My Work Today: NHS Innovations

NHS Innovations is a network of nine regional NHS Innovation Hubs set up to provide professional commercial support to NHS Trusts to identify, evaluate, protect, develop and commercialise innovations created by their people that will benefit patients and society as a whole. As part of their wider remit the hubs communicate NHS priority unmet needs to the commercial sectors. This creates greater opportunities for collaborative R&D as well as enabling the focus to be on priorities thereby enhancing the likelihood of future adoption and diffusion.

The economic value of the work of the Innovation Hubs, as well as the benefits realised for patients, results in the Hubs attracting public funding from national(DH/DIUS), regional (NHS Trusts/RDAs) and European sources. The Hubs connections with international businesses and government organisations also enable them to play a key role in enabling companies to access NHS expertise thereby bringing further commercial value to the NHS.

The primary focus of the nine regional Hubs to date has been on the NHS Regional communities they serve something which has not always been fully appreciated outside the Regions. The new alignment of the Hubs with their respective SHAs will enable them to provide even greater support to their local NHS communities as well as enabling the value this brings to be recognised.