Charlotte Fox, business innovation manager for Newcastle’s commercial enterprise team, talks about her role in supporting the programme and the development of new solutions to benefit staff and patients.
Innovation in healthcare is the driving force behind providing quality care and the best outcomes for patients.
My role is all about supporting innovators at Newcastle Hospitals to make their ideas a reality, to work in partnership with industry and play an active role in collaborating with colleagues throughout the regional and national health and care system.
Ultimately, our aim is to reduce health inequalities and improve the health of people in the north east, and to do this in a sustainable and high-quality way.
As part of the wider commercial enterprise team, I work with colleagues, SMEs and industry to understand what the issues are – finding the pinch points, the problems and seeking out those innovative solutions to help bring bright ideas through to deliver outstanding care for patients. And where the ideas don’t exist yet, we look at how to create them through conversations, events and collaboration.
At Newcastle Hospitals we’re working with some ‘home grown’ talented innovators within our region and beyond to test and evaluate their ideas and roll them out to make a difference for NHS patients, families and staff, as part of the clinical entrepreneur programme.
The first, CPDmatch, the brainchild of Dr Richard Hixson, provides equitable access to continued professional development (CPD) opportunities via a new technology platform.
Users create their own profile and the website searches and signposts to relevant courses in the region, nationally and internationally. Users are automatically notified of new events which ‘match’ their subjects of interest.
By sharing course information based on profiles, the website offers a faster and smoother process, prioritising programmes which meet staff requirements, for example those which are local or delivered digitally, saving unnecessary travel and supporting sustainability – a key priority for our organisation.
The platform supports global, equitable access to healthcare training, allowing people from all over the world to access courses and opportunities.
This aligns with our own Clinical Skills Academy, which is leading the design and delivery of a 21st century curriculum, to provide people working in health care with the right skills, knowledge and expertise to ensure the highest standards in patient care, capitalising on the world class expertise and research at Newcastle Hospitals.
Our academy will launch in 2023, providing a training offer with recognised, transportable qualifications. It will be accessible via a bespoke website, which incorporates the CPD match platform, so people can access a wider range of offers which may be closer to home.
Initiatives like this are just some of those taking place across the country as part of the NHS England clinical entrepreneur programme, which enables NHS employees to develop and spread innovations and commercial ideas, through providing support including direct education, mentoring, networking, and access to expertise and resources.
Innovators can grow their ideas while working in the NHS, with the aim of fostering an entrepreneurial culture and providing a wider benefit to economic growth through inward investment in the health, social care and life science sectors.
On a regional footing we also work closely with the Academic Health Sciences Network in North East and North Cumbria to support innovation, and in 2019 I started a regional innovation forum to bring together innovation leads from across the region’s NHS to support each other and share best practice.
It’s extremely rewarding to nurture, support and unlock innovative thinking and opportunities in the NHS. We all want to provide the best possible services and care for patients and it is really exciting to help colleagues realise their bright ideas, pioneer new technologies, connect the NHS with industry and companies to collaborate on ground-breaking initiatives.
If you’re interested in discussing opportunities to work with the NHS, then please get in touch https://commercial.newcastle-hospitals.nhs.uk/contact/
