, Deputy CEO and Director of Innovation Adoption, Health Innovation Wessex.
The afternoon focused on spread and adoption of innovation in the NHS. Vladimir Gubala, Chief Scientific Officer of PocDoc, Nathan Moore, Managing Director of CrossCover, and Laurence Pearce, CEO of Xim pitched and gave their top tips, followed by a talk from Stuart Monk, National Programme Director, AAC Programmes at the Health Innovation Network, and Amy Lochtie, Innovation Hub Director at West Yorkshire ICB and the Health Innovation Network. A panel discussion on gaining traction was then chaired by Piers Ricketts, Chief Executive of Health Innovation East with the speakers and Tim Clarke, Head of Innovation at Norfolk & Waveney ICB.
The final session of the day focused on procurement and scaling up. Carey McCellan, CEO and Founder at getUBetter, Manjul Rathee, CEO of BfB, and Jim McNair, Business Development Director of Lenus pitched followed by an introduction to the NHS Innovation Service from Jennifer Hill, Innovation Lead at NHS England, and introduction to the Spark innovation marketplace by Connie Hutchins, Senior Category Lead – Technology Services, at the Crown Commercial Service Liban Aingal, Category Lead – IT, at the Crown Commercial Service.
The day ended with a keynote address from Jacqui Rock, Chief Commercial Officer at NHS England.
Three online polls were run over the course of the conference to get opinion on the part of Labour’s manifesto the audience felt would make the biggest difference to innovation and the NHS, what delegates would change to accelerate uptake of innovation, and what they would like SBRI Healthcare to offer more of.
For the first time, the conference was livestreamed to an online audience, with 90 people joining online throughout the day.
The event was also a chance for innovators to learn more about SBRI Healthcare partners, with stands from HecoAnalytics, the Health Innovation Network, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, NHS Innovation Accelerator, NHS Innovation Service, and DigitalHealth.London.
Thank you to everyone who attended and made the conference a day of inspiration, connection and action.
Video of the conference will be made available on the SBRI Healthcare Youtube channel.