Innovation remains a key enabler for NHS Scotland to ramp up recovery transformation and deliver better patient outcomes on its 75th anniversary, says NHS Scotland innovation partner InnoScot Health

The 5 July milestone represents an important date in an ever-shifting health and social care landscape – and InnoScot Health believes it is a key opportunity to mark achievements and breakthroughs since 1948, but to also look to a more collaborative, innovative, and efficient future.

InnoScot Health is a not-for-profit organisation, which has been working in partnership with NHS Scotland for over 20 years to support improvements in patient care. Its primary role is to inspire, develop and commercialise innovative ideas emanating from the NHS Scotland workforce. At this challenging time of post-pandemic recovery, it is more important than ever that the talent, entrepreneurism, and commitment of staff across the country’s health service is harnessed.

Executive Chair of InnoScot Health, Graham Watson said: “Scotland is known worldwide for its spirit of innovation and ingenuity. Those national traits are what we need to come to the fore on this milestone anniversary. The NHS recovery plan continues apace with the aim of reducing post-pandemic pressures and helping to modernise future services; but as we look to the future, significant developments in data, digital, technologies, devices, artificial intelligence, and much more make clear the opportunities for real advancement in healthcare.

“Despite current challenges, we believe that the country’s workforce is well-positioned to maximise those opportunities – and we are here to support and accelerate their enthusiasm for transformation, helping them to translate their ideas back into the health service. Indeed, we have heard it be said that innovation provides the oxygen for transforming the NHS.”

InnoScot Health commissioned an independent survey last year and found that 90% of NHS Scotland staff agree that innovation must be at the heart of improving services and helping to tackle pandemic backlogs.

It further found that most health service staff want to be part of the vital drive for making ground-breaking ideas a reality, with 71% of healthcare workers responding that they have offered ideas on how to enhance the delivery of healthcare on one or more occasion.

The survey also noted that almost two thirds (64%) of NHS staff consider themselves to be innovators “to some extent” and say they have ideas to improve the NHS, with one in six respondents specifically believing that they are innovators “to a great extent.”

NHS Scotland staff said that big data and analytics, digital apps, and remote monitoring rank among the most important areas for future healthcare innovation.

Graham added: “To highlight this natural wellspring of entrepreneurial, forward-thinking workers with an immense thirst for introducing new ideas is hugely encouraging. It is simply the start of course, but it is a vital start in evolving, adapting, and diversifying.

“The NHS touches all our lives. It is consistently ranked as an institution that makes people proudest to be living here, and on its 75^th anniversary, we must underline and reinforce that pride by tapping into one of its great strengths – the depth of knowledge, talent, and commitment of the workforce.

“We cannot deny the pressure they are under and so InnoScot Health is designed to be an open door for collaborative innovators to access support and expertise, to help bring their ideas to life – whether that be an initial evaluation, intellectual property advice, funding, regulatory support, project development, or options to commercialise ideas and get them into the marketplace. It offers a real fusion of clinical and commercial skills"

Since 2002, InnoScot Health has assessed more than 2,200 NHS ideas, protected more than 250, and successfully developed a range of medical devices, products, and technologies for use in hospitals, care homes, and on-scene emergency settings, both in Scotland and around the world.

At this pivotal time for healthcare, when health and life sciences is a key priority of the Scottish Government’s recently published National Innovation Strategy, Graham adds that “InnoScot Health now needs to be part of a collective Scottish effort, with all pushing in the same direction towards a change in culture, and a more cohesive, sustainable, better coordinated model of innovation.”