Steve Adams from the Innovation Agency with Issa Dasu Patel and Rachel Wikenden of CONNECT Care
Health Innovation North West Coast and its fellow 14 Academic Health Science Networks generated £455m of inward investment in England in the last year.
Health Innovation North West Coast’s Enterprise and Growth team contributed £21.8m to that total in Lancashire, South Cumbria, Cheshire and the Liverpool City Region.
It supported 487 companies in the 2021-2022 financial year, compared with 389 the previous year – the team’s contribution to the 5,012 companies the AHSN Network as a whole supported.
Health Innovation North West Coast team also created 53 jobs by supporting innovative small companies, and safeguarded a further 86. The AHSN Network created 565 jobs across England and safeguarded 1,296 more.
Mike Kenny, the Innovation Agency’s Acting Co-Director of Enterprise and Growth, said the figures were especially encouraging when seen in the context of continuing adverse economic conditions.
“These figures are really pleasing, given that we’ve been operating against a backdrop of lockdowns, rising energy and materials costs and a health system facing growing pressures.
“We’re really proud that we’ve continued to support our local economy by using our knowledge and expertise to help innovative companies deliver solutions to some of the health service’s most pressing problems.”
Health Innovation North West Coast’s Enterprise and Growth team delivers bespoke support to small and medium-sized companies that have innovations that have the potential to benefit the health and care system. It also works with the region’s universities to validate innovations which helps companies to demonstrate their products are effective.
The team helped Lancashire health tech firm CONNECT Care run a pilot of its digital dashboard that helps patients better manage their medicines in their own homes.
Issa Dasu Patel, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Health Innovation North West Coast really know their way around the system and they were brilliant in helping us get the pilot off the ground.
“They introduced us to all the right decision-makers to help us bring together the stakeholders who could make it all happen.”
The team also introduces overseas companies with healthcare solutions to health and care providers in the North West Coast and further afield.
Health Innovation North West Coast is currently running a series of support workshops, Excel in Health, to help small companies become familiar with the health and care landscape. Details are on our website.
You can read more about the AHS Network's work in the Impact Report 2021-2022.
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