10 FUTURENORTH HEALTH INNOVATION MANCHESTER


Creating a virtuous circle


If people are well they are more productive and the economy does better


Following Health Innovation Manches- ter celebrating its first year in October 2018, we took the opportunity to talk to Chief Executive Professor Ben Bridge- water who has been at the helm for the past 12 months. Following an illustrious 20-year


career as a cardiac surgeon in Greater Manchester with a proclivity for spear- heading innovative digital technology programmes to drive and assure better quality in cardiac surgery, Bridgewater became increasingly interested in the role of using technology to improve patient outcomes. This led to him spending a lengthy


spell in a global technology company translating the digital transformation opportunities being realised so success- fully in retail, banking and manufactur- ing into the health and life sciences sector to improve patient experience and outcomes. Arguably not a typical career path for a cardiac surgeon or the CEO of an NHS organisation.


HOWEVER, AS the CEO of a unique organisation tasked with driving col- laboration between NHS, social care, academia, and industry to accelerate innovation and drive economic growth, it is safe to say that while unusual, Bridgewater’s career path has provided the ideal platform from which to lead such a unique entity. “I have had an unusual career com-


pared to many in healthcare,” he said. “I spent a long time in the NHS, a fair bit of time within the university envi- ronment, and the private sector with a commercial digital health focus. All the roles I have previously undertaken have been a really useful exposure to all the things you need to execute well in Health Innovation Manchester. “Health Innovation Manchester is


different from all other existing struc- tures in health and social care; con- ceived to ensure that the opportunities from devolution with delegated control of its £6 billion health and social care budget lead to greater innovation and economic development. It was recognised that there are a number of issues that hinder innovation such as complicated structures, fragmented decision-making and multiple access points. “Health Innovation Manchester


was formed to simplify that to enable us to deliver innovation faster both for our citizens and for the economy of the city region. We have brought


together the Academic Health Science Network and the Academic Health Science Centre into a single entity and augmented it with the additional capabilities of our four universities, the wider NHS, industry, and other regional institutions to adopt a ‘one Manchester’ approach. “Our role is in essence to drive


better health and wellness outcomes for Greater Manchester citizens and to drive economic growth for the city region. These two things are related. If people are well, they are more produc- tive and the economy does better, and if they are wealthier, they are less unwell in general. Alongside this, we are trying to make the academic world increasingly effective in driving impact by supporting innovation out of the universities and making sure that that it benefits citizens. “This is a really important thing for


citizens and academics alike because the more impact that can be realised from research, the more we can increase funding to do great research, and the more we can bring great academic talent into the city region to create a virtuous cycle.” Although now only 16 months old,


Health Innovation Manchester is already embracing its complex remit and gaining traction at the heart of the city-region’s health and social care devolution. Its perceived added value to a system already renowned for its collaborative approach is clearly reso- nating with commissioners, providers and the universities, who are providing additional resources and capacity.


THIS IS enabling the delivery of local programmes aligned to the Greater Manchester’s shared priorities on top of AHSN funded national innovation programmes. Some of these are par- ticularly ambitious in range and scope, including a ground-breaking project to become the first city to eliminate Hepatitis C and a multifaceted pro- gramme to improve the care of people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the cause of 23,000 deaths in England every year and the fifth biggest killer in the UK. In addition to the delivery of an


inflight project portfolio spanning more than 80 programmes, Health Innovation Manchester is also successfully recalibrating the NHS relationship with industry. In two UK firsts it orchestrated Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the Association of British HealthTech Industries and the pharmaceutical industry. The latter of which has seen the organisation being shortlisted in


“Our role is in essence to drive better health and wellness outcomes for Greater Manchester citizens and to drive economic growth for the city region” Professor Ben Bridgewater


the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards with the winners announced late March 2019. This drive by Health Innovation


Manchester to improve customer centricity and collaboration between industry and health and social care is reverberating across the sector and has not gone unnoticed. The life sciences industry is becoming ever keener to do business in Greater Manchester’s devolved health and social care system, which has recently attracted major players such as Amazon and QIAGEN


who have invested in Manchester bases creating hundreds of new jobs in the process.


THIS COMMITMENT to redefining the public sector’s relationship with its wider infrastructure and industry is a vein that runs particularly deep within Health Innovation Manchester and is championed by Ben himself who believes that industry have a pivotal role to play in enabling the creation of a sustainable health and social care system that delivers better patient outcomes. “At the moment there are a series


of key strategic drivers in Greater Manchester that cut across health and social care, industry and academia. There is the UK life sciences sector deal, the Greater Manchester indus- trial strategy, one of the country’s first modern local industrial strategies, as one of three ‘trailblazer’ areas in the UK, and of course the NHS long-term plan. Health Innovation Manchester sits perfectly at the intersect of these three strategies to bridge the gap between them,” said Bridgewater. “A vibrant life sciences industry


in the UK is incredibly important in terms of both ensuring that we get access to the best treatments for our citizens and as a key strand of the economy. We have worked hard on our culture as a public sector organi-


sation alongside industry to speak the same language an understand industries priorities, problems and challenges. At the same time, we have been quite clear and specific about the health challenges that we want to address. “The MoU’s have been a key


enabler in this respect and have led to programmes in partnership with not just one company but groups with similar interests, working collabora- tively to help redesign our pathways so their technologies and innovations will deliver the maximum benefit to patients. “We also appreciate that SMEs are


a source of some amazing innovations, but it can be quite hard for them to get to the right decision makers. You need the right opportunity to pitch your value proposition to the right people so that they understand what the opportunities are. Health Innova- tion Manchester is in a great position to work with them to enable them to do that.” Health Innovation Manchester is


only at the beginning of a long-term plan rooted in bold ambitions. But having already delivered significant tangible outcomes in terms of improv- ing health and wellbeing and generat- ing economic growth in such a short space of time - there are no doubts that these ambitions are achievable.


6 March 2019


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