Global Entrepreneurship Week (13-19 November) is an opportunity to encourage NHS Scotland’s clinical entrepreneurs – those already innovating to improve patient care, and those feeling inspired to make the leap, says InnoScot Health

The week is a celebration of entrepreneurs and start-up businesses around the world – especially those individuals who face structural barriers or who may never have considered the idea of launching a startup.

For InnoScot Health, however, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) represents a timely reminder for clinicians to take the chance to step forward with their mould-breaking ideas during a crucial period of recovery, renewal, and transformation for Scottish healthcare.

The formal NHS partner – part of Scotland’s coordination group for the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) – believes that innovation-minded healthcare professionals can balance flourishing NHS and entrepreneurial careers for two-way benefits.

Executive Chair of InnoScot Health, Graham Watson said: “GEW allows us to celebrate the innovators, the grassroots risk takers, and those who invest in communities with their pioneering ideas.

“This year’s theme is ‘entrepreneurs thrive here’ – and nothing could more true of Scotland.

“The country’s forward-thinkers in healthcare can employ great clinical experience, deep understanding of what patients truly need, and a passion for improvement. All are key entrepreneurial assets.

“Members of the NHS workforce already represent our key agents of transformation as part of the country’s most powerful, publicly funded driver of innovation, but they can be entrepreneurs too, even if they do not necessarily think of themselves that way.

“We can help staff to make that transition, providing advice, expertise, and identifying support that allows them to find the right balance for success.

“Indeed, InnoScot Health has helped many talented and driven individuals to achieve their ambitions whilst they have remained active within healthcare.”

Tens of thousands of events, activities and competitions take place during Global Entrepreneurship Week each year with some 200 countries getting involved, allowing participants to extend their reach to new audiences and strengthen connections in their local ecosystem. Event organisers can also add their event to GEW’s global database.

Graham continued: “For InnoScot Health, it is about engaging the workforce to deliver transformational change, finding solutions to issues, and turning ideas into action. That focus has been crucial in recent times, with innovations having to evolve quickly into usage in order to meet unexpected need.

“The NHS Scotland workforce is crucial in that respect – the lifeblood of evolution for our health service to meet new patterns of care, increased demand, and technological advances to deliver a modern, innovative, and sustainable service for the future.

“With the right support and encouragement, extending that mindset into truly entrepreneurial thinking can be the next logical step.”

With that onus on transformation in mind, InnoScot Health has issued a succession of innovation calls, creating a strong pipeline of exciting NHS ingenuity, most recently in the areas of pregnancy and perinatal, ophthalmology, and sustainability.