Demonstrating the benefits of the West Midlands Health Technology Innovation Accelerator

This project will unite key players across the region (universities, hospitals, industry and government-funded 'Catapults' for manufacturing innovation) to address these problems by creating a supportive environment to accelerate new technologies towards commercialisation and adoption. 

The Healthcare Technology and Medical Technology sectors are currently worth £17billion per annum to the UK, and with the ageing population and poor health following the pandemic, are projected to grow to £21billion per annum by 2027. High levels of regulation and access to specialist expertise in these sectors, can make it slow and expensive for new companies to bring their technologies to the UK market, something that has hindered growth comparative to other global competitors. 

The partners will run a centrally coordinated series of activities that will help companies to navigate "pinch-points" in the process of medical translation.

Based around '6Ds': diagnosis of company needs; definition of NHS or corporate challenges to respond to; development and refinement of prototype products or services; deployment of innovation in real-world NHS settings; diversification of cross-sectoral collaborations; and demonstration of economic benefit for our interventions.

Visit the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator Webpage. 

WMREDI

Research Theme 3

Regional Innovation Ecosystem

Objectives

The objectives of WMHTIA include creating a cluster of commercial activity in the Healthcare Technology and Medical Technology sector, helping to drive regional economic growth and enhance resilience. It will also ensure that local patients will benefit first from new medical technologies targeted at reducing significant regional healthcare inequalities.

WMHTIA will also provide a national focus for the development and deployment of new healthcare technologies, growing a vibrant and self-sustaining cluster of activity centred in the new Precision Healthcare Technology Accelerator, leveraging major recent private investment alongside significant regional assets to attract and support medical innovators.

City-REDI is leading the demonstration strand of WMHTIA, and this includes capturing learning to support continuous improvement during the programme as well as providing evidence on the direct impacts for beneficiaries, the wider health technology innovation ecosystem, and wider economic benefits to region and beyond.

The Team

George Bramley- Principal Analyst

Workstream lead with overall responsibility for the development of the evidence base on effectiveness of WMHTIA.

Dr Chloe Billing – Research Fellow

Researcher involved in all aspects of data collection and analysis and reporting.

Dr Magda Cepeda Zorilla – Research Fellow

Lead Researcher involved in all aspects of data collection and analysis and reporting.

Elizabeth Goodyear – Programme Manager, Project manager

Kelvin Humphreys – Principal Analyst

Co-workstream lead responsible for developing investment and business case and economic impact assessment of WMHTIA.

Sarah Jeffery – Centre Manager

Project administration and events organiser.

Dr Annum Rafique- Research Fellow

Researcher involved in all aspects of data collection and analysis and reporting.

Dr Juliane Schwarz – Research Fellow

Researcher involved in all aspects of data collection and analysis and reporting.

Contact

Project Lead Contact Details: George Bramley 

WMREDI is funded by Research England and the WMREDI partnership

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