ABHI at 30 Guest Blogs. The Future for Medtech in the North of England is Very Bright Indeed
The North of England has a thriving sector in life sciences – last year alone it grew by £4.4billion, from £9.2bn in 2016 to £13.6bn in 2017.
This is a rise of 48% according to an analysis of figures from HMG’s Office for Life Sciences, Strength and Opportunity 2017: the landscape of the medical technology and biopharmaceutical sectors in the UK report. A growth rate 4.8% higher than the national average.
Medical technologies are central to these figures. The North is home to 21% of the total UK life science sector workforce, 19% of the UK biopharmaceutical sector workforce, 22% of the UK medical technology sector workforce and a very significant 29% of the UK digital health workforce. The number of companies in life sciences in the Northern Powerhouse has grown by 755 in the past year.
There are a great many reasons for this. The region is leading on clinical trials with Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust topping the league tables for national clinical research activity seven years running.
Support for life sciences is being built into infrastructure across the North, with leading incubators including Alderley Park in Cheshire, City Labs in Manchester, Nexus in Leeds, Helix in Newcastle and the Olympic Legacy Park in Sheffield providing the right environment for life sciences SMEs to develop and grow.
This work is underpinned by the Academic Health Science Networks across the North, who working together, and separately, are excellent at spreading innovation through the health service.
The North is also leading on the convergence of health tech with life sciences. The Leeds City Region has pioneering MedTech expertise, which has seen it awarded a Science and Innovation Audit. There are around 250 businesses in the region specialising in MedTech and another 200 digital and technology firms operating in the health field. Nearly a quarter of the UK’s digital health jobs are in the region.
This expertise spreads out across the North however – Connected Health Cities, with its central hub in Manchester but four regional hubs spanning the North’s geography, is pioneering the use of health data, informing new treatments and setting new standards in putting the citizen at the heart of how their health data is used.
TITCH in Sheffield are looking at child-specific technologies – an area which is too often over-looked in MedTech. Through its work with companies, academics and health professionals it is pioneering new medical technologies which work for children’s often very different needs.
The NHSA is also working closely with MedTech companies and clusters internationally, in particular with Japan, Singapore and Israel, where we have made close links with their exciting MedTech sector. Earlier this year we signed MOUs with both Israel and Singapore to make it easier for their companies to work with the North of England and wider NHS.
Increasingly in an ever-connected world we all need to work in partnership. That’s why for the Northern Health Science Alliance it is so important to work together with organisations like the ABHI.
By keeping channels of communication open and by working to our collective strengths, we know that together with great organisations like the ABHI that the future for MedTech in the North of England, and the UK as a whole, is very bright indeed.
Dr Hakim Yadi OBE, CEO, Northern Health Science Alliance