Blogs

The recent Welsh NHS Confederation took place at Cardiff City stadium gathering healthcare leaders, policymakers, and industry partners to share and address some of the most pressing challenges facing the Welsh healthcare system today.

The QuicDNA project, a pioneering ‘Real-World’ Study aimed at integrating liquid biopsy technologies into the healthcare system in Wales, recently brought together partners to celebrate its progress and highlight the project’s ongoing study and future plans.

Are you preparing to write a grant application but are unsure where to begin? We’ve compiled our top 10 valuable hints and tips on mastering the grant writing process. For more information and guidance please email us at fundingsupport@lshubwales.co.uk

The GEL Research Summit offered me a front-row seat to the latest developments in genomics research and healthcare innovation, providing an exciting vision of upcoming healthcare transformation.

The MediWales Connects Conference 2024 was a dynamic event highlighting the latest advancements in healthcare innovation. The day was filled with insightful talks and discussions, highlighting the collaborative efforts to enhance healthcare delivery and outcomes.

I had a fantastic few days in Manchester for NHS ConfedExpo 2024! The event was filled with an energetic gathering of healthcare professionals, policymakers, and innovators, focused on addressing current challenges and envisioning a brighter future for the National Health Service (NHS).

The Advanced Therapies congress was an excellent event. I immersed myself in dynamic discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities, as well as hosting my very own roundtable.

Dr. Maxamillian Moss, Research Officer for the Bevan Commission writes in this guest blog about Bevan Commission's 'WASTES' framework.

We recently attended Digital Health Rewired 2024 at the NEC in Birmingham, an event that explores cutting-edge healthcare technology and innovation. In this blog we explore the significance of innovation and collaboration, continuing to echo and redefine healthcare.

Professor Chris Hopkins, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of TriTech Institute, writes in this guest blog about an AI/Machine Learning-based MRI diagnostic aid for prostate cancer.

An inspiring event at the Senedd recently shone a light on HUG by LAUGH, a therapeutic comforter, and how this assistive technology is transforming the well-being of people with dementia and additional learning needs, as well as supporting people working and volunteering in the social care sector and NHS.  

We recently hosted a cross-sector collaboration event with The Academy of Medical Sciences at Swansea University. The event buzzed with enthusiasm as innovators, researchers and professionals from diverse backgrounds gathered to delve into the world of health innovation, focusing primarily on women’s health.

The Med-Tech World Summit 2023 proved to be an exceptional gathering of over 1,500 attendees, from over 50 countries with over 200 expert speakers. Programme Lead Delyth James shares some insights and key takeaways from October’s Med-Tech World Summit in Malta.

The Innovation in Dementia Showcase, hosted in partnership with CAV Shaping Change, brought together creative minds and ground-breaking innovations to show how we can enhance the lives of dementia patients. Read on for a summary of some of the innovations from insightful organisations who attended, with each designed to bring comfort, connection, and independence to those living with dementia, and their caregivers.

Thousands of people across Wales are currently studying for qualifications in health, social care and digital fields. How can we inspire them to apply their developing skillset to drive digital transformation and innovation?

We attended Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) London 2023 which gathered pioneers, innovators, healthcare professionals, and enthusiasts under one roof. 

How can we help to futureproof our NHS in Wales? Dr Rob Orford, Chief Scientific Adviser for Health at Welsh Government discusses his new advice paper and how we can best organise available resources to maximise impact and overcome the many pressures it faces. 

We recently attended the Welsh NHS Confederation Annual Conference. What did we learn? My latest blog explores all…

It's been half a decade since we transformed our organisation into a dynamic interface dedicated to propelling the delivery of life science innovation to health and social care’s frontline. I’d like to take this opportunity to share our journey so far and our future aspirations...

As digital innovation gains momentum, Aimee Twinberrow, Digital Innovation Lead for Social Care Wales, explores the reality of digital exclusion across Wales. She explores what needs to happen to make sure that people in Wales can benefit from innovative digital technologies, identifying the unique challenges faced by social care and exploring the exciting projects taking place to create opportunities to build digital equality within social care.

We consider precision medicine a non-negotiable part of future healthcare. It holds the potential to change the way we diagnose, treat, and prevent detrimental diagnoses that have huge impact on patients, families, friends, and communities across Wales.

Bob McClean, Chief Commercial Officer, Kinsetsu, shares how making financial savings in healthcare through using technologies like the Internet Of Things can also drive environmental efficiencies in our latest guest blog.

Once again, the NHS ConfedExpo proved to be a remarkable event this year! We thoroughly enjoyed connecting with like-minded partners and immersing ourselves in a diverse range of inspiring and insightful discussions on advancing health and social care outcomes. This blog delves into the key highlights and takeaways I gathered from this fantastic event.

The All-Wales National Robotics Assisted Surgery Programme is part of a wider ambition to improve outcomes for cancer patients across Wales. In a guest blog, James Ansell, Colorectal Surgeon for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, explains why we should be excited about this dynamic approach and how robotic assisted surgeries are changing lives and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Our Big Data Event, delivered in partnership with Digital Health Ecosystem Wales, The National Data Resource and Advanced Analytics, was a fantastic opportunity to hear powerful evidence of data integration transforming health and social care, practical advice on using data in our everyday work, and inspiration on how to think differently about data.

"...collaboration between healthcare and industry continues to offer opportunities for solutions. More than ever, we must nurture the collaborative efforts of the life sciences sector. And the UK, and Wales in particular, have reason to be bold about our ability to do so."

Last November we hosted Palantir and Google alongside other key data industry experts at Life Sciences Hub Wales. In a series of panel discussions, we explored how data is becoming ever more crucial for transforming health and social care and improving patient outcomes.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board are currently trialling a digital medication management technology to empower people, improve health outcomes, and work toward streamlining health service delivery across Bridgend.

From early unmet need, design, prototyping and clinical trials to real-world clinical evaluations, the NHS brings a new opportunity for Med Tech companies through the TriTech Institute.

Foreign Policy recently released a publication that focussed on the opportunities of working within Wales and the strengths of our Welsh economy. Life Sciences Hub Wales was also featured, where I was delighted to author a piece exploring Wales' strong reputation for healthcare innovation.

In a guest blog to mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, Julie Harris, Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist at Swansea Bay University Health Board, explores the impact of antimicrobial resistance, how primary and secondary care in Wales is addressing it, and what innovators can do to support healthcare.

It’s an exciting time to be working across digital innovation in Wales, where we’re engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders including health, social care, industry, government and academia. Curious to know what this is like? Our latest blog gives an insight into a recent meeting we hosted to strengthen the ties between Irish and Welsh innovators.

Whether you’re a company developing new technologies to enhance patient outcomes or your business focusses on refining an existing product or service to improve efficiency, you are likely entitled to R&D tax credits.

Last week our team travelled to Liverpool, flying the flag for Wales at this year’s NHS ConfedExpo. Here, I was delighted to give a talk at the AHSN Innovation Stand, providing a Welsh perspective on innovation in health and social care. 

Ahead of the launch of Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Precision Medicine Challenges, we’ve set out a brief history of precision medicine and its prospects.

From virtual tours to mentoring through to placements, you can help develop the next cohort of life scientists and access a talented pool of graduates.

There are organisations, research and resources that can support those embarking, or progressing on their innovation journey. However, with so much information available, where does one start? Last year, I worked for Life Sciences Hub Wales and a range of cross-sector thought leaders to try and make this process easier.   

It’s not an understatement to say that for the pharmaceutical industry, innovation is everything. The sector is entirely driven by it, from early-stage research through to transforming production processes. But it’s not innovation for innovation’s sake. It is innovation with a focus on what can be achieved to improve the public and individual health of our citizens.

It can be difficult to know where to start when gathering insights and information about your chosen sector. Life Sciences Hub Wales can support this through the services offered by our dedicated sector intelligence team.

Find out about what the Ecosystem has achieved in the first three years!

We’re delighted to launch Life Sciences Hub Wales’ new Achieving Innovation resource. This will equip stakeholders working across industry and health and social care with an evolving suite of resources, best practices and information to support their innovation journey.

Dr John Boulton, Director for NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and Improvement Cymru, explores the important of organisational culture and how we can integrate improvement and innovation.

Miles Burrows, Managing Director, UK and Ireland, of PerkinElmer explores how those working across industry can help to transform our health and social care systems.

Sue Evans, Chief Executive of Social Care Wales, discusses the importance of an integrated approach between healthcare and social care innovation. 

Dr. Chris Subbe, Acute, Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer, explores how we can successfully embed innovation in health and social care systems. 

Wales is harnessing the potential of the Advanced Therapies innovation. Discover how organisations working across the clinical and supply chain landscape can help shape its future.

Discover how the Digital Solutions Fund (DSF) supported the MedTRiM programme in adapting to online delivery in the face of Covid-19.

Discover how the Digital Solutions Fund (DSF) is supporting Huma to deliver remote monitoring – supporting heart failure patients in Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Betsi Cadwalladr University Health Board. 

NHS Wales Informatics Services has been carrying out a technical evaluation into openEHR to test its viability as a repository for structured clinical data. The technology will be rolled out soon to support national projects such as Accelerating Cancer and to provide a shared medications record for NHS Wales.

The past year has had an unprecedented impact across all areas of industry and health and social care. Here, Cari-Anne Quinn discusses our 2020 learnings and thoughts about the future. 

From 1 to 12 December, we shared twelve highlights from 2020 on our social media channels.
For those of you that missed it, we have captured the round up here!

Here, Cari-Anne Quinn, CEO of Life Sciences Hub Wales, discusses the challenges our healthcare and social services will face over the next decade, exploring how we can address them and ensure people continue living longer, happy and healthier lives.

With the emergence of COVID-19 in Wales, came uncertainty for every aspect of society. Questions quickly surfaced; how and where the virus was spreading? What effect it would have on public health? How would our health and care services handle the additional pressures? And what short and long-term impacts will the pandemic have on health and our way of life?

Welsh businesses have been busy breaking new ground with treatments and also boosting the economy by creating jobs

Allan Wardhaugh is a Paediatric Intensivist and CCIO in Cardiff & Vale UHB, and a clinical lead (secondary care) for the National VC Programme.

Learn how Concentric Health, a Welsh health technology startup supporting patients and clinicians to make better healthcare decisions, collaborated with Accelerate to create a digital medical consent forms.

The COVID-19 crisis really has brought out the differences between risk takers and the risk averse, demonstrating which of us cautiously follow all the rules and which of us treat them as polite suggestions, to ignore as we please.  In this blog post I’ll try to rehabilitate the reputation of the risk takers and share my hope that the Digital Health Ecosystem Wales will encourage risk takers and the risk averse to work together in harmony.

If you’ve ever had a serious treatment or procedure done, you might have been asked to fill out a questionnaire and rate your recovery after the fact. These questionnaires are called Patient Recorded Outcome Measures (PROMs) and they come in various shapes and sizes.

Thank you for the tweets and direct replies to my last blog: The habit of innovation. They confirm that we at Life Sciences Hub Wales are far from being the only ones wanting to use the Covid-19 disruption to learn about ourselves and our system.

During the coronavirus pandemic we have seen a kindness in people and communities like never before. We’ve seen key workers going above and beyond the call of duty to care for the sick and vulnerable. And, we’ve also seen other hidden heroes who have taken to the challenge of developing innovation at pace, in a bid to help fight the pandemic in Wales and across the globe.

The Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed so many of the great things that I believe about my adopted country – Wales. We are acting as a community to protect and help one another. Our NHS and care services provided by local government and the third sector are second to none.

Getting your innovative idea from concept to market is a tough journey. In the healthcare market there is a complex landscape that is highly regulated. Due to insufficient resources an idea that could benefit health care can spend years in development and trials. In some instances the idea may never get to market. Accelerate is changing that.

As we face this current unprecedented challenge, we all need to find new ways of working. The health system is having to adapt very quickly to continue to provide support whilst also prioritising resources for the fight against Coronavirus.

Our health and social care services are facing unprecedented times. The coronavirus outbreak has impacted almost every aspect of our lives - affecting our health and wellness, economy, and the very societal norms that we value.

So you have a potential new solution to a healthcare problem. What’s stopping you getting that to market quickly?

This is a guest blog by Derek Walker, Chief Executive, Wales Co-operative Centre and Professor Hamish Laing, Professor of Enhanced innovation, Engagement and Outcomes, Swansea University and Chair of the Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales.

Over the last few weeks, we have seen industry coming together to support the NHS in ways that were unimaginable just a few months ago. With timeframes for solutions no longer being weeks or months, but now hours and days – it’s inspiring to see such focussed commitment and determination to address the challenge of COVID-19.

Are you looking for a podcast that stimulates your mind? Whether you're commuting, in the bath or on a run, these podcasts are guaranteed to keep you informed and up to date with the latest in the science space.

Most patients in hospitals across Wales, when asked what they wanted most, said they wanted to go home as soon as possible. This desire is one that the NHS is keen to fulfil.

Health Tech innovation is constantly transforming our healthcare capabilities in Wales and beyond.

Healthy Thinking is a podcast by Life Sciences Hub Wales. In each episode we hear from different leading thinkers, innovators and influencers in the health and care industry, to talk about topics that matter today.

How Machine Learning can set you free by Helen Northmore,Programme Delivery Manager, Digital Health Ecosystem Wales

A New Innovation Network for Welsh Health and Social Care by Denise Puckett, Head of Health & Social Care