Health and social care systems across Wales are facing significant challenges: a backlog of people needing to access services, an ageing population, and resource and financial constraints impacting delivery.
It is important to transform these systems to help them meet current demands as well as the future needs of citizens, which will continue to evolve. Innovation plays a crucial role in supporting health and social care drive system wide transformation.
Life Sciences Hub Wales is committed to addressing these critical challenges by working collaboratively with partners across NHS Wales, social care, and industry to help tackle priorities and improve the health and wellbeing of people in Wales.
Recent figures published highlight how this is being achieved:
- Assisting the delivery of 330 life science industry jobs in Wales
- Delivering £18,150,000 Gross Value Added (GVA)
- Supporting: 319 organisations across Wales; 26 innovation adoption-ready proposals; and 17 funding proposals worth £20,014,098
The report demonstrates how Life Sciences Hub Wales has supported healthcare to address recovery and backlog requirements post-pandemic and worked with industry to facilitate the development and adoption of new technologies in Wales such as liquid biopsies, remote monitoring and artificial intelligence.
A wide range of projects and workstreams are covered, including:
- Exploring the challenges and opportunities to drive forward early detection and diagnosis of cancer by bringing together 120 leaders working at the forefront of this field in partnership with the Wales Cancer Industry Forum.
- Supporting Cytiva’s global team through their decision-making process that resulted in significant investment and development of the Cardiff Edge manufacturing facility. The newly developed site will help increase Cytiva’s global manufacturing capacity for single-use products by 20%.
- Supporting the development of an All-Wales Robotic Assisted Surgery Network in partnership with health boards and the Moondance Cancer initiative. The national robotic assisted surgery programme will provide minimally invasive surgery for thousands of cancer patients across Wales.
The report also details our bold and exciting future strategy that supports the advancement of system change and innovation across an integrated health and social care system.
Cari-Anne Quinn, Chief Executive Officer at Life Sciences Hub Wales, said:
“2021-2022 was a strong year for Life Sciences Hub Wales, building on our extensive experience in supporting innovation adoption for partners working across different sectors. We’re excited to continue this journey where we will take bold steps to help transform our health and social care systems to meet our population’s present and future needs and improve health and wellbeing.”
The report is available to download in full on Life Sciences Hub Wales’ website.