Let us share with you our successes, impacts and performance over the past year. The Innovation Agency is proud to bring you our Annual Report for 2015/16.

1. Presentation 1Annual Report
2015 – 2016
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2. Contents
Description Slide number Description Slide number
Chair’s Statement 3 Driving innovation 44
Impacts at a glance 4 Innovation centres 50
Chief Executive’s Statement 5 Supporting staff and creating a
culture of innovation
54
About us 6 Digital health 64
Looking back 2015 - 2016 17 Sharing and learning with
partners
71
Clinical innovation programmes 19 Looking forward 80
North West Coast Patient
Safety Collaborative
27 Financial performance 82
Communications and
engagement
31
Business support and
engagement
33
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3. Chair’s statement
By Gideon Ben-Tovim OBE
It has been my privilege to chair the Innovation Agency, the Academic Health
Science Network (AHSN) for the North West Coast during a dynamic year in
which we have seen real evidence of our impact.
We are now three years into our five year licence and I am proud to say that we
have built an impressive network of organisations and individuals with the same
aspiration for our region – to overcome the barriers to improving health and
achieving economic growth, through innovation and collaboration.
Much of our work is medium to long term, such as our role in the Connected
Health Cities programme; the EU funded ENSAFE, StopandGo and ALTAS
programmes and the 100,000 Genomes project. Some projects yield quick wins
– such as introducing a local business to an NHS partner in need of particular
expertise or new technology, or helping to bring in big European grants - and
there are some great examples in this report.
We have supported national programmes such as the National Innovation
Accelerator, SBRI programme and worked with our key stakeholders to identify
and respond to the needs of our region resulting in Test Bed and two Healthy
New Town sites.
I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us in the past year in any
capacity; I look forward to continuing to work with you to achieve our shared
objective of using innovative approaches to improve the health and economic
wellbeing of the North West Coast region.
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4. Presentation 1
Impacts at a glance 15/16
Delivery of an Atrial Fibrillation (AF) public awareness
raising campaign. Tested 502 and identified 46 irregular
pulses and recommended ongoing support, reducing the
likelihood of stroke - saving £23,000 per person in NHS and
care costs in the first year alone, i.e. a potential £1 million.
Development and launch of a commissioning toolkit for the
treatment of atrial fibrillation, which could potentially save
600 strokes per year in our region per year – a saving of
£13.8M per year.
Over 100 AliveCor devices were deployed. These devices
allow instant detection of atrial fibrillation.
With the Clinical Network delivered an evidence into practice
programme for patients with heart failure. Over 200 patients
have benefited.
Funding and development of the e-strata system: 15,000
e-referrals were made producing:
• a reduction in unproductive nursing / social care time
resource worth over £300,000
• a reduction in reliance on paper, fax, filing and copying
of patient files, by both senders and receivers valued at
around £20,000
One of five AHSNs that provided funding and support for
the NHS National Innovation Accelerator. Three million
patients and 68 NHS organisations are already benefiting
from the impact of NIA innovations. The 17 fellows have
received c £8 million of contracts.
Supported the ‘Refer to Pharmacy’ programme between Oct
2015 and April 2016 1,634 referrals were made to over 150
community pharmacists.
Supported the 100,000 genomes transformation
programme rollout into seven trusts across our region and 390
citizens, who were recruited into the programme. Our
Genomics Ambassador will continue this rollout alongside our
partners in 2016/17.
Through the successful implementation of focused business
support programmes we have:
• Actively engaged with over 500 companies
• Provided intensive support to 85 companies
This had led to jobs safeguarded 53, jobs created 56, new
products or services introduced 76, further investment
leveraged £5,832,685
Developed an Evidence in Innovation Strategic Insight Tool
(EiSIT) for NHS England which supports CCGs to commission
using evidence.
Recruited and developed 50 Innovation Scouts.
Supported/ funded 10 Health Innovation Centres
Increased our social media profile Twitter impressions
increased by 326% to from 54,900 to 178,900 in Jan 2016.
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5. Presentation 1
A year of strong collaborations
By Chief Executive Dr Liz Mear
We are often asked about our unique selling point and this year it has been our ability to build
strong partnerships to overcome barriers to innovation and to take action.
We have used the principles of co-design, co-production and co-funding to develop and deliver a
number of clinical programmes and technologies which will reduce health inequalities and deliver
improved outcomes for residents. We have invested resources alongside partners into a number
of initiatives which will improve the health and care infrastructure of the region over the next
decade. We have extended our network of Innovation Scouts and now have 50 scouts, who
form our extended innovation network, across the region.
Our role leading the Patient Safety Collaborative enables us to support safety in care right across
the tertiary, secondary, primary and care home systems.
We are being increasingly effective in networking our health, university and local authority
partners and winning funds for these collaborations. We have recognised and grasped
opportunities to roll out precision medicines and digital health as part of our strategy for
preventing illness and improving health across the region over the next decade.
We engage with industry through events, delivering business assist programmes, practical advice
and matching products to receptive NHS trusts. We have a focus on procurement, which
involves developing national and local procurement processes to be enablers of innovation. We
are a champion for the small and medium sized enterprises in our region who can add much
value to the NHS. We also work very closely with our research and innovation hubs and our
Collaboration for Leadership in Health Research Care (CLAHRC) and Comprehensive Research
Network (CRN). This results in commercial research opportunities being available for life
sciences partners in our region and beyond.
Through our system integrator role we have supported our new models of care sites to deliver an
effective and efficient service for our residents, as highlighted in the Five Year Forward View.
We look forward to making an impact to the lives of residents and staff over the coming years.
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6. Presentation 1
About us
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7. Presentation 1
What our partners say
“Making innovation in the NHS
actually happen instead of just
talking about it, the Innovation
Agency are a breath of fresh air.
“Taking the inertia out of the NHS
and injecting some real pace into
the system, they have rocket-fuelled
our projects.
“With backers like this we couldn't
fail.”
Mr Iain Hennessy, consultant surgeon
Clinical Director of Innovation
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
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8. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“The Innovation Agency enabled us to
test our product-market fit, to be able to
tailor our approach and target the key
clinical touch points where we would add
the most value. I have found the
encouragement, belief and support for us
as a company and me personally to be
invaluable as we scale this innovation in
the NHS.”
Francis White, AliveCor Ltd
NHS Innovation Fellow
“In the last year we have tested more than 300 genomes
and were rated the third best in the country; we couldn’t
have done that without the support of the Innovation
Agency.”
Lynn Greenhalgh, Clinical Director of Genetics,
NWC Genomic Medicine Centre
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9. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“We received a grant from the Innovation Agency to support an
innovation project to improve self-management for patients with
COPD.
“We have worked hard on a collaborative EU grant aiming to
design and implement a Public Procurement of Innovations at
scale in Europe which, if successful, will bring considerable sums
of money not only into our research and innovation service line
but into the clinical services directly - making a massive difference
to our financial position.
“We have formed a collaboration with 3DLifePrints which resulted
from a tour of the innovation space at Alder Hey during one of the
Innovation Scout days, led by the Innovation Agency.
“The Scout movement has created considerable networking
opportunities that come from being brought together to focus on
this part of our jobs.”
Dr Mark Jackson, Innovation Scout
Director of Research and Informatics, Liverpool Heart and
Chest Hospital NHS FT
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10. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“Getting onto the NHS supplies framework is a
massive achievement for us and has helped us to
attract further investment to step up production. It is
only as a result of the intervention of the Innovation
Agency’s commercial team that we were able to break
through barriers to joining NHS frameworks, such as a
requirement for a £1 million turnover.
“It was the breakthrough we were waiting for; there is
strict governance in the health service which means
that only a limited number of approved companies are
allowed to provide supplies.”
Dr Jonathan Day
Managing Director, Leanvation
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11. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“The Centre for Integrated Healthcare Science
based at Bache Hall in Chester, is a joint venture
between the Countess of Chester Hospital and
the University of Chester to develop a shared
centre for research, innovation and medical
education. It has been supported by both the
Innovation Agency and the local Clinical Research
Network. Other partners include Cheshire and
Wirral Partnership Trust, and West Cheshire
CCG. The Centre is intended to promote and test
innovation and new ways of working, while
enhancing the local delivery of health and social
care research, and further medical education.”
Steve Bridge
Associate Director & Innovation Scout
The Centre for Integrated Healthcare
Science, Chester
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12. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“We're really pleased to be part of the
Innovation Agency.
“It has helped us enormously in getting a much
better sense of how we as a university can
best contribute to improvements in health and
healthcare through innovation. It has also
provided a really effective forum for beginning
to work through how we develop the North
West Coast as an academic health system.”
Professor Neil Johnson
Dean
Faculty of Health & Medicine
Lancaster University
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13. Presentation 1
Partners’ testimonies
“The active support and involvement of the senior
executives within the Innovation Agency has
enhanced the work of NHS NW Procurement
Development to deliver training and awareness
sessions that open up a range of possibilities for
the NHS Procurement community.
“The NW region has benefitted by embracing the
benefits of innovation and closer working
relationships with suppliers, augmented through the
AHSN commitment in supporting the NW
Excellence in Supply Awards, a unique event in the
English health service.
“Innovation and procurement are inextricably linked
and NHS NWPD are delighted to be able to
continue to support the Agency in its quest for the
wider adoption of new technologies.”
Mick Guymer
Director
North West Procurement Development
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14. Presentation 1
Vision and Goals 2016/17
The Innovation Agency’s vision is focused on
adopting innovation where it can have most impact.
Our goals are to:
• Accelerate the delivery of safer, better care
• Develop a network of health innovation centres
• Support economic growth through SMEs and
industry
• Drive digital innovation that empowers citizens
and the workforce
The Innovation Agency covers South Cumbria,
Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire. This area
has a population size of 4.1 million and contains
vibrant cities, coastline and countryside.
Our core purpose is to spread innovation,
improve health, generate economic growth
The Innovation Agency is governed by a Board of
40 representatives from NHS, academia and
industry. The Board meets at least five times a year
and members are expected to attend at least three
out of five meetings to ensure that the AHSN
achieves its goals and objectives and complies with
all relevant performance metrics.
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15. Presentation 1
Innovation Agency values
Working
together for
patients
Respect and
dignity
Commitment
to quality of
care
Compassion
Improving
lives
Everyone
counts
The Innovation Agency has adopted the values in the NHS Constitution
In addition, we have developed additional values which reflect the way we work
Do things differently
•Entrepreneurial
innovation
•Creative
implementation
•Commitment to
positive,
sustainable change
Clear Space for
•Reflection, creativity
and planning.
•Making work fun
and productive
Courageous &
achievement
focussed
•Risk taking and
challenging status
quo
•Sharing
responsibility and
commitment for
innovation adoption
•Going the extra mile
Co-creation, co-
design, co-
resourcing
•Engaging and
forming
collaboration with
and between
partners
•Networking
•Sharing ideas
•Sharing resource to
fund projects
Team Work
•Supporting each
other
•Sharing skills and
experience
•Developing a team
working
environment
•Being flexible
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16. Presentation 1
Innovation Agency Board – we are
governed by a board of 40 representatives
from local organisations
• Provider trusts
• Commissioners – CCGs and NHS England
• Strategic Clinical Network
• Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
• Public Health England
• Health Education England and Local Workforce Education Groups (LWEGs)
• Universities
• NIHR Clinical Research Network: NWC
• NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care North West Coast
• Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
• Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI)
• Healthwatch
• Research and innovation hubs
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17. Presentation 1
Looking back
2015 - 2016
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18. Presentation 1
Copyright©
2015 NWC
AHSN
1
Work with
commissioners and
public health
Rapid Spread of
Research and
Innov ation into Practice
Build a culture of
partnership and
collaboration
Core Platforms
Cross Cutting Workstreams
Improv ing
Economic
Growth
Stroke
Mentalhealth
Musculoskeletalinnovation
ReducealcoholrelatedA&E
attendances
Medicineoptimisationacrossthe
system
Paediatric/Adultcaretransition
Hydration
Sepsis
Technologyforsafety
Supporttoavoidfrailelderlyadmissions
GoodpracticeCareHomesprogramme
Healthandwellbeingofstaff
Leadership
Measurement
Sy stem integration
Use of technology
Procurement
Innov ation culture
Ef f ective partnerships
Digital health / data integration
Resident inv olvement
Prev ention & early detection of disease
Business support
Reducing health inequalities
Future workf orce
Using Greenspace in health
Precision Medicine
Safety Clinical
Goals and priorities 2015/16 – we achieved all our
priorities
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19. Presentation 1
Clinical innovation
programmes
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20. Presentation 1
Stroke/Atrial Fibrillation (AF)
Reducing AF related strokes continues to be a
priority for the Innovation Agency. Our work in
the last year included:
• An AF public awareness raising
campaign delivered across Lancashire. This
was a collaborative campaign working with
charities, NHS, media and Strategic Clinical
Networks. We tested 502 pulses and
detected 34 abnormal pulses. We used
technology including MyDiagnostick, to
support our work and engage with the public.
• Genotype guided dosing for warfarin
(Gen-warf) a project jointly funded by the
NIHR CLAHRC NWC, LGC and the
Innovation Agency, started operations at the
Royal Liverpool University Hospital, with the
Countess of Chester and Warrington
Hospitals starting soon. Comparator sites
are Lancashire Teaching Hospital, St
Helens and Knowsley Hospitals and Aintree
University Hospital. An Evaluation is
ongoing.
• Over 100 AliveCor devices were deployed
with GPs and community nurses in
Warrington, South Sefton, Liverpool, Halton,
East Lancs and Greater Preston. An
Evaluation is underway.
• Supported the development of the AF CCG
Commissioning Tool-kit, with Greater
Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire
Strategic Clinical Networks
• Supported the AF Clinical Pathway, with the
Strategic Clinical Network, which has also
been adopted in other regions of the country
• Supported the use of MyDiagnostick with a
range of health professionals
• Facilitated the introduction of Cardiocity
technology in three practices in our region
• Supported UCLAN with the commissioning of
the Stroke Specific Education Framework
http://www.stroke-education.org.uk/website
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21. Presentation 1
Stroke/Atrial Fibrillation (AF)
• MyDiagnostick
Evaluation is being carried out by UCLAN in East Lancs
and devices have been deployed with a range of
professionals in Halton, including staff in adult social
care.
• We introduced monitoring of warfarin at the point of care
– in care homes. Helicon Health and Roche are
supporting us in this work
• Online training for clinicians
A package from Helicon Health was piloted with several
clinicians to look at whether the training provided
suitable support for ongoing training needs.
• Hospital AF audit
We have supported three of our local hospitals in
carrying out an audit of over 500 patients identified with
AF during a hospital visit. This is already leading to
improvements in communication with primary care.
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22. Presentation 1
100,000 Genome Project
Across the NW Coast we will recruit 5000 patients with cancer
and rare diseases, involving all our Local Delivery Partners (nine
NHS health and social care organisations) to improve the health
and economic growth of our population. Recruitment will include
a range of cancers and rare diseases across all medical
specialties supported by genomics-trained recruitment nurses
and their multidisciplinary teams.
Rare diseases
• Recruitment is ongoing, having started in April 2015, and so
far a total of approximately 300 patients have been recruited
into the project. The results for these patients are expected
be returned by June 2016, when they will need to be
validated and reported. The Rare Diseases Recruitment
Teams successfully recruited within 80 per cent of the
contracted patient numbers against a national average of 67
per cent.
Cancer
• October 2015 saw the first cancer patient recruited into the
Initial Implementation Phase of the project from the Royal
Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Since then a further nine patients have been successfully
recruited. We expect to receive the patients’ results back in
about 12 months time
• Two further organisations are awaiting imminent ‘go live’
status to recruit lung cancer and ovarian cancer patients;
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
and the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
• In 16/17 patients will be recruited from the
Countess of Chester NHS Hospital Trust and
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Work is being undertaken to recruit patients
with a soft tissue sarcoma diagnosis,
predominantly from the Royal Liverpool and
Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Alongside the work being done to embed the
transformation of diagnostic services into
existing patient pathways, the North West
Coast Genomics Medicine Centre has worked
with a digital system integrator to develop and
implement a bespoke data collection system.
This system is a platform enabling all
organisations throughout the North West Coast
GMC to register and collect data on each
patient that is recruited into the project and to
send this data to the National Biorepository
• This specialist dataset will become a valuable
resource for future care planning
• In 16/17 we have funded a Genomic
Ambassador post so that all organisations in
our region can participate in this programme
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23. Presentation 1
100,000 Genome Project
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24. Presentation 1
Other clinical programme achievements
• Alcohol
Harms caused by alcohol remain a huge problem for our
region; we have some of the highest rates of related morbidity
and mortality in the UK. We developed a support package to
amplify the Dry January campaign delivered by Alcohol
Concern and a local company Red Ninja. We are looking at
whether such campaigns contribute to reducing alcohol harms
and whether certain months such as January offer teachable
moments. The evaluation will report in June 2016
• Musculoskeletal Innovation
West Lancashire CCG and Southport and Ormskirk Hospital
have been supported in the funding and development of a
Musculoskeletal Online Support Service (MOSS) for people
with musculoskeletal problems. We are working with a local
company Citrus Suite and Physitrak and the service will go
live in July 2016.
• Heart failure
South Sefton CCG and MSD delivered an evidence into
practice programme for patients with heart failure in 6
practices. Over 200 patients will have benefited from this
package.
• Enhancing capacity in using evidence in innovation
We developed an Evidence in Innovation Strategic Insight
Tool (EiSIT) for NHS England which supports CCGs to
commission using evidence in a consistent way. This will be
launched nationally in 2016. Our team is developing case
studies in CCGs in our region to examine how it works in
practice. We have supported the development of an
infographic to support this work.
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25. Presentation 1
Medicines optimisation
A ‘Refer to Pharmacy’ project at East Lancashire
Hospitals allows hospital pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians to refer patients directly to their
community pharmacist for free NHS services such as
the ‘New Medicine Service’ or a ‘Discharge Medication
Review’.
Patients receive a copy of their referral by text or e-
mail, shortly after they leave hospital. Their chosen
community pharmacist then contacts them to arrange a
convenient time to meet and discuss changes to their
medication.
More than 150 community pharmacists are registered
and more than 1000 referrals were made in the first
three months of ‘Refer to Pharmacy’, making an
immediate impact on the lives of our residents.
The Innovation Agency has supported this programme,
created marketing opportunities and funded
benchmarking of the programme against similar
programmes in other regions.
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26. Presentation 1
Collaborations with other AHSNs
Stroke prevention
Our public awareness campaigns reached
over one million people. We identified 46
irregular pulses in people who had not been
previously diagnosed with atrial fibrillation
(AF). Potentially this may prevent 46 strokes if
patients are treated. Other AHSNs have also
developed campaigns following this success.
We have teamed up with Greater Manchester
AHSN who developed an AF dashboard. This
is now available to NWC CCGs. It draws
together all the AF data from a range of
different sources and supports our ongoing
improvements in this area.
The next step in our plan is to consolidate our
work in technologies for identifying stroke and
develop an AF Collaborative which provides
bespoke support for challenged areas, which
includes, technology, education and
improvement techniques. We will be using the
“Don’t wait to anti-coagulate”, model of
improvement from the West of England AHSN.
Musculoskeletal care - STarTBack
The STarTBack programme was developed and evaluated by
colleagues at Keele University, supported by West Midlands
AHSN, to improve the management of back pain in primary care.
Its efficacy has been demonstrated in several studies published
in journals such as the Lancet as it:
• Significantly reduces time off work by 50%
• Saves money (approx. £34 per patient)
• Significantly reduces disability
We have been supporting the rollout of StarTBack and those
using the model, in our region now includes all Liverpool GP
practices and practices in St Helens, East Lancashire and Wirral
reaching approximately 80,000 patients with lower back pain per
year. We will continue to support the CCGs and practices in
rolling this out and a local evaluation is planned for summer 2016
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27. Presentation 1
North West Coast
Patient Safety
Collaborative
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28. Presentation 1
Patient Safety Collaborative
achievements
The Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSC) were set up within each of the 15 AHSNs to ensure
patient safety remains a number one priority by reducing avoidable harm, saving lives and
creating a comprehensive, effective and sustainable improvement system.
Some of the key achievements against our priorities include:
• Engaging members and service users in the development of a NWC Safer and Better Care
Strategy through ‘listening’ events
• Shared funding for an e-discharge project, enabling electronic discharges for patients leaving
hospital settings for local authority, hospice and care home settings. This project supports safer,
speedier discharges and is about to be rolled out to 5,000 care home beds, so far there has
been more than 15,000 e-referrals in Cumbria alone.
• Completion of phase II of a project to develop a software tool which enables team of clinicians
to review anonymised serious events and to identify learning points. Now being used in two
large foundation trusts in our region, with growing interest from other trusts.
• Development of e-learning packages :
- Hydration, including acute kidney injury (care worker focused), and sepsis
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29. Presentation 1
Patient Safety Collaborative
achievements
• Co-production of a measurement strategy with Haelo and further commissioned phase II work for
maintaining and developing a safety measurement dashboard in relation to the ‘Sign Up to
Safety’ improvement plans
• Creating virtual learning networks to build capability around the care of frail elderly people and
staff health and well being
• Collaborating with and supporting the roll out of the NHS England ‘Sign up to Safety’ campaign.
Twenty five organisations are now members, including three CCGs.
• Jointly facilitating the ongoing development of 10 Q Improvement Fellows appointed as part of
the Q Initiative with Greater Manchester AHSN and AQuA
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30. Presentation 1
Patient Safety Collaboratives
National Sepsis Cluster
The Innovation Agency Patient Safety
Collaborative leads the national sepsis cluster
group which involves a number of AHSNs.
We have secured membership on the NHSE
National Cross System Sepsis Board that has
developed the national sepsis action plan.
The cluster has shared a number of case
studies nationally with the Board and has
agreed a set of actions within the plan.
This involves:
(a)supporting the implementation of
professional training across care settings;
(b)supporting local organisations to identify
best practice and innovation for better care
pathways
(c)supporting local organisations to identify
and spread best practice, improving
communication between settings and
transfers of care.
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31. Presentation 1
Communications and engagement
Our organisation was rebranded to support our vision and
strategy, reinforcing our focus on innovation spread and adoption.
This followed a consultation exercise carried out with key partners
and stakeholders.
From March our name was changed to the Innovation Agency,
while retaining as a strapline the description: Academic Health
Science Network for the North West Coast.
To strengthen the communications function, a Director of
Communications and Engagement was appointed in September
2015 and a specialist was recruited to the additional role of Events
Manager.
A total of 51 events were organised in the year, some in
partnership with other organisations.
Media coverage: A media monitoring service was started in
January 2016 and in the following three months, there was a total
of 89 items of media coverage including national, regional, trade,
digital and broadcast.
A total of 44 press releases were issued in the year 2015-16.
In February 2016, we led on the production of a Super North
supplement in The Times focussed on the work of the four AHSNs
of the North.
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32. Presentation 1
Social media and events
Social media plays an important part in
growing our networks and in showcasing
good practice and innovation.
Our Twitter following has grown to over
2,600 and we now have 167 videos on our
YouTube channel.
Staff and partners regularly blog about our
work and Twitter and LinkedIn are used to
drive traffic to the blogs, on our website.
On LinkedIn, as well as a company page
with 227 followers, we have also created a
group page for Vanguards of the North, with
36 followers. This was created after an
event that we organised, attended by ten of
the Northern Vanguards.
A wide range of event formats is used by
the Innovation Agency and in the past year
these have included ‘unconferences’ and
hackathons.
Two senior members of staff have been trained by MIT and are now
hackathon experts, able to support partners in delivering events such
as the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital ‘Hacking children’s health’; and
the Central Cheshire System Resilience Group hack.
In partnership with the NIHR CLAHRC NWC and the CRN NWC, we
organised a North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards
event in November 2015, attracting more than 120 nominations and
celebrating 12 winners at an event held at Chester Racecourse
attended by key stakeholders and staff from all sectors.
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33. Presentation 1
Business support
and engagement
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34. Presentation 1
Summary of business support activity
Through the successful implementation of
focused business support programmes we
have:
• Actively engaged with over 500 companies
• Provided intensive support to 81 companies
This had led to:
• Jobs safeguarded - 53
• Jobs created - 56
• New products or services introduced - 76
• Further investment leveraged - £5,832,685
The Commercial team has worked with the
regional LEPs to deliver business support
services across the region.
For the Lancashire region we worked alongside
the Boost programme for business support.
In Cheshire and Warrington we facilitated a
series of networking events and completed a
research study with SMEs to better understand the
barriers to supplying the health sector.
In the Liverpool City Region we ran the New
Markets programme for NHS Engagement.
Businesses were able to participate in various
workshops including:
• Health economics
• Business case development for the NHS
• Funding options for SMEs
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35. Award sponsorship
Awards are an excellent way to identify and showcase
best practice and innovation. In the past year, we
sponsored the following industry awards:
• Excellence in Supply Awards (through North West
Procurement Development)
• Red Rose Awards, celebrating
Lancashire business, commerce and industry
• Bionow Awards, showcasing the best of the
Northern life sciences sector
• North West Medilink Healthcare Business Awards
celebrating innovation, growth and commercial
success in the Healthcare Technologies and Life
Sciences sector
• NW Informatics Awards, hosted by the Skills
Development Network
We also organised the first North West Coast
Research and Innovation Awards, in partnership with
the NIHR CLAHRC NWC and the CRN NWC.
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36. Presentation 1
Procurement best practice
Excellence in Supply Awards
More than 300 guests attended last year’s NHS in the North
West Excellence in Supply Awards, sponsored by the
Innovation Agency. The event recognises the contribution of
suppliers and the NHS procurement profession to supporting
patient care and reducing costs.
NHS Blood Bikes, Lancashire and Lakes won the ‘Supplier of
the Year’ title for their voluntary service which transports blood
and other lifesaving products around the region on
motorbikes. Their work frees up resources for NHS trusts to
re-invest in front line care. The award highlights the key role
played by voluntary and third sector organisations in the NHS.
Innovation Agency Chief Executive, Dr Liz Mear, is Chair of
NHS North West Procurement Development and presented at
the event.
The achievements highlighted by the awards show how, by
working together, the NHS, third sector and industry can
simultaneously achieve both high quality patient care and
value for money through procurement. 36

37. Presentation 1
Procurement workshops
We ran a series of workshops about innovation procurement,
attended by Innovation Scouts and their associated Heads of
Procurement. The workshops cover theory, principles and
practice in line with recent changes to EU Guidelines and
have enabled our Innovation Scouts to better appreciate the
complex nature of procurement in the NHS.
A series of Procurement Surgeries were also held for SMEs in
conjunction with North West Procurement Development.
These enabled our local SMEs to get valuable one-to-one
sessions with procurement experts to better understand the
issues around supplying to the NHS.
We have an ongoing collaboration with North West
Procurement Development and the Royal College of Nursing
to drive the procurement of innovation in the North west with a
project called “wouldn’t it be great if….”.
We are a partner in StopandGo, a Public Procurement of
Innovations pilot project.
37

38. Presentation 1
Examples of business support
successes
Local Enterprise Partnerships
The business assist programmes established with Liverpool City
Region, Lancashire, and Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise
Partnerships have enabled the commercial team to engage with
numerous SMEs in 2015/16. Examples follow below.
Leanvation
With help from the Innovation Agency, Leanvation has overcome the
rigorous processes involved in securing three framework award
contracts with SBS, HTE and NHS Supply Chain.
This means that Leanvation’s latex-free surgical gloves are now
available to NHS trusts throughout the country.
The company received £500,000 venture capital investment; three
jobs have been safeguarded and an additional six posts have been
created in this St Helens-based start-up.
38

39. Presentation 1
Examples of business support
successes - AIMES
AIMES, a multi award winning commercial data
centre service provider based in the North
West of England, is one of the companies we
have worked with.
Dennis Kehoe, Chief Executive of AIMES, said:
“The work the Innovation Agency has been
doing within the North West has been
integral to a number of our strategic
initiatives. Our N3 Aggregation in
conjunction with Liverpool CCG was funded
by the Innovation Agency. This has allowed
us to deliver a variety of secure, cloud-
based digital health services much more
quickly, bringing benefits to the population
across a number of clinical pathways and
generating economic growth, not just for
AIMES but for digital service developers.
The Innovation Agency’s Ecosystem events
have led to collaboration across academia,
industry and the NHS.
“We’ve exploited these links by getting our
partners within the NWC such as Lancashire
Care involved in Horizon 2020 proposals.
“Most significantly, our engagement with the
Innovation Agency has given rise to AIMES
being tasked with delivering the Data Ark for
the Connected Health Cities Project. These
projects put AIMES at the centre of health
data hosting, and enables our business to
play an active role in the emergence of digital
health technologies within the NHS.
“With the pro-activeness of the Innovation
Agency, their work in promoting inward
investment from digital health service
providers across the country, we’ve been able
to play a role in facilitating the success of the
Innovation Agency.”
39

40. Presentation 1
Delivering efficiency and
supporting enterprise
Innovations with Impact
Our Innovations with Impact funding competition was advertised
widely across the NWC region and following a well-attended
information day, almost 50 applications were received.
Applications were assessed against questions posed in the
application form by a range of reviewers including the regional
NHS England and Strategic Clinical Network teams, academics,
Innovation Scouts and North West Procurement Development
Agency.
The robust scoring process was designed by GE Healthcare.
Applications were scored against a range of criteria, including
whether the same technology was included in another
application already recommended for funding and which of
these applications provided the most benefit, the fit with current
work streams and priorities and potential level of impact
(number and range of organisations involved and / or number of
service users benefiting).
Following this review, the executive team recommended 18
applications for funding. The total funding for projects was
£426,000. All suppliers are SMEs and seven are based in the
NWC region.
One beneficiary is Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
who will receive over £49,000 to fund two
developments. One revolutionary project, and a
first for Liverpool, is the SMARTinhaler, designed
to remind parents and children to take their
asthma medication. It will also incorporate a
touch screen questionnaire to record the
recurring symptoms of an asthma attack.
By recording the symptoms of the attack, it will
give doctors and patients a clear understanding
on what causes the incident and how it can be
avoided in the future.
40

41. Presentation 1
SBRI update
The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) for
Healthcare brings together business, health,
technology and government partners to deliver a
series of competitions for businesses to address major
unmet health needs.
Unlike many Research and Development projects
which offer grant or match funding, SBRI contracts are
100 per cent funded and the inventor retains the
intellectual property.
As part of Innovation Health and Wealth, the SBRI
Healthcare programme sets industry the challenge in a
series of health related competitions which result in
fully funded development contracts between the
awarded company and the NHS.
SBRI Healthcare competition themes are chosen in
partnership with the Academic Health Science
Networks (AHSNs) across England.
Karen Livingstone, Director of SBRI Healthcare, said:
‘We are particularly pleased to have been able to
support so many innovative companies given the
financial pressures on the NHS. In 2015 the
programme awarded 28 contracts across the various
phases of the competition,
The North West Coast Region has been particularly
successful over the last year and we will continue to
support all these companies to commercialise their
new technologies.
Eight companies in our region have secured SBRI
funding, to a total of £5.6m. Among the Phase 2
winners are:
Digital Creativity in Design Ltd, Liverpool
Cardiocity Ltd, Lancaster
Biosensors Ltd, Liverpool
Cadscan Ltd, Chester
41

42. Presentation 1
SBRI example - Cadscan
Cadscan was awarded almost £1m from SBRI Healthcare, a
funding competition that we run, to develop an innovative way of
helping people with diabetes.
Cadscan, in Chester, will be given £961,859 to develop a low-cost,
on-demand system to manufacture effective insoles to reduce the
risk of people with diabetes developing foot ulcers. The system
consists of a 3D foot scanner, 3D insole printer and software that
can automatically design and manufacture a bespoke insole.
On average, 300 new foot ulcers are diagnosed every day and
120 people undergo an amputation each week – 80 per cent of
which are preceded by a foot ulcer. Once developed, the insole
could substantially reduce the £1 billion annual bill for amputation
and £5,500 cost of treating each foot ulcer.
Dr Alastair Buchanan, Managing Director of Cadscan Limited,
said: “With rising rates of diabetes it is important to develop ways
to prevent people developing diabetic foot ulcers rather than
treating them after they have occurred. The money we have been
awarded will be used to develop a product that in the future could
save the NHS millions of pounds each year - and allow patients to
stay healthier and continue to lead more independent lives. ”
The company was founded in 2011 with the aim of lowering the
cost of high-quality 3D scanning.
42

43. The type of bid writing support provided varied significantly
between each funding bid, and ranged from external assurance
reviews of draft proposals to content development of significant
sections of the bid documentation. We also helped bid teams with
‘mock interviews’ where we gave constructive feedback on
interview presentations and managing interview sessions.
Some examples of the types of support we have provided include:
• Supporting three NHS Innovation Test Bed submissions, initially
with content development and bid review services, and then for
shortlisted projects we helped with interview preparation
• Providing bid development support and QA review for the North
West Coast Connected Health Cities (CHC) proposal. We
provided support with project mobilisation and development of
governance arrangements
• We developed bid content and undertook a QA review of a
Horizon 2020 PCP proposal for digital health enhancement of
COPD services
• We helped with bid qualification on a lBig Lottery Fund proposal
• We helped Alder Hey Hospital identify additional funding
sources to help with the development of the Innovation Hub
facility, and reviewed a Health Foundation proposal from the
Trust
• Delivered training on ‘Top tips for developing a winning
proposal’ for potential SBRI Healthcare submission leaders
• Developed an evaluation process and criteria for the AHSN
‘Innovation with Impact’ funding scheme
• Developed a Strategic Narrative for Digital Health across
Lancashire and South Cumbria (to support coordinated bids for
investment).
We supported a wide range of tender responses, helped with
interview preparation and provided advice and support to numerous
projects throughout the year. Feedback from bid teams has been
extremely positive, both in terms of the content developed and the
constructive challenge that an independent review of documentation
and other materials can provide. A number of these schemes have
been successful in obtaining funding as a result of the support
provided, most notably the Connected Health Cities project which
received £4m investment over three years following its submission in
year.
Bid writing support for key strategic funding initiatives – 2015/16
We asked GE Healthcare Finnamore to help organisations within the North
West Coast AHSN area, which covers most of Cheshire, Merseyside, most
of Lancashire and Cumbria, to:
• Write high quality, high impact proposals for funding from external
sources
• Deliver excellent pitch presentations or clarification interviews when
requested by funding bodies
• Identify funding sources to take forward their local innovation agenda.
The challenge…
The outcome…
Our approach…
43

44. Driving innovation
44

45. The aim of the National Innovation Accelerator (NIA) is to deliver on the commitment
detailed within the Five Year Forward View to create the conditions and cultural change
necessary for proven innovations to be adopted faster and more systematically through the
NHS, and to deliver examples into practice for demonstrable patient and population benefit.
We have contributed funding of £100k into the NIA alongside four other AHSNs and an NHS
England contribution.
Circa £9 million for the companies involved has been leveraged for this contribution:
• 66 more NHS organisations are now using NIA innovations since the start of the
programme (14% of all NHS organisations)
• Six awards won
• In addition to supporting the development and ongoing direction of the programme at a
national level, within our region we have supported three NIA fellows:
• Dr Penny Newman, health coaching
• Dr Lloyd Humphries, Patient Knows Best
• Francis White, AliveCor
We have plans to work with a further three fellows in 2016/17 and will continue to support
the programme alongside seven other AHSNs.
National Innovation Accelerator
Dr Lloyd Humphries
45

46. Presentation 1
Supporting new models of care and the
Five Year Forward View
Vanguards
The Innovation Agency is committed to supporting new
models of care. We have six Vanguard sites in our area and
we have provided support by:
• Hosting a number of events where the Vanguards are
brought together to share experiences and ideas
• Proving logic model and Baines model evaluation
support, funding and supporting rollout out of system
modelling tools, advising on workforce redesign,
coaching senior leadership teams and individual leaders
to take their role in system leadership
• Supporting the development of an Invitation to Tender
for evaluation with ongoing support provided for the
commissioning of the evaluation from a suitable provider
• Providing opportunities to develop capacity and
capability in using evidence in the commissioning of
innovative approaches. We are working with a number
of Vanguard areas to develop case studies and look at
supporting teams and Boards to assess and manage
evidence in the commissioning process.
.
46

47. Presentation 1
Healthy New Towns
The background:
• Britain loses more than 130 million working
days to ill health each year
• 19 per cent of children aged 10 to 11 are
obese
• Only 21 per cent of children play outdoors
compared to 71 per cent of their parents
when they were children
• One quarter of adults walk for less than
nine minutes per day and physical
inactivity is a direct factor in one in six
deaths.
The Healthy New Towns programme aims to
inform thinking and planning of every day
environments to improve health for
generations to come.
We supported two bids for sites in the North West
Coast and introduced new support partners to each
site; and we are supporting the delivery of both
projects:
Halton Lea in Runcorn covering 800 residential
units, and
Whyndyke Farm in Fylde, Lancashire covering
1,400 residential units. We have started to work with
these sites to ensure that digital health technologies
can be supportive in improving the health of residents
and we will pinpoint specific programmes of work with
these sites in 2016/17.
There are 10 sites across the country covering more
than 76,000 new homes with potential capacity for
approximately 170,000. This is an opportunity for the
NHS to shape the way these new sites develop and to
test creative solutions for the health and care
challenges of the 21st century, including obesity,
dementia and community cohesion.
47

48. Presentation 1
Test Bed success
The Innovation Agency was delighted to
support the development of a successful Test
Bed bid as part of the Lancashire and Cumbria
Innovation Alliance (LCIA).
The Test Bed will be delivered through two
neighbouring Vanguard sites (Fylde Coast
Local Health Economy and Morecambe Bay
Health Community) supported by the Innovation
Agency and Lancaster Health Hub, an
established NHS/University partnership
comprising 10 local organisations.
Over two years the partners will implement and
evaluate a combination of innovative
technologies and practices aimed at supporting
the frail elderly, people with dementia and other
long term conditions to remain well in the
community, avoiding unnecessary hospital
admissions.
The Innovation Agency supported the
development of the bid and establishment of
industry collaborations and has a seat on the
Governance Group.
In addition the Innovation Agency is funding a
communications manager to focus on promoting
the LCIA and engage clinicians and service
users engagement,
The Innovation Agency is also responsible for
national co-ordination and international aspects
of the LCIA.
Out of 14 shortlisted Test Bed sites, three of
these applications were from the North West
Coast region. The Innovation Agency supported
all three shortlisted bids and the two other
shortlisted sites - one in Liverpool and one in
Cheshire – have each received £50k funding to
develop the priority areas of their suggested
programme.
48

49. Presentation 1
International learning and partnerships
• We continued our series of quarterly
European Connected Health Care Alliance
Ecosystem (ECHA) events. These events
network industry, health, social care and
universities to develop e-health and m-
health solutions for citizens
• Led successful study tours to Austria,
Denmark and Slovenia resulting in
adoption of systems and practices in our
region
• Guest speaker at two launch events - of the
China Connected Health Alliance
Ecosystem; and the Poland Connected
Health Alliance Ecosystem, showcasing the
impact of the Innovation Agency in the
NWC
49

50. Innovation Centres
50

51. Presentation 1
Infrastructure development
There has been limited infrastructure in the North West
Coast region to support early stage companies in the
health and life science sectors, and existing facilities
were not linked to health service provision.
The Innovation Agency has provided £856,000 funding
to a number of partners to support the development of
the following facilities:
• Health Innovation Campus, University of Lancaster,
first phase underway and due to open in 2018
• Liverpool Bio-Innovation Hub at University of
Liverpool, opened in February 2016
• Alder Hey Research and Education Centre opened
in October 2015
• Alder Hey Innovation Centre for digital and sensor
technologies opened in March 2016
• Centre for Integrated Health Science, Chester,
opened April 2015
• Accelerator Hub, Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen
University Hospital Trust (build underway)
• Chorley Digital Park, planning permission granted
The Innovation Agency’s commitment and support has
given confidence to others to invest.
Collectively these projects have secured over £55m
additional funding from sources including the NHS,
universities, industry, EU and UK Government.
We provide ongoing support to secure funding and
shape strategies, as well as to SMEs who locate within
the facilities to drive development and adoption of new
healthcare technologies.
These investments will establish a sustainable regional
infrastructure, creating jobs, developing skills and
attracting research funding and inward investment over
the long term.
The potential is there to drive significant economic
growth to the region in the coming years.
51

52. Case study – Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Alder Hey is one of ten innovation centres around
the North West Coast region being supported by
the Innovation Agency.
We provided two awards of infrastructure funding,
to the Institute in the Park research centre, helping
to leverage £12m European funding; and to create
a ‘living hospital lab’ where staff can try out new
technology in realistic clinical settings.
We organised events and brought in local
businesses who had products, services or advice
which were relevant to a set of needs identified by
the hospital. This match making led to several
strong relationships which have brought in
innovative devices and systems.
One ‘catalyst’ event at which a cardiologist presented a challenge to technology
developers, led to the creation of a joint venture to develop a small wireless sensor
to read defined signs of disease or abnormalities in the blood without breaking the
skin, avoiding the need for needles to take blood.
We also funded and supported a £50,000 telemedicine project implemented at three
sites to help families to access expert advice and support from consultants at Alder
Hey through remote video monitoring. Paediatric consultants use video technology
to monitor and assess children living with chronic neurological conditions at sites
including Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust, Warrington and Halton Hospitals and
the Isle of Man.
52

53. Inward investment: Liverpool Bio-Innovation Hub
The Liverpool Bio-Innovation Hub
The Liverpool Bio-Innovation Hub (LBIH) offers a unique and beneficial
advantage to SMEs looking to grow their businesses in the biomedical sector.
The Innovation Agency invested £150,000 in this £20m project, and supported
the successful application to the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF), to help realise the creation of a Hub for biomedical research and
personalised medicine through the construction of a high spec, state of the art
building to house a number of SMEs alongside valuable resources such as a
large, purpose-built biobank. LBIH is a state of the art incubator with 4,100sq m
available, for small and medium size enterprises co-located on University of
Liverpool campus, sited within the Knowledge Quarter and in next to the new
Royal Hospital currently under development.
The LBIH Biobank
The newly formed LBIH Biobank is a conglomeration of biobanks within the
University of Liverpool. The LBIH Biobank has been specifically created to
provide SMEs and academic researchers with high quality biosamples, data, and
analytical services. The LBIH Biobank houses a vast array of biosamples, both
cancerous and non-cancerous, and has the ability to collect bespoke samples
and data to suit the needs of researchers.
Currently, the LBIH Biobank has access to a wide variety of samples types
including but not limited to frozen tissue, fresh tissue, acetic fluid, blood products,
and FFPE blocks. The LBIH Biobank can further process these into a number of
products such as DNA, frozen sections, and cryo-aliquots. In order to offer a
‘one-stop shop’ for research, the LBIH Biobank offers additional services such as
IHC, next generation sequencing, and TMA creation and project management for
clinical trials, to include storage of trial samples.
53

54. Supporting staff and
creating a culture for
innovation to thrive
54

55. Supporting a staff culture of innovation
• We ran a project on behalf of NHS England for evidence
based commissioning
• Supported an NIHR funded work stream to produce easy
to understand research reports, ‘Signals’
• Supported an NIHR funded programme to analyse how
the 15 AHSNs are creating networks – reporting in June,
2016
• Established our online Innovation Exchange platform to
share proven innovations across the region and beyond
• Increased our Innovation Scout cohort to over 50 (see
next slide)
• Developed a checklist for NHS staff working with industry
• Ran a number of Hackathons for the region to produce
technology and service-based solutions for health and
social care systems
• Facilitated the adoption of approaches which support the
spread of innovation in NHS Trusts, eg Innovation
Breakfasts 55

56. Innovation Scouts – workplace champions
We increased our Innovation Scout cohort to over 50
and delivered a variety of development events
including:
• Master class from Professor Solomon Darwin of the
Berkeley Institute in California, leading to agreement
to pilot the Open Innovation approach, designed by
Professor Henry Chesbrough of Berkeley
• Master class from Dr Helen Bevan OBE
• Visits to innovative companies 3M and BAE.
Our Innovation Scout events have led to:
• Adoption of guidance: ‘Clearing the
confusing over medical app regulation'
• Production of guidance: 'How to work
effectively with industry'
• Industry offers to engage with the
Innovation Scouts from Lilly, BAE, 3M
• Developing capability through funding
Scouts on academic modules furthering
their knowledge
56

57. Supporting junior doctors
• Junior Doctors Dragons Den - an annual
leadership and innovation event designed to
inspire trainees to make change in their workplace
and develop their skills and experience in
leadership and management, run by Health
Education England North West
• Supported North West Deanery/ Junior Doctor
Advisory Team
• Four winning projects from a range of trusts
• Overall winner Our Healthy Future – gamified
teaching sessions in healthy living, by Dr Jing
Ouyang and Dr Muhammad Khan
• Two winners went on to gain places on the
Clinical Entrepreneurs programme
57

58. Clinical Entrepreneur programme
We have partnered with NHS England and Health
Education England and Lancaster University to design,
recruit to and launch this programme, which is
designed to keep the most forward-thinking,
entrepreneurial clinicians within this country, bringing
the benefit of cutting-edge new treatments and care
pathways to the patients who need it – and keeping
the money generated within the British economy.
One hundred of the brightest junior doctors who have
a clinical innovation or enterprise currently under
development have been selected for the Clinical
Entrepreneur Fellowship under the brand-new training
scheme, receiving mentorship from international
entrepreneurs and health innovators.
A core training scheme, will offer crash-courses and
bite-sized study in starting and running a business,
regulation and governance, and building investment.
The programme is being piloted at Lancaster
University from 2016. Over the coming years, both the
fellowship and the core training scheme will be rolled
out to nurses, midwives and allied health
professionals, to harness the knowledge, skills and
experience of all England’s clinicians. This scheme is
easily replicable and could be rolled out across
geographical boundaries.
58

59. Supporting our own staff
We are delivering a comprehensive innovation
training package to our staff and providing
resources they can use to demonstrate how
innovation can be deployed.
We were successful in achieving the Investors
in People Silver Award and are being
assessed for the Gold Award in Summer 2016.
59

60. North West Procurement Development supports procurement
and finance staff to be competent in
• - procuring for innovation
• - procuring for value/ outcomes not just cost
We support them by:
• - chairing the advisory board – our CEO Dr Liz Mear
• - individual commissions of work
• - supporting the Excellence in Supply Awards
• - supporting an annual procurement good practice showcase
Supporting procurement, finance
60

61. Presentation 1
Supporting frontline staff in the community
Assistive Living Technology and Skills – ALTAS
We are a partner in this EU project to develop online
learning for health and social care staff, that will
ultimately enable their clients to benefit from smart
solutions to live independently, self-care and improve
their health and well-being.
Once completed this package of e-learning will be
rolled out across Europe.
61

62. North West Learning and Development
Collaborative
The North West Learning and Development
Collaborative includes the Innovation Agency, Greater
Manchester Academic Health Science Network, AQuA,
the North West Leadership Academy and Health
Education England.
Our collaboration has created a connected set of
partners who have well established, formal and
informal relationships. The depth and breadth of these
relationships enables alignment of combined skills and
resources to tackle the challenges facing the North
West health and social care economy
All the development work undertaken by
these bodies in the North West is
designed to transform the way we meet
the needs of the population and improve
outcomes, creating the cultures
necessary to deliver the vision outlined
within the 5 Year Forward View.
The Collaborative harnesses the region’s
improvement and leadership development
communities to enable innovation to
thrive. The Collaborative provides
development for boards, leaders,
managers; it supports coaching skills,
mentoring skills, Lean methodology and
improvement methodology for front line
staff.
Creating this climate supports a culture of
innovation across the North West Coast.
62

63. AQuA – Advancing Quality Alliance
Since our inception we have commissioned
AQuA to support North West Coast AHSN
NHS members to deliver service improvement,
including the building of capability in
improvement science at all levels, and
collaborative programmes of action to deliver
demonstrable improvement in safety,
effectiveness and patient experience.
This includes Board development, Shared
Decision Making skills development and
leadership for safety programmes and
reducing mortality work. A shared fee between
the two organisations, funds this work.
63
In addition to this shared fee arrangement, over
the last two years we have separately
commissioned the:
•
Patient Safety Collaborative Network
Sustainability and Spread Programme;
Leadership Programme (Focus on safety
within the Care Home setting).
Some of the work from these two programmes
will be rolled out in 2016/17.

64. Digital health
64

65. Presentation 1
Digital health
Working with the European Connected Healthcare
Alliance (ECHA), the Innovation Agency has
developed a region-wide ecosystem to enable better
connected health and economy growth through digital
innovations.
This work is linked to a further 24 ecosystems across
Europe, offering the opportunity to develop at pace
through sharing and learning of best practice.
As part of the ecosystem work, the Innovation Agency
has developed a connected health working group
which consists of key regional leaders who meet every
six weeks to drive the work forward.
The Innovation Agency is a key participant a the
Lancashire Digital Health Board and has co-funded
projects that report to this Board re the digital literacy
programme and the rollout of the Strata IT handover
tool.
Our digital health programme became an underpinning
goal in 2016/17 as we incorporate digital methods of
delivering healthcare into all pathways.
65

66. Presentation 1
Interoperability
The Innovation Agency has supported programmes
to improve interoperability and the flow of electronic
information across care pathways to front line staff,
patients and carers.
LPRES
We have supported LPRES (Lancashire Person
Record Exchange Service), an innovative solution
breaking new ground in the NHS with the
introduction of an ‘on demand’ model for sharing
information. The scalability of this approach means
information can be exchanged both within and
across a region.
iLINKS
Support has been given to the North Mersey iLINKS
Programme, hosted by Liverpool CCG. This is an
enabler for commissioner and provider
transformation strategies, supporting the move to a
culture in which clinical information is shared by
default.
A key priority for the programme is the development
of a scaled sharing and information governance
model for the whole economy which will be enabled
by a digital interoperability roadmap.
66

67. We have played and continue to play a key role in the Connected
Health Cities (CHC) programme, which demonstrates the
Government’s commitment to the Northern Powerhouse.
There are four CHC pilots in the North of England - North West
Coast; Greater Manchester; North East and North Cumbria; and
Yorkshire and Humber. The aim is to use data to deliver a more
connected health system for staff and citizens.
We have been awarded £4 million to deliver the CHC in the North
West Coast and have four key work-streams:
• Clinical pathways – the University of Liverpool is
developing two pathways, for COPD and alcohol,
alongside all relevant service providers. These
workstreams build on existing infrastructure in the region
• The Ark – led by Lancaster University, which will develop
our region’s frontline staff in digital skills and analysis
• Infrastructure – led by AIMES Grid Services who will
provide the systems for housing and organising the data
and support the liaison with industry and linking of data-
sets
• The Innovation Agency will provide oversight and support
for citizen involvement, interdependencies and spread at
pace and scale of the programme outputs
Connected Health Cities
67

68. Presentation 1
Using technology to improve efficiency –
E-Referral in Cumbria and Lancashire
In Cumbria, health and care organisations, led by
Cumbria CCG and Strata Health, have been
involved in using innovative e-referrals software
system as well as resource matching software to
minimise waiting for places in intermediate care and
rehabilitation beds.
In Cumbria alone there has been more than 15,000
e-referrals in the last year, leading to:
• a reduction in unproductive nursing / social care
time resource worth over £300,000
• a reduction in reliance on paper, fax, filing and
copying of patient files, by both senders and
receivers valued at around £20,000
• improved communications between multi agency
health and care staff, speeding up the patient
transition
This programme is also rolling out across Lancashire
CCG and health and social care partners.
68

69. Presentation 1
European programmes - StopandGo
STOPandGO is a Public Procurement of Innovation pilot project co-funded
by the ICT Policy Support Programme of the European Union. The goal of
STOPandGO is to produce and validate reference material that will support
the development of coherent procurements across Europe regarding the
provision of innovative healthcare and social services enhanced by
technology, for elderly people.
The STOPandGO procurement process focuses on the integration and the
simultaneous improvement of models of care and cure, to provide services
augmented by a coherent set of interoperable technologies. It is hoped that
the project will benefit more than 5000 citizens and service areas will
include diabetes, integrated care, domiciliary care and dementia.
There are multiple partners across four countries - UK, Netherlands, Italy
and Spain. The Innovation Agency is one of the knowledge partners in the
UK together with procurement groups from Eastern Cheshire CCG and
Liverpool City Council.
The Diabetes Care and Domiciliary Care Services proposed in the UK will
benefit a significant number of citizens in our region. The €4m
procurements from the project receive a generous contribution from the
EU, further supporting the providing partners in the region.
Ann Williams of Liverpool City Council said: “This is an exciting
opportunity which brings both domiciliary care providers and technology
companies to work together to deliver a better quality service while
providing value for money. By being part of the StopandGO programme
we will receive €400,000 to procure innovative solutions and are learning
with colleagues across Europe about the best way to procure technology
into services for older people.”
Speed dating at a STOPandGO
event for care providers and tech
businesses
69

70. European Institute of Innovation &
Technology Health Knowledge and
Innovation Community - EIT Health KIC
The Innovation Agency is an Associate Partner of EIT Health KIC. EIT Health
promotes entrepreneurship and innovates in healthy living and active ageing,
providing Europe with new opportunities and resources. It enables citizens to
lead healthier and more productive lives by delivering products, services and
concepts that improve quality of life and contribute to the sustainability of
healthcare across Europe.
EIT Health is one of the largest healthcare initiatives worldwide, headquartered
in Munich. Its goal is to sustainably advance the foundations of healthcare and
thus promote the future conditions for healthier living and wellbeing of people
across Europe. EIT Health is leveraging the expertise of more than 130 leading
organisations spanning key areas of healthcare such as Pharma, MedTech,
Payers, Research Institutions and Universities. Chosen by the European
Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to form EIT Health, the consortium
offers best-in-class research capabilities, higher education and business
expertise. With a budget of 2 billion EUR over the next decade, it will
purposefully invest in Europe’s best entrepreneurial talents and creative minds
to foster the development and commercialisation of smart product and service
solutions in the health sector, addressing the challenges imposed by
demographic change and ageing societies.
EIT Health will focus investments on innovative products and services which
support people in their desire for self-management of their health (“Promote
Healthy Living”), and to ensure they stay professionally and socially connected
and active throughout life (“Support Active Ageing”), whilst EIT Health also
seeks to ensure better integration of healthcare services and provisions
(“Improve Healthcare”).
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71. Sharing and learning
with partners
71

72. Presentation 1
Building our networks
We have engaged with our partners and
stakeholders through a wide range of methods,
including:
• Bimonthly e-newsletter
• Events in 2015/16 included workshops,
hackathons, summits, working lunches, focus
groups and award presentations
• Digital connected health ecosystem quarterly
events
• Establishing a platform for matching health and
care partners with innovation solutions – the
Innovation Exchange, to be launched summer
2016
• Press releases, blogs, website content and
social media
• Innovation Scouts
• Bespoke pieces of work for partners
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73. Presentation 1
Hackathons – the impacts
We have supported two hackathons in the region:
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital – ‘Hacking Children’s
Health’
Winning pitch: Producing sensor technology to avoid
tissue damage from intravenous lines
Also, Alder Hey Chairman Sir David Henshaw was so
impressed by the Hackathon ideas that he launched an
Innovation Fund to support staff innovation.
Central Cheshire System Resilience Group – HACK
2016
Winning pitch: Creating a single point of access for GPs
and health professionals
Innovation Agency Hack team: A workshop was held by
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Hacking
Medicine Team following the Alder Hey event, for our staff
and Innovation Scouts. This led to the Innovation Agency
establishing our own hack team to work with partners
across the region to develop hackathon facilitator skills and
co-deliver health and care hackathons.
Our hack team: Lisa Butland, Juliet te Kumar,
Jen Gilroy-Cheetham, Catherine Gresty
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74. In November 2015, the Innovation Agency alongside the
CRN and the CLAHRC NWC ran a celebration event to
showcase the leading innovation and research that is being
rolled out across the region. The NIHR Clinical Research
Network is the clinical research delivery arm of the NHS.
They operate across England through a national
coordinating centre and 15 local branches delivering
research in the NHS across all disease areas.
NHS England
NHS England is the main funder of all AHSNs and assure
themselves on a quarterly basis that the Innovation Agency
is meeting its duties in accordance with the Innovation,
Health and Wealth principles, and in line with the objectives
of the Five Year Forward View.
The Innovation Agency has a close working relationship with
NHS England North and the sub-regional teams as well as a
strong relationship with colleagues on a national level. Our
vision of reducing health inequalities and contributing to a
vibrant local and national economy are consistent with the
principles of NHS England.
Partnerships with other organisations
Clinical Networks
The AHSN’s health innovation priority areas have been
closely aligned with the two North West Strategic Clinical
Networks (SCNs). The SCN works to agree clinical
pathways with commissioners and AHSNs put these tested
pathways into practice. The AHSN has worked with the
SCNs in the areas of stroke/AF, neurological health, cancer
and mental health. Moving into 2016/17 there is one
Clinical Network for the North West Coast.
NIHR CLAHRC NWC
Research collaborations across industry, academia and the
NHS have been further stimulated as a result of the
partnership with the NIHR North West Coast Collaboration
for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR
CLAHRC NWC). The CLAHRC NWC is an important
partner for the Innovation Agency as our objectives and
outcomes are closely aligned, The two organisations have
worked together on programmes for neurological health,
mental health, genotyping for warfarin use and evaluation
of stroke treatments and have run joint events.
NIHR CRN NWC
The Innovation Agency has supported the NIHR Clinical
Research Network (CRN) in working closely with
colleagues to develop research, innovation and
improvement capacity.
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75. Well North
The Innovation Agency is a supporter and
contributor to the Well North Project, which is
funded by Public Health England and local
regions. This project seeks to promote a move
from a high cost medical model to a high value
healthcare system, by harnessing the
strengths of local citizens. The aims of the
programme are to :
 Address inequality by improving the health of
the poorest, fastest
 Reduce levels of worklessness, a cause and
effect of poor health
 Reduce premature mortality
• There are three Well North sites in the NWC
area - in Sefton, Halton and West
Lancashire.
Partnerships (contd)
Liverpool Health Partners (LHP) brings together
clinical and scientific expertise to develop and
promote world-leading research, education,
healthcare and innovation.
They are made up of a core group of founding
partners and a network of members.
They are one of three research hubs in the
footprint of the Innovation Agency and are
supported by us. LHP provides the bio-medical
research pipeline into the region and contributes
to and benefits from the success of the Innovation
Agency's work to enhance the North West Coast's
reputation and profile for health research
In 2015 LHP and the Innovation Agency ran the
Health is Wealth conference. The Innovation
Agency is part-funding this conference again in
2016/17.
Liverpool Health and Wellbeing Board: Our
Chair Gideon Ben-Tovim OBE is a Board
member.
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76. The Health Hub facilitates cross-sectoral working and
brings together local organisations around specific aims
and themes, both to deliver large projects and
programmes, and to advance local infrastructure for
research and healthcare. For example, the Health Hub
recently led a successful application for an NHS England
Test Bed, demonstrating its value in leveraging funding
for major initiatives through its in-depth knowledge of,
and relationships with, individual organisations.
The Health Hub both contributes to and benefits from
the success of the Innovation Agency's work to enhance
the North West Coast's reputation and profile for health
research and innovation. Examples of the Health Hub's
current collaborations with the Innovation Agency
include joint bidding for EU funding, joint working to
deliver the Test Bed, and joint working to develop the
Lancaster Health Innovation Campus.
Partnerships (contd)
Lancaster Health Hub
Lancaster Health Hub is a strategic partnership
involving 10 health organisations across Lancashire
and Cumbria. It enables the partner organisations to
work together to drive locally-led research and
innovation, to enhance evidence-based, high quality
healthcare, and to support local economic growth and
job creation.
The partnership draws upon skills and expertise in all
academic departments at Lancaster University, which
is rated within the top 10 UK universities. The
partnership comprises: Lancaster University, University
of Cumbria, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust, Calderstones Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation
Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation
Trust, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS
Foundation Trust, Lancashire North CCG, NHS Fylde
and Wyre CCG and Healthwatch Lancashire.
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77. Partnerships with other organisations
The Northern Health Science Alliance Ltd
The Northern Health Science Alliance Ltd
(NHSA) is a partnership established by the
leading universities and NHS hospital trusts in
the North of England to improve the health and
wealth of the region by creating an
internationally recognised life science and
healthcare system.
Our CEO Dr Liz Mear sits on the NHSA Board
and Council.
The NHSA links eight universities and eight
NHS teaching trusts with the AHSNs. Together
the Alliance and the four Northern AHSNs
cover a patient population of over 15 million
people. The NHSA acts as a single portal
bringing together research, health science
innovation and industry to provide benefits for
researchers, universities, hospitals, patients as
well as commercial partners.
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78. Partnership with NWC universities –
a strategic approach
The Innovation Agency has established a strategic approach for
engagement with all nine NWC universities, in consultation with
each Vice Chancellor.
Twice-yearly Academic Summits are held, involving external
speakers, to bring together all NWC universities.
Discussions at Summits have enabled a focus for future joint
working to be identified around Horizon 2020:
• Identifying core themes for collaborative bidding
• Preparing and submitting joint proposals
• Enabling wider participation in EU networks, events and
workshops
Senior academic leads have been identified in each university to
provide a formal point of liaison with the Innovation Agency.
We have established directories of NWC universities’ skills and
facilities for health innovation; and professional programmes for
health innovation and leadership.
We support university-based posts and initiatives to develop
innovation centres and to build capability in innovation and
knowledge mobilisation across the NWC.
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79. Northern AHSN Forum
This forum, which meets bi-monthly includes all four
Northern AHSNs. The forum is used for planning joint
work, updating on progress of national and regional
initiatives and sharing lessons that can accelerate the
progress of work streams that benefit residents, industry
and staff.
Evidence based approaches for managing Alcohol
Issues
We have worked with Oxford AHSN/ the NICE
Improvement Collaborative (NIC) to develop and deliver
a report about using evidence-based technologies in
managing alcohol issues.
Genomic Ambassador
Over the last year we have provided much support for
this programme. In 2016/17 our support is to fund a
specific post for adoption and spread of the programme
across the region. This Genomic Ambassador post
based on a model developed by West Midlands AHSN.
Collaborations with other AHSNs
AHSN Network
During 2015 our CEO Dr Liz Mear became Vice Chair of
the AHSN Network and in April 2016 became Chair of the
Network.
During 2015/16 the AHSN Network developed an adoption
and spread process across the 15 AHSNs. Two topics
have been chosen – Stroke/AF innovations and Flo (a
digital messaging platform).
The Innovation Agency takes part in a number of AHSN
Network wide meetings including one for chief executives/
managing directors, commercial directors, directors of
improvement and communications leads. These frequent
meetings allow the AHSNs to accelerate adoption of
innovation, share learning and collaborate on wealth
creation initiatives. These groups also spread learning
across the country and work on joint projects for the benefit
of residents and industry. NWC, along with West of
England and West Midlands AHSNs, designed a format for
national learning events. The first event on mental
health/dementia generated 30 collaborations for the
adoption of innovations across all 15 AHSNs.
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80. Looking forward
80

81. Presentation 1
Looking Forward
81

82. Financial
performance
82

83. Presentation 1
Finance report
All programme budgets are shown minus staff costs , for example when staff
costs are included the cost of running the Patient Safety Collaborative was
£760k.
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84. If you would like to work with us and make a difference
to the lives of millions of local people, please contact:
Dr Liz Mear
Chief Executive
E: Liz.Mear@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
T: 01772 520260
M: 07891 698692
Lisa Butland
Director of Innovation and Research
E: Lisa.Butland@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
T: 01772 520263
M: 07900 715261
Prof John Goodacre
Medical Director
E: John.Goodacre@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
T: 01772 520258
M: 07538 902165
Lorna Green
Commercial Director
E: Lorna.Green@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
T: 01772 520259
M: 07507 845982
Email: info@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk Twitter: @innovationnwc
www.innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
Caroline Kenyon
Director of Communications and Engagement
E: caroline.kenyon@innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk
T: 01772 520256
M: 07950 866394
84

85. Presentation 1
The Innovation Agency team
85
We are the Innovation Agency – committed to improving lives
in the North West Coast. Thank you for reading our annual
report 2015-16.