Female innovators make vital contributions to NHS Scotland’s working practices every day and International Women’s Day (8 March) is a great opportunity to celebrate that

Throughout history, innovative Scottish women have imagined, developed, and perfected their creations, often sharing common attributes in doing so – from being deeply passionate about pursuing their dreams to challenging the status quo and having a strong desire to improve lives.

They have also been pivotal to the pioneering, innovation-led spirit of NHS Scotland.

In 1959, the first nursing studies unit in the UK was set up at Edinburgh University, thus kickstarting Scotland’s well-deserved reputation as a world leader in nursing education and research.

The unit was established under Elsie Stephenson and offered an integrated degree course. A nursing research unit followed in 1971, headed by Lisbeth Hockey, and the following year Edinburgh University appointed Margaret Scott-Wright as professor of nursing. Both appointments were the first of their kind at any European university.

NHS Scotland has not just pioneered through its female staff, but also specifically on behalf of its female patients.

Edinburgh-born Marie Stopes was an early innovator in birth control, opening the first clinic in London in 1921. The first Scottish family planning clinic opened four years later in Glasgow.

Formal provision of free contraceptive advice and family planning services to all, irrespective of age or marital status, was then rolled out across Scotland in 1974, coming in the wake of a revolution in social attitudes triggered by the advent of the oral contraceptive pill in 1961.

Scotland has a tradition of pioneering approaches to family planning. Sir Dugald Baird in Aberdeen championed a woman’s right to “fifth freedom” – to choose liberty from excessive fertility.

More recently, in 2021, Scotland became the first country in the UK to have a Women’s Health Plan, outlining ambitious improvement and change in areas including menopause, heart health, menstrual health including endometriosis, and sexual health.

As a formal partner of NHS Scotland, InnoScot Health is a proud supporter of women’s ground-breaking health and social care ideas for patient benefit and shares International Women’s Day 2023’s aspirations for a gender equal world.

Its predominantly female team encourages and facilitates improvements in care while stimulating Scotland’s economic wealth and creating jobs, fundamentally always with the primary aim of accelerating great innovation that can be adopted back into the NHS and patients’ hands.

Staff can easily submit those ideas through InnoScot Health website’s easy, intuitive submission form or through its online consultations option. Essentially, the organisation represents an open door for any innovator to develop their ideas and realise their full potential.

Demonstrating that success in action, female-led spinouts of InnoScot Health include CardioPrecision CEO, Dr Ying Sutherland, while the Infection Management Game was an idea of Odette Brooks, a Critical Care Infection Surveillance Nurse at NHS Lothian. The game was developed alongside InnoScot Health and is now manufactured by Focus Games.

InnoScot Health’s Executive Chair, Graham Watson said: “At a challenging time for the NHS, we need visionary innovators of all backgrounds to share their diverse ideas and help to ease pressures – that’s never been more important.

“A key InnoScot Health aim is to equip our brightest health service innovators with the tools they need to succeed, while encouraging a new generation to come forward and pursue their ambitions.

“On International Women’s Day, society is being asked to seek out greater inclusion, call out discrimination and challenge gender stereotypes.

“InnoScot Health aims to do that by welcoming innovation from all – but there is always work to be done in encouraging ideas from those who may feel marginalised or ill-equipped to share thoughts that depart from the norm. Those are often the most valuable.

“Differing views on the same problem can be the ones that unlock vital healthcare solutions. That is why women’s perspectives are incredibly important to us, and we as an organisation unconditionally embrace equity.”