The ability to fast-track health service adoption of innovative technologies is “a vital asset in the country’s most pressured regions”, a formal NHS Scotland partner insists

InnoScot Health is supporting and advising the Tay Health Tech initiative with key regulatory support as part of a wide-ranging consortium which aims to bring healthcare closer to communities while reducing health inequalities.

Last year, Tay Health Tech — a place-based impact acceleration account (PBIAA) project funded by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's (EPSRC) — announced that a fund of around £2.5 million would be available for medical innovations which directly benefit the Tayside region.

Patients’ and clinicians’ feedback helped the Tay Health Tech team identify four ‘Grand Challenges’ to solve. These are Hospital at Home, Rehabilitation, Testing, and Prevention and Prognostics.

So far, nine Grand Challenge projects have been awarded funding for breakthrough technologies or devices, with the consortium helping to accelerate their development amid a growing MedTech cluster in Tayside.

Head of Regulatory Affairs at InnoScot Health, Elaine Gemmell said: “Growing pressure on the NHS is an example of the need for new ways to deliver care, including using technology to treat patients in their homes or local communities, in turn reducing dependence on centralised hospitals.

“The ability to fast-track healthcare innovation is therefore a vital asset in Scotland’s most pressured regions — but if that ambition is to be realised, then industry and academia must be enabled to navigate complex regulatory demands, helping to ensure safe and effective devices.

“It is essential that new MedTech innovations are carefully translated from research into practice with regulatory requirements to the fore at an early stage in the development cycle.

“Ultimately, it is about having the right support available to carefully hone and commercialise projects which meet key healthcare objectives.

“Tay Health Tech’s calls for MedTech innovation have the potential to transform healthcare delivery across the region, and further afield, to improve patient outcomes through the availability of accessible new technologies in underserved communities.”

She added: “We are pleased to be offering expertise and education for researchers and companies alongside our partners in Tay Health Tech to deliver positive change.”

The initiative is led by the University of Dundee and Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University and supported by a diverse consortium made up of leading institutions.

These include the University of St Andrews, University of Glasgow, and Edinburgh Napier University, NHS Tayside, Scottish Enterprise, InnoScot Health, Dundee City Council, Angus Council, Dundee and Angus College, SHARE, and BioDundee.

InnoScot Health’s regulatory expertise is supporting industry and academia involved in the project by providing:

• CPD regulatory training through the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC) of Heriot-Watt University
• A mentoring programme for academics and companies to help navigating regulatory affairs
• Development and implementation of Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 13485 for the University of Dundee and MDMC facilities at Heriot-Watt University
• A regulatory programme for investment with a focus on ‘What is important for investors’
• Assistance to companies in regulating products for the UK market

Professors Marc Desmulliez and Michael MacDonald, co-leads of the project at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Dundee, respectively, said: “By helping to develop and commercialise new healthcare technologies, we want to move healthcare closer to communities, making it more accessible to everyone.

“For example, in rural parts of Tayside, the nearest hospital can be many miles away and only reachable for people with access to transport. Healthcare innovations – for instance, a device that could help patients with rehabilitation at home – can potentially remove this inequality and also help clinical staff by reducing hospital visits.”