ANDHealth UK Delegation Day Four Wrap Up

Today's focus was the on-the-ground support available for digital health companies.

Wael Muselmani ?and?Ivana Poparic?from?MedCity?(funded by the Mayor of London) took us through the array of free support available to provide introductions, guidance and signposts about setting up a health tech business in London, including:

• ￡150,000 funding which flows to a university to conduct clinical studies on your product: “Collaborate to Innovate”.
• MedCity community platform, which can link you to expert speakers in market access. Medcity Investment Hub?has over 400 funds. To access this, you need to have the company registered in the UK. If you want to know how to set up a business in the UK,?here is a free service with all you need to know.
• Free support for business plan development.
• TIP: in general, to access grants, partner with a university or hospital to increase your chance of success.

Andrew Nightingale , a Senior Commercial Advisor at Eastern AHSN, took us through additional opportunities and provided clarification for navigating the support available:

• What is an AHSN??An Academic health science network (soon to be renamed Health Innovation Networks) supports the adoption and spread?of proven innovations into the health and care system.
• Eastern AHSN offer?a range of programs, masterclasses and services, most of which are free, such as the Innovation Review Panel, which reviews and provides feedback on the value and utility of innovations from a panel of investors, clinicians and commissioners.
• Grant funding:?They release a highly popular monthly national grants list- sign up?here.
• Market pull:?They are often asked by ICSs to scout for solutions. To be listed and discovered, market-ready solutions can put themselves on the list by filing in this 10min form?here.

Konrad Dobschuetz , National Director,?NHS Innovation Accelerator?(NIA) and UCL Partners?led a frank discussion of what to expect from support programs, reiterating the previous themes around long sales cycles and convoluted purchasing pathways. He observed that ultimately the key service of the AHSNs is to translate between business/industry and clinical science/ NHS. For companies who have registered in the UK, they can apply for the NIA, which is a 3-year fellowship for SMEs to support their real-world evidence, adoption into clinical practice and commercial model. A key value is in the ad-hoc support and high-level introductions.

A shout out was given to the efficacy of the?YorkShire and Humber ‘Propel’ program?in supporting international digital health companies, so check it out.

Finally,?Ruth Bradbury, Senior NHS Navigator, DigitalHealth.London ?took us through their suite of programs to support individuals and businesses, both in the UK and internationally. This includes their?flagship accelerator program, supporting 20 digital health companies navigate the NHS over 12 months, and?Generator program, supporting companies with their evidence generation and research collaborations. DigitalHealth.London offer great connections into the NHS , including through their quarterly networking days, connecting companies with industry and NHS experts.

Today’s top tips and themes were:

• Partner to get into the NHS.
• Utilise key opinion leader clinicians.
• Play to peoples Egos- understand what they want and help them to look good!
• The private health sector is small but growing, and post-covid, private pathways for access to medical devices and digital health has soared. It is recommended to partner with insurers such as BUPA and Aviva.