Wessex Health Innovation Programme March 2024 - a summary

Health Innovation Programme (HIP) -March 2024

Health Innovation Wessex
supporting innovators

in the health and care sector on a 4-day accelerator programme      

This year’s HIP, held in March in Eastleigh, proved to be
another great success with attendees coming away with knowledge and skills to
navigate the NHS landscape and progress their health innovation development and
path to commercialisation.

The event was delivered in collaboration with the
University of Southampton Catalyst Programme with Adrian Braine, Catalyst
coach, providing expert business skills for the delegates. The annual four-day
event attracts innovators from medical, academic and commercial backgrounds from
around the region and beyond, with a range of innovations designed to benefit
patients and healthcare.

The innovators learn how to
progress their products from initial idea to commercialisation.

The programme helped
them to:

• Improve
  their understanding of health systems as a market but also as a complex working
  network with multiple departments, commissioning routes and specialties all communicating together
• Understand the importance of a value
  proposition – demonstrating the benefit, value and impact, of the innovation to
  the health systems  
• Understand and start to plan elements needed
  for an evaluation of the implementation of their innovation 

The HIW Innovation and Industry team provided 1.1 support throughout the
course and also presented on subjects such as:

• Medical device regulations
• The innovation ecosystem
• NHS considerations for innovators

They were also fortunate to
have members from the HIW Insight team present on evaluation and the HIW
Innovation Adoption Team present on the local Wessex health and care ecosystem.

“The breadth of the coverage from idea to adoption was
excellent. The knowledge was very well transferred”

Alongside teaching presentations, the innovators also
took part in multiple workshops which saw them focus on developing their own
value propositions. These were facilitated by HIW and lead by Adrian and his
team.

To finish the course and consolidate their learning, the
innovators completed a mock pitch to members from industry, the NHS and successful
innovators in the health and social care sector. They presented their proof of
concept, value proposition and market insights with the panel posing as hypothetical
investors and commissioners. During this session they answered some tough and
probing questioning from the panel, the delegates were able to provide
confident and credible answers demonstrating their learning and skills
developed from the course. The pitches were scored on a number of points and this
year’s winner was Kirsty Hill, CEO and Founder of Breathe RM(remote monitoring
for cystic fibrosis patients) David Bream, Director of Industry Partnerships
and Professor of Innovation, University of Southampton presented the prize.

Following the four-day programme all the innovators discussed how the
programme had helped them move forwards with progressing the development of
their products and ideas, of which HIW will continue to provide support and
guidance.

We will be launching another HIP course later this year so
if you are interested in applying keep an eye on our website, social media
LinkedIn/X and local newsletters for our launch.