Head of Innovation at Scottish Health Innovations Ltd (SHIL), Robert Rea discusses inspirations and ambitions behind new five-year plan and explains its role in developing breakthrough ideas.
Dundee, the City of Discovery, has so much to be proud of.
Home to one of the most exciting life sciences clusters in the UK with world-class companies, universities and research institutes all within a three-mile radius, the city has ushered in ground-breaking medical and scientific projects thanks to the University of Dundee and Ninewells Hospital.
Indeed, Ninewells was the first hospital in Scotland to invent and carry out keyhole surgery to treat kidney and bladder conditions.
With a strong history of innovation, Dundee has a vital role to play as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 20th BioDundee international conference arrives at an apposite time – when globally-inspired innovation has been realised at unprecedented speed and underpinned by an incredible spirit of collaboration.
Scottish Health Innovations (SHIL) is proud to be sponsoring and participating in this year’s virtual conference and will be doing so with a keen focus on how to drive breakthrough ideas in the new environment
With over 20 years working in partnership with NHS Scotland, and a critical role in driving NHS-led innovation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SHIL team is well experienced in accelerating impactful healthcare innovations that make a positive difference to health, social and economic outcomes.
Over 2000 innovative ideas have been submitted to SHIL by health and social care professionals while a COVID-19 innovation call launched during the early stages of the pandemic presented a 560% increase in ideas – testament to the ability of NHS to adapt and innovate.
Locally, SHIL has worked closely with NHS Tayside and performance manufacturer Keela Outdoors to develop the SARUS-CPR hood, invented by Professor Peter Stonebridge, NHS Tayside’s Medical Director, which is set to revolutionise the resuscitation process for first responders.
It creates a barrier between the patient and the individual performing resuscitation and reduces the risk of contamination and infection from bacteria and viruses such as COVID-19.
This model of support is available across the country. We work in partnership with NHS Scotland to identify, protect, develop and commercialise healthcare innovations and offer skills such as assessing ideas, product development and prototypes, regulatory advice, protecting intellectual property, and raising finance.
We have successfully developed and commercialised a variety of products and technologies, helped form seven new spin-out companies, negotiated 25 commercial license deals with companies both within the UK and internationally, and protected the intellectual property, trademark, copyright and design right for over 250 NHS inventions.
This model underpins SHIL’s new five-year strategy which is focussed on shaping a highly adaptive, innovative NHS, while recognising that strong partnerships forged with academic institutions, funders, entrepreneurs and industrial partners are vital in supporting our mission.
We believe that a connected, collaborative healthcare innovation community will unlock the true collective potential of Scottish know-how and shape the future of healthcare.
To find out more, visit the Scottish Health Innovations Ltd website or follow them on Twitter @ScotHealthInno.
