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From data to decisions: healthcare innovation comes to the fore at Uttoxeter conference
At Uttoxeter Racecourse, the Innovation in Healthcare Conference hosted by the East Midlands Branch opened the 2026 conference season for IHEEM, and explored how data, digital maturity, and new models of estates operation can move the NHS from reactive firefighting to proactive, patient-centred care.
When healthcare estates professionals talk about innovation, the conversation too often becomes abstract, technical, or detached from the realities of day-to-day service delivery. At the Innovation in Healthcare Conference, hosted by the IHEEM East Midlands Regional Branch on 8 April at Uttoxeter Racecourse, that disconnect was clearly challenged.
The conference brought together estates leaders, clinicians, academics, and industry partners to examine how data, digital capability, and integrated operating models can be applied in practical ways to improve safety, operational grip, and patient experience across both new hospitals and the much larger retained NHS estate.
Opening the conference, James Chadwick, chair of the IHEEM East Midlands Branch and an IHEEM executive director, positioned the day firmly around outcomes rather than technology.
“Innovation is not just about chasing the latest technology,” James told delegates. “It is about solving real problems, reducing risk, supporting clinical flow and making better use of limited resources.”
Preparing for AI starts with estates fundamentals The opening session, delivered by Mark Lenton, smart building innovator at SRO Innovate, addressed a subject increasingly high on NHS agendas: artificial intelligence. Rather than focusing on AI tools themselves, Mark challenged estates teams to ask whether their current estates, data, and operating models are genuinely ready to support meaningful AI adoption. His central argument was clear: AI cannot fix fragmented systems, poor data quality, or unclear accountability. In estates and facilities management, where
12 Health Estate Journal May 2026
assurance, compliance, and operational decisions depend on reliable asset information, weak foundations risk automating failure rather than improving performance.
It was highlighted that up to 80 per cent of total cost of ownership and carbon impact arises during the operational phase of the estate lifecycle, yet digital effort has historically focused on capital delivery and handover.
“If intelligence is not designed into the operational phase,” he said, “inefficiency becomes embedded for decades.” He described smart hospitals not as futuristic showcases, but as environments built on strong digital backbones, interoperable systems, and human-centred automation. These foundations enable estates teams to move away from reactive alarm-driven working and towards predictive, insightled decision-making. Equally important, Mark emphasised the workforce dimension. Digital transformation must support people rather than overwhelm them, requiring sustained investment in skills, digital literacy, and cultural change alongside technology.
From AI enthusiasm to AI outcomes
The conversation around AI was taken further by Professor Sergio Cavalaro, Professor of Infrastructure Systems at Loughborough University, speaking on behalf of the AcademicIndustry Partnership (AIP).
Sergio opened with a
deliberately challenging position: the NHS, he argued, should avoid projects that focus on implementing AI for its own sake. Instead, organisations should pursue clearly defined operational or clinical outcomes, with AI introduced only where it demonstrably adds value. “A solution looking for a problem is the fastest way to waste time and money,” Sergio warned.
Drawing on experience from NHS-supported, action-based research, he identified common
causes of poor return on investment, unclear use cases, inconsistent data standards, cybersecurity weaknesses, and insufficient consideration of workforce impact.
One of his most important
observations related to scale. While the New Hospital Programme offers opportunities to embed digital capability from the outset, the greatest opportunity for transformation lies within the existing NHS estate, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of healthcare activity. The Academic Industry
Partnership model was presented as a means of tackling this challenge, enabling solutions to be tested in real settings, independently validated and then shared across organisations, reducing duplication and accelerating learning at system level.
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