Posted on: 9 October 2022
Hello all,
This week I had the pleasure of attending an event on Tuesday as part of the West Yorkshire Innovation Festival 2022 to launch the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub in partnership with the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network and the West Yorkshire Healthtech Strategy, led by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
These are both key regional initiatives and are intrinsically linked, with the innovation hub’s work being of central importance to the achievement of the Healthtech Strategy. The event was proudly hosted by the University of Huddersfield, with welcome announcements from West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin and Cllr Shabir Pandor, Leader of Kirklees Council.
The event provided a platform for the university to showcase the National Health Innovation Campus flagship plans to over 100 regional partners. Prof Nick Hardiker, Tim Hosker, Prof Tim Thornton, Prof Liz Towns-Andrews OBE, did a fantastic job engaging everyone in the art of the possible.
The very fact that the launch was co-developed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, our Partnership, and the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network, demonstrates the strong alignment of all partners across this area.
There was a panel discussion session, chaired by Prof Bob Cryan CBE, Vice-Chancellor of the University, on why innovation is of critical importance both to health and people’s care, as well as the regional economy. Panellists included Professor Arunangsu Chatterjee, Dean of Digital Transformation and Professor of Digital Health and Education, University of Leeds (and non-executive member of our integrated care board), Amy Overend, our Innovation Hub Director, Saile Villegas, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, SEEAI and Rob Webster.
This collaboration across health care, academia and industry was described as the golden triangle! Presenting a brilliant opportunity for existing and new talent coming into the work of innovation and improvement, and a way of not only keeping people well, but also one of aspirational employment. We heard first hand from Amy, about the hub’s work to tackle health inequalities, to grow the economy as well as reaching out to young people to become involved as part of a career of choice.
As a GP and a clinical leader, I see innovation every day on so many levels. The ideas and solutions to challenge us all in the workspace which materialise into actions is outstanding. The opportunities presented by innovation – whether physical or digital technologies – to help meet people’s care needs and meet the challenges faced by the health and care system are limitless.
IT and health are being revolutionised in all that we are doing, and it is not all about the shiny gadgets and widgets. We have seen how innovation has enabled so much of what we do daily in health care. Many examples from the collaboration of our pathology networks through to remote monitoring which was key to how we managed the early phases of COVID.
How innovations like healthy io enabled the use of accessible tech in the patient’s home to identify people with renal disease and so ensure we put in measures to prevent deterioration. Many of our GP practices now have access to healthy.io, allowing patients living with diabetes and high blood pressure to test their urine’s albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) at home rather than travelling to see their GP. ACR testing can identify people at risk of kidney disease and currently uptake of these tests is low. As a result of this work 24,000 patients have been identified as eligible and 10,000 patients tested. Of those people tested, 35% were identified as having an abnormal reading and can now receive appropriate treatment (accurate July 2022).
To coin a phrase from Rob ‘in West Yorkshire we must stop admiring the problem and do something about it’. Innovate and collaborate is key to doing just that.
Above all we must keep challenging ourselves to ensure we innovate for the needs of our communities to enable us to address and improve people’s health needs whilst ensuring we are reducing health inequalities and driving the benefits across all wider society.
Yours inspired,
James