A new free to join webinar taking place later this month will spotlight the vital innovation contributions of nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals (AHPs) – and aims to inspire more

The educational, free to join session from formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health on Wednesday 27 November is entitled 'Nurses, midwives, and AHPs — a new drive to inspire the innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and leaders at the heart of patient care'.

• Register to attend

The ‘lunch and learn’ webinar from 12.00-12.45 — InnoScot Health’s last of 2024 — will be a great opportunity for forward-thinkers to understand more about how ideas originating from nurses, midwives, and AHPs can lead to improved patient outcomes, commercial opportunities, and inspire the formation of new companies.

It will hear the experiences, perspectives, and insights of three guest speakers drawn from these diversely talented staff groupings who have successfully turned their ideas into a reality.

InnoScot Health’s Head of Innovation Robert Rea is presenting the session and will be joined by two new innovators from NHS Lothian who have developed a smart and sustainable new approach to highly beneficial skin-to-skin contact with newborn babies for birthing partners during the first precious hours of life.

Elective Section Midwife Stacey Boyle and her line manager, Charge Midwife Marianne Hay, will explain the unique idea and how it developed with the support of InnoScot Health.

Further guest speaker will be Lisa Rickers, a nurse with over 20 years’ experience, specialising in the field of bariatric and metabolic surgery. She is Founder and Director of The iCrowd which supports and empowers nurses and midwives to be leaders in health care innovation.

The iCrowd is a community of Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals — a ‘collaborative space to co-create’ which aims to redress gender imbalances in innovation.

This year, Lisa also became CEO and Co-Founder of Ultra BiOMics which uses innovative approaches and behaviour change learnings to address metabolic disorders.

Using omics technologies, the organisation is addressing the root cause of metabolic disruption, enabling individuals to restore and monitor their own health.

An alumni on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, Lisa has a keen interest in digital health solutions and has worked on projects such as digital prehabilitation, rehabilitation and creating online patient communities.

Robert said: “We believe this webinar can be the start of great things for NHS Scotland nurses, midwives, and AHPs, inspiring them to consider the opportunities for innovating which they may regularly encounter.

“Not only will we be fully launching our own innovation drive targeted at these vital staff, it will also be a chance to hear from some who have made crucial breakthroughs in care delivery.

“Stacey, Marianne, and Lisa represent NHS staff past and present who have been there and done it, learning a great deal along the way while turning their ideas into tangible products and services.

“Midwives Stacey and Marianne are at the start of their journey, while Lisa, who has been involved in several innovative organisations and initiatives, will describe her own transition from nurse to entrepreneur, benefitting greatly from involvement in the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme along the way.

“We hope you can join us and hear first-hand the role nurses, midwives and AHPs are playing in advancing care through innovation.”

The accessible, bitesize sessions are hosted on Microsoft Teams, regularly providing a platform for inspiring guest speakers whilst allowing InnoScot Health staff to share their deep knowledge and insights on innovation.

Pre submit your questions for the closing panel discussion to [email protected].