InnoScot Health’s Head of Regulatory Affairs will be offering key advice on medical device regulation during a webinar taking place later this month

Elaine Gemmell will be speaking at a free to join Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) online session focused on the subject of medical devices and the regulatory journey.

Entitled Helping healthcare businesses bring a medical device to market, the webinar will be held from 2 till 3pm on Tuesday 27 June and will be open to all with an opportunity to ask questions of the speakers.

These will include session host Iain Brogan, CEO of Redfin Consulting, as well as:

• Mark Cook, Life Sciences advisor in medical devices speaking on what constitutes one
• Marian McNeil, Precision Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre talking about how precision medicine can help SMEs
• Andrew McCafferty from Corporate Health International looking at the medical device journey from an SME point of view

The webinar, discussing key aspects of medical device validation, is part of an HIE programme called Business To Healthcare (B2Hc) that aims to connect businesses to the NHS and wider health and care sector.

B2Hc enables smaller businesses, social enterprises, and charities to showcase their products to key target audiences, introduce businesses to key opinion leaders and commissioners in the right healthcare networks, help identify potential funding streams, and find ways in which businesses can scale up their products.

• Click here to register

While the session is aimed primarily at Scottish SMEs involved in medical device development, it is also expected to be of interest to healthcare professionals and researchers.

Elaine said: “This webinar will spotlight the importance of fully understanding the medical device development pathway, particularly from an SME point of view.

“The Highlands and Islands region is full of small to medium-sized businesses, and while they are agile and can often change direction quickly to suit market requirements and business objectives, it is essential they receive the right advice at the correct time in order to achieve the growth they need.

“HIE's objective is to develop a 'rapid access' pathway to test and evaluate innovative products and services in remote and rural locations, in turn enhancing economic and community development.

“NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health supports that HIE vision through a mutual aim of transforming healthcare and accelerating medical advances across Scotland.

“Indeed, digital technologies that can remove the need for patients to travel to hospital and allow them to manage long term conditions more effectively, while reducing costs for the healthcare system, have never been important.

“For smaller businesses, successful planning throughout the entire medical device design cycle is key to growth.”

She added: “Fundamentally, this webinar will help SMEs, healthcare professionals, and researchers develop medical devices faster so that a higher uptake of innovative medical devices can be achieved within care settings. We look forward to sharing more with attendees.”