BQ2 Innovation and Insight special report

2 BUSINESS QUARTER WEST MIDLANDS: Special Report - Life Sciences and Healthcare

BATTLING SUPERBUGS University of Birmingham researchers vie for the Longitude Prize

TALE OF TWO TENANTS How the Serendip Incubator works for two businesses

THE NAME’S MARSH, SARAH-JANE MARSH MI5’s loss was the NHS’s gain

Innovation and insight How healthcare innovations and insights created a global life sciences cluster in the West Midlands

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CONTENTS 06. PLAYING TO OUR STRENGTHS WMGC’s head of business attraction, David Fisken, outlines its model 08. BIOHUB ACHIEVEMENTS James Wilkie on BioHub’s history 10. BATTLING SUPERBUGS University of Birmingham researchers are competing for the Longitude Prize 16. TALE OF TWO TENANTS How the Serendip Incubator works for two businesses 20. HELPING HAND FOR MED-TECH Medilink WM chief executive Richard Stone shares his strategy for med-tech 23. HEALTH IS A BUILDING BLOCK Sarah-Jane Marsh on how healthcare needs to adapt to the changing needs of different generations 26. AS SIMPLE AS A, B, C Amanda Wood has an ambitious vision for Aston’s Brain Centre 30. BUILDING A WORLD CLASS DESTINATION Big plans outlined for Pebble Mill

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WELCOME

LIFE SCIENCES AND HEALTHCARE Collaboration is very much the theme of the 2018 BQ2 on healthcare and life sciences in the West Midlands.

From the complexities of the West Midlands Growth Company’s new structure to start-up ventures in digital health, business models built around partnerships are rightly in vogue.

Not least at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, as it works with providers, commissioning bodies and local authorities to drive the regional integration of care services.

Its also pleasing to see Salts Healthcare, now run by the 10th generation of its founding family, establishing productive partnerships with universities – notably Aston and Birmingham – to research innovative uses of existing and new materials.

The same model is evident at Calthorpe Estates and Medilink WM, as they help strengthen the region’s fast-growing healthcare and life sciences cluster – and attract both new investment and new companies.

Perhaps the most satisfying sign though, is to see an ambitious business from Sillicon Valley engage in a fruitful relationship with the new hi-tech hub within Birmingham’s Institute of Translational Medicine.

Ian Halstead, editor

36. BQ LIVE DEBATE Experts discuss public healthcare 44. A HEALTHIER REGIONAL ECONOMY Report on WMAHSN’s annual economic summit

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Business Quarter, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT. www.bqlive.co.uk. As a dedicated supporter of entrepreneurship, BQ is making a real and tangible contribution to local, regional and national economic growth across the UK. We are unique in what we aim to achieve as a media brand, a brand that has established a loyal audience of high growth SMEs and leading business influencers. They wholeheartedly believe in BQ’s focus on people – those individuals that are challenging the traditional ways of doing things. They are our entrepreneurs. BQ reaches entrepreneurs and senior business executives across Scotland, the North East and Cumbria, the North West, Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Wales, London and the South, in-print, online and through branded events. All contents copyright © 2017 Business Quarter. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All content marked ‘Profile’ is paid for advertorial.

All information is correct at time of going to print, March 2018.

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Innovation is for everyone’s benefit Graham Silk, co-founder of Cure Leukaemia and Patients4Data, and author of the influential Silk Report on life sciences, assesses the challenges and opportunities facing the sector in Greater Birmingham.

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here’s always a risk of being bogged down in governance, so we do need the government to bring together its new industrial strategy – as it impacts on life sciences and healthcare – and its accelerated access review, which aims to deliver innovative products, services and treatments faster to patients.

At the local level, we’re seeing tremendous work being done to tear down barriers to innovation, and to develop links between the people who have great ideas and the people who can develop them and bring them to market, most notably at the Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM).

We’re also seeing the Birmingham Life Science Park start to come forward on a grand scale, we have the £7m medical devices test centre inside the ITM and a £4m centre for haematology.

I visited the ITM recently, and was very pleased to see several very interesting commercial opportunities that link into the evolution of personalised medicine.

Dion Morton and his team have also made tremendous advances in genomics, which will enable new treatments to be targeted more precisely.

Making our healthcare structures more efficient and more effective isn’t always about investing large amounts of money; we have to help the organisations who provide and deliver products and services become more sustainable.

Governments are by their nature big and clunky, and can’t do fine detail, so we all

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need to be footloose and nimble in how we address the challenges, identity new healthcare pathways and deliver change.

Its also critical that we increase the pace at which innovative ideas are brought to market, partly because they generate crucial commercial revenue, but also, of course, because we can save lives by bringing these new treatments to patients.

I’m delighted to see at least two groundbreaking trials being put together in Birmingham at the moment, with partners from industry, because if the right platform and environment hadn’t been provided, they would most likely have happened outside the NHS. Momentum is happening, but it needs to be maintained and then enhanced. We also need to incentivise the clinicians, because when you do so it is amazing what can be achieved.

It isn’t about changing the fundamental nature of our health service, but it is about making everyone involved realise that making a profit is a good thing, and not something to be scorned or ignored. Subrata Ghosh and his team at the ITM absolutely get this approach, but everyone needs to adopt their mindset.

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Likewise, we need to encourage risk-taking, and everyone needs to understand that risk is not a bad thing in the right context.

Lots of interesting and innovative ideas are happening, but they can’t simply linger in a silo, they have to be brought forward, and the ones that are tested and considered capable of delivering transformative patient care have then to be commercialised, for the benefit of everyone.

As Tony Davis has been saying for years at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, innovations in medicine and healthcare create positive outcomes; not simply for patients, but for employment and for the strength of the regional economy, and those linkages need to be understood and accepted.

For instance, it we could get just one of the big clinical trials here, it could be worth between £20m and £30m in itself, and it would create jobs and wealth.

This is not about privatisation of the NHS, as some clearly fear, it is about creating commercial revenues for the benefit of the NHS and, most importantly, of all – its patients and the citizens of this region.” n

“I’m delighted to see at least two ground-breaking trials being put together in Birmingham at the moment, with partners from industry, because if the right platform and environment hadn’t been provided, they would most likely have happened outside the NHS.”

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We can play to our

many strengths

Healthcare and life sciences are strategic sectors for the fledgling West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC). Its head of business attraction, David Fisken, outlines the new organisation’s model.

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he long-established Marketing Birmingham and Business Birmingham have been hugely successful at promoting the city – across the UK and overseas – and at attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), but the onset of devolution has created a new landscape.

Quite how all the new regional roles and responsibilities will work isn’t yet fully clear, but Fisken provides much useful intelligence about the direction of travel.

Not least about the new structure of the WMGC – markedly different and more complex than Marketing Birmingham, which it replaces.

“We were established in April 2017, reflecting the new West Midlands Combined Authority and the impact of devolution, and are now wholly owned by the WMCA and its constituent members, the seven local authorities, and also funded directly by six universities: Aston, Birmingham, BCU, Coventry, Warwick and Wolverhampton. We also still have commercial partnerships with private sector companies,” explains Fisken.

“Business Birmingham still exists and has a contract to deliver inward investment for the city council. We still have an European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme too, to support and attract small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) mainly from overseas for the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership area, and now have an agreement for inward investment across the West Midlands as well.

“Its a transitional year for that aspect, so

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we’d expect it to evolve from April onward and we also still have a programme to attract inward investment into Birmingham’s city centre enterprise zone.”

Its an operational brief to make the Brexit negotiations seem simple, but reassuringly Fisken appears to have a secure grasp of the priorities.

“We’re working with a business relocation specialist – IBM Plant Location International – to see what our future FDI strategy should be with a West Midland context. The work is done, and we’ll soon be promoting it in detail.

“My role, as head of business attraction, is to work with a team to attract new companies, and to work on expansion projects with ones already here. We’ve established a target sector approach; including advanced engineering, food and drink, tech and digital, advanced engineering including automotive and life sciences.”

Fisken’s “specialist subject” is automotive and advanced engineering, but he speaks with impressive authority and knowledge about the healthcare sector, especially the cluster that has evolved in and around the Edgbaston Medical Quarter (EMQ).

“Our FDI pipeline for life sciences is well established, and although there are many elements to the cluster, the Institute of Translational Medicine, which represents a £24m investment, is absolutely critical, with its strategy of driving innovation from bench to bedside.

“The local eco-system is soundly established and expanding. The BioHub at Birmingham Research Park, for example, focuses on biomedical lab space and providing access for SMEs to the latest equipment so they can grow their presence.

“We have the new medical devices testing centre, a £7m investment, which will really help accelerate medical innovations, again, particularly focused on SMEs, which will be colocated in the ITM, and there’s been continuous investment in infrastructure to support the commercialisation of technologies.

“The University of Birmingham’s (UoB) acquisition of a 10-acre site from the city council, which will attract both start-ups and growing companies to its life sciences park, will enhance the physical facilities we have available.

“Birmingham Health Partners then offers a strategic alliance of academia, hospitals and researchers to promote health and well-being in the city, linked to economic development and the creation of employment and wealth associated with the sector.”

ERDF funding comes forward on a calendar year, so Fisken and his colleagues are now in a planning phase for 2019 and beyond, and simultaneously refining their FDI strategy to fit their new regional remit.

“Now we have a relationship with the six universities, there’s a more formal pathway to promote the strengths, research competencies and other strengths of these institutions, as well as key academics and thought leaders.

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How Birmingham Life Sciences Park might look.

“They will become central elements of our inward investment strategies, be that working with people overseas or promoting the presence of their research assets within our business development programme.

“For example, because life sciences is one of our key strategic sectors, we worked collaboratively with Calthorpe around their presence at the 2017 Arab Health exhibition and conference which went very well.

“We were also involved in the BioTrinity event in London, which obviously also brought in a large international audience, so there we partnered with the BioHub. That’s a common route we take with regard to helping promote our commercial partners and other stakeholders.”

Its impossible to have a conversation which doesn’t involve the future British economy and its relationship with Europe, particularly given the global and collaborative nature of life sciences and healthcare, but Fisken is relaxed about the challenges ahead.

“Yes, there are uncertainties, for companies making investment decisions and people also want to know what the future regulatory landscape will look like, and there are questions

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to be answered about European Union (EU) funding that currently comes here for research and innovation.

“However, in terms of opportunity, we’re in a fortunate position. We have a huge talent pool that lends itself very well to life sciences and medical technologies. One of our particular strengths is in medical devices, and the research, design, development and manufacture of such devices.

“The UoB also has the country’s second largest medical school, something like 10,000 students across the region each year, which puts us in a strong position for whatever comes from Brexit.

“We already have key markets for medical technology in such places as the US, Switzerland and potentially Japan, where we may have new opportunities post-Brexit.

“We’re also one of the strongest centre for clinical trials in Europe, and that’s not going to change. The long-term presence of a large ethnic population that is non-transient and stable will still be very attractive to big pharma companies looking to undertake trials.”

There’s much more, of course, to attract investors, drug companies, start-up ventures

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“We already have key markets for medical technology in such places as the US, Switzerland and potentially Japan.”

and established businesses, including the very successful Innovation Birmingham Campus and its Serendip Smart City Incubator and further afield, the Institute of Digital Healthcare at Warwick University.

Fisken also cites the rarely-mentioned role of local companies in highlighting the area’s merits to their peers and contacts.

“Binding Site, for instance, is a huge success which began as a spin-out from the UoB’s medical school, and its chief executive, Charles de Rohan, is a great ambassador.

“People like him, and Philip Salt, of Salts Healthcare, have great stories to tell about why they’re here, and are extremely important within our business strategy to attract more companies to this area.” n

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Innovative businesses can spin off the BioHub Dr James Wilkie, the chief executive of University of Birmingham Enterprise, explains the history of the Biohub, and its impressive achievements, to Ian Halstead.

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verything feels just right as you walk into the BioHub; from the chirpy receptionist and the equally effervescent lab manager and staff, through the shared downstairs space where white-coated scientists focus intently on their projects, and to the upstairs floor where new grow-on space is being created.

With stacks of parking on the doorstep, a train station a short stroll away, and a location in the heart of the Edgbaston Medical Quarter (EMQ), its the life sciences’ equivalent of the city’s famed “Custard Factory” for creative and digital entrepreneurs.

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So you’d imagine the case for a purposebuilt biomedical laboratory, providing serviced space and support to help nurture life-science start-ups through their crucial early stages, ease their growing pains, and then assist them on the journey from proof of concept to viable investment-ready businesses would make itself.

Its quite a surprise then, to discover from genial chief executive James Wilkie that it took five long years before the £7m funding for the BioHub was approved by the University of Birmingham (UoB), the city council and the European Regional Development Fund .

“People considered the concept to be flawed, and were especially concerned that there’d be too much ‘leakage’ of know-how and data within such a close community,” he recalls.

“However, I was convinced that start-up ventures would find the benefits of working within shared space would far far outweigh issues about intellectual property (IP). The chances of two companies working alongside another having the same knowledge that might ‘leak’ are infinitesimal.”

The back story to the BioHub concept is intriguing, not least because of Wilkie’s research

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into the historic origins of the EMQ. “We noticed that life sciences’ surveys didn’t identify this cluster, because they typically focus on healthcare, medical devices and big pharma as the core elements, and though we have the global brands here for occasional clinical trials, they don’t have a permanent presence, so the researchers weren’t ‘seeing us’.

“However, if you look at what is here, there are three major hospitals, a new dental hospital, the UoB, its medical school, its school of biosciences and Birmingham Research Park – full of fully-functioning trading enterprises which are all medical in nature.

“Its not an accident. The concept originated in the 1930s when the QE Hospital’s architects built the medical school right next door for “ease of translation of best research practice into patient care” – according to their paperwork.

“So, we had this cluster, plus great transport links, great connectivity between the hospitals and the universities, and also residential accommodation mixed with business space, but we didn’t have somewhere for people with great ideas to move into publically available laboratory space.

“One day, I was at Google Campus, and saw how people in the digital sector used shared space and shared facilities and shared overheads, having different ideas and differing approaches, but working cheek-by-jowl and working as a genuine community, to grow and to create new businesses.

“From that came the idea of the BioHub. The ground-floor is shared space, you come in, pay a flat monthly fee, get a bench in a shared laboratory, with a lab manager and various facilities, and a desk in open-plan office space.”

The ground-floor is now full, and the next phase is to create six independent units on the upper floor, where tenants could expand steadily until they employed around 25 staff.

As they look to grow further, the new Birmingham life sciences park is some 500 metres away, where there’ll be more substantial space for ventures from the EMQ, as well as companies from the UK and overseas.

“We’ve also got the BizzInn, for firms who don’t need wet-labs, alongside the BioHub. Its helped around 200 entrepreneurs since it

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opened, and the majority have come from outside the university and outside the cluster, and they in turn have created 60 jobs,” says Wilkie.

“Its really pleasing is that roughly twothirds of these people have, after six months, a relationship with an academic from this university, not through a formal programme, but through natural interaction.

“We provide pro-bono support from the city’s professional community and have a wraparound programme of business support, so there is a gateway for these entrepreneurs.”

Wilkie joined the UoB in 2007 after 20 years in Europe and the United States delivering research, innovation and corporate venture investment within global plcs, notably Shell, Morgan Crucible and Johnson Matthey, so the recruiters certainly chose well.

UoB Enterprise, is effectively the property management body for the BizzInn, BioHub and the Birmingham Research Park “We are also the agent that goes out and finds the ideas that our academics are thinking of, codifies them into a formal record of invention, and if they’re worth protecting, we’ll do that, usually by patenting, and then we’ll licence that idea to a third-party,” he says.

“Traditionally, we’d go to a large multinational, but increasingly we are asked if we could build a new company, a start-up, around an idea, which is great because we’ve already got the business space and the support services here.

“Typically, out of all UK universities we are third, fourth or fifth on most metrics for inventions by our academics and the number of patents we are granted, and we’re all very proud of that achievement.

“Over the past decade, we’ve attracted around £100m into our spin-outs. We usually do between three and five a year, because they require a lot of intensive support. We’ll also ‘train’ the academics involved in the realities of the commercial world, and fund analysis to identify what the potential market will look like.”

The latest strategic move to give the EMQ mass on a global scale has been to create a consortium of eight Midlands-based technology transfer organisations – Midlands Innovation –

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to provide a single point of access to investors for IP ideas from any of the eight.

“The ideas, patents and start-up stats from these eight exceed those from Oxford and Cambridge, per £100m of research funding we receive, but we don’t have a single, sizeable investment fund, whereas Oxford’s investment capacity is around £600m.

“Clearly, Oxford has a far better brand than the Midlands, but we are making potential investors aware of the scale of our pipeline, which is a great starting point for a conversation about how we get a large ‘patient capital’ fund into the Midlands.

“We want to attract a fund of at least £300m, which could fit with the government’s new industrial strategy, which highlighted the need for more patient capital, for very early-stage businesses. Its called ‘patient capital’ because it can take 10 years or more for a life sciences business to become viable.

“We had an event at The Shard just before Christmas, when we explained the concept of Midlands Innovation to an audience that included quite a few fund investors, and we’ll be doing other similar events, again in London, and quite likely on both the east and west coasts of the US.” n

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IN THE BATTLE TO BEAT THE SUPERBUGS Medical devices developed by two researchers from the University of Birmingham are on show at the Science Museum’s ‘Superbugs: The Fight For Our Lives’ exhibition.

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igital health is big money … at least for those who make scientific breakthroughs that can be commercialised for patients across the globe, and both Linear Diagnostics and GFC Diagnostics are in the race to win.

They’re competing, with other ventures from across the UK, for the Longitude Prize – a £10m fund to reward developers of cheap, accurate, rapid and easy-to-use point of care test kits for bacterial infections, so health professionals can administer the right antibiotics – at the right time.

The aim is to dramatically reduce over-use of anti-biotics, which has spawned a generation of global superbugs immune to modern medicine.

The Science Museum exhibition runs until November 2019, each entry is assessed every four months, and the first team to satisfy the judges’ criteria will take the prize.

Linear Diagnostics’ device uses polarised light to measure the alignment of “detector molecules”, to check that the antibiotic prescribed is not one to which the targeted bacteria is resistant.

GFC’s Microscreen technology enables antibiotic resistance genes to be immediately detected by a colour change at the time of testing.

Linear Diagnostics’ chief technology officer, Matt Hicks, and Graham Cope, founder of GFC

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Diagnostics, tell their stories in their own words.

HICKS: “Our prototype device is in the Science Museum, and we will be trialling it during 2018 in hospitals and GP surgeries as a detector for anti-microbial resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs).

“It might surprise those outside our sector, but there are two million cases of UTI in the UK each year, and the worldwide figure is thought to be around 150m.

“An ongoing challenge for an small and medium-sized enterprise such as ourselves is ensuring we have sufficient funding to continue our development work.

“During 2017, we were awarded £150,000 from the Rainbow Seed Fund, a venture capital fund set up to support early-stage technology companies, and that was matched by funding from the UoB which was a real help.

“We also applied for an Innovate UK grant – for SMEs in hi-tech niches across all sectors. Previously, they awarded 70% of a project’s costs, but they realised even the 30% could be a lot for an SME, so they set up an Investor Accelerator Award outside the normal application process, which is a novel idea.

“A panel of six investor partners assess your application separately and decide if you

should get the 30% from them, and applicants can choose a preferred investor, if you’ve won support from Innovate.

“One of those six was Rainbow, which obviously liked what we were doing and had already gone through the due diligence process on us, and we got another £105,000 from Innovate UK and £45,000 from Rainbow.

“Thanks to this funding, which is due to last seven months from the start of 2018, we are able to expand our research into tests for UTIs, and for tests to detect resistance to anti-biotics more widely.

“We work with clinical advisers to develop the tests, notably Abid Hussein, who is head of infection prevention and control at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. He has the medical knowledge to help us, and also a broader overview of the healthcare system and the way hospitals work.

“Equally, its crucial for growing SMEs to strengthen their management team, and we took on an executive chairman, Brendan Farrell, last summer. He has spent more than 30 years in the diagnostics sector, more than 20 of which were at board level, and has tremendous international experience and contacts.

“Brendan is now working with me to look at overall strategy for the long-term, beyond the current work for UIT tests, and at other tests

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© The Science Museum

L-R: Bruce Savage CEO of GFC Diagnostics, Graham Cope, technical director, Graham Mock, DNA specialist and Alex Savage, scientist.

we could potentially put on our platform.

“He’s also looking at further fund-raising, putting together a new business plan, and looking at potential distribution partners for when our products are ready.

“Its all about identifying the different challenges which we’ll face at different stages of our expansion, and putting solutions in place to address them before they might impact our business.”

COPE: “We’ve been given £10,000 from the Longitude Fund to further develop our technique, which was excellent news. Most awards have gone to academics using complex

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and expensive systems and processes, which is puzzling as the brief is to identify simple ways of deciding if patients need anti-viral or antibiotic treatment.

“The Superbug exhibition will run for 18 months, and the museum expect around three million people to visit. One of the central aims is to educate the public about the difference between bacteria and viruses, which contrary to what many people think, are not the same thing.

“I’m a medical scientist, who has specialised in smoking, the mechanisms behind it, and diseases related to it for more than 30 years.

“My first major project was when the Department of Health (DoH) wanted a simple

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and effective way of intervening to reduce smoking during pregnancy.

“My idea was to measure the amount of tobacco present in each woman, rather than simply telling them smoking was dangerous and that they should stop, and to engage with them, so they could see evidence of their smoking.

“The DoH was working on a colour test to detect cotenine, which was the gold standard for measuring tobacco intake, but tests took several days because the samples had to be sent to a lab.

“I developed a point-of-care test, done next to the patient, so results were available immediately and solutions could be discussed with the individual.

“SafeTube was developed and the design hasn’t changed a great deal. A simple way of collecting urine, with chemicals inside, and the cotenine turns pink – deeper with the level of smoking.

“Some women would say they only smoked three or four a day, but their sample would be dark pink, others would say they smoked too much, yet theirs would be pale pink, which revealed the psychology of smoking.

“We then developed SmokeScreen, which also tests for smoking levels, but using saliva, and later a test to monitor if patients are taking drugs to tackle tuberculosis (TB), called IsoScreen.

“TB was considered a forgotten disease, but 95% of current cases in the UK come from its latent form. Typically, patients come from Asia, live in poor conditions with a poor diet, and their disease emerges, so the hot-spots are in London, Birmingham and other areas of high immigration.

“Like the pregnant women who smoked, some patients are risk-takers and stop taking their drugs during the nine month programme, and IsoScreen takes just minutes to test their adherence to the treatment.

“In the last year, we’ve focused on a quick and effective way of detecting MRSA (once known as the ‘superbug’) in hospitals. The R&D has gone well, and we now have clinical trials lined up at Southampton General Hospital.

“Looking ahead, we’re trying to develop other tests for anti-biotic resistant strains, especially for bacteria which live in urinarygenetic tracts, notably CPE, which is resistant to all anti-biotics.” n

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Working together with digital tools Neil Mortimer, business manager and digital lead at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN), explains the value of collaboration in growing the digital health economy.

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here are many strands to our organisation’s work, but we’ve really intensified our focus around digital health to help drive innovations. While this involves close working with the NHS to benefit from technology and innovation, we’re also focused on helping industry to play a vital role.

As well as working with larger corporations, we act as a catalyst for start-ups, provide grow-on space for more established small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and support the third sector and social enterprises.

Underpinning those aspects is a constant desire to engage digital businesses, with patients, clinicians and/or academics around specific areas.

We aim to make these relationships as collaborative and inclusive as possible, but equally, we act as a critical friend, encouraging everyone to constantly analyse what their products or services might do for patients and care professionals.

Something might sound a great idea, but unless you take time to have discussions with others who can offer context and knowledge, it could be that someone has already had the same idea, and that their model is far more advanced than your own.

Equally, you must discover at an early stage what your vision can deliver – and what it can’t.

Mentoring and collaboration can often help someone identify where their model needs

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fine-tuning – or even more radical changes.

Sometimes too, people need to see they’re heading in the wrong direction.

The concept of Health 2.0 has been around for 15 years and was triggered by the late adoption of technology by the health sector.

The vision of getting technologists and health professionals to “horizon scan” together is still really attractive to us; that’s why we’ve established Health 2.0 West Midlands.

At one stage, all the talk was about the cloud. Now its more likely to be talking about augmented reality, artificial intelligence and blockchain.

It doesn’t matter what the technology is though, you always need to pause, reflect, gain insight from others and rationalise what any given technology can genuinely do for you.

Adding technology to a flawed business or care model doesn’t help anyone, and all its likely to do is cost you more to fail.

In such niches as mental health and sexual health, innovative digital tools can reach individuals who often don’t access healthcare until its too late.

Augmented reality can be used to show patients how to take medicine, and they can also be guided by virtual nurses, just as people can be trained in surgical techniques through virtual reality. Even three dimensional (3D) printing is now allowing surgeons to hone their skills on plastic facsimiles of real organs.

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“When people from different backgrounds collaborate, really innovative solutions emerge.”

Sometimes it may be that start-ups are looking at the wrong form of technology. They think an app is the ideal delivery vehicle, but it could be that a digital platform would suit them better.

Health 2.0 West Midlands brings together people who want to see technology transform care, whether they’re patients, developers, clinicians or researchers.

We’ve found that when people from different backgrounds collaborate, problems can be more readily overcome, and really innovative solutions can emerge.

Above all, our work is about recognising that just as everyone is different, everyone’s business has differing needs. Some want access to finance, others need technical input or clinical advice, another might need guidance about cyber-security or enhancing their skill-sets.

Its not always simple, and its rarely easy, but if you see collaboration as the art of the possible, its amazing just how much can be achieved.” n

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Cutting-edge healthcare in Edgbaston

Edgbaston Medical Quarter is at the centre of the healthcare and life sciences revolution that is taking place in Birmingham, on the Calthorpe Estate. With its rapidly growing healthcare and life sciences community, supported by internationally-renowned training and educational facilities, which sit alongside a vibrant commercial, leisure and lifestyle destination, it is easy to see why it is becoming the ‘go to’ centre for clinical trials, medical and healthcare excellence.

For 300 years, Calthorpe Estates has been placemaking and creating thriving communities within its 1,600 acre estate in Edgbaston, in the heart of the United Kingdom.

To find out more about this world-class medical and life sciences destination visit www.calthorpe.co.uk/EMQBQ Offices / Residential / Retail / Medical / Leisure / Education

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Profile

A destination of excellence for healthcare and life sciences Calthorpe Estates’ chief executive, Mark Lee, gives BQ2 the inside steer about the Edgbaston Medical Quarter (EMQ).

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here’s always a reassuring sense of stability and sense of purpose in the air at Calthorpe Estates’ Hagley Road office.

Many developers opt for grand facades concealing interiors of glitz and glass, but here there’s the hum of quiet efficiency, a genial greeting – and a decent cup of coffee.

For three centuries, Calthorpe has been custodian to 1,600 acres of prime real estate; able – and very willing – to focus on the long-term, and to always see the picture at its biggest.

“Right from the time Sir Richard Gough acquired the original estate in Edgbaston, he was determined to retain its rural nature, and thanks to his foresight, it has retained the feel of a village community, despite its inner-city location,” says chief executive Mark Lee. “When doctors, clinicians, potential tenants or residents come here for the first time, the first thing they remark on is how ‘green’ it feels.

“Of course, they’re impressed by the leisure, cultural, residential and educational options, but above all, it’s the community feel that makes them feel they want to be here and to work here, and those factors have underpinned the remarkable growth and success of the EMQ. “We have a tremendous ecosystem and huge asset base, and a thriving and rapidly growing healthcare and life sciences community, which is

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supported by internationally renowned training and education facilities.”

Home to two-thirds of the city’s healthcare economy, EMQ now boasts more than 180 medical organisations, 23 training facilities allied to medicine, 44 GP clinics and routine care facilities, and 80 hospitals and specialist care centres.

The area has fast developed an international reputation for medical excellence, and attracted leading practitioners and researchers from many of the UK’s most important medical institutions.

EMQ also incorporates one of the UK’s largest urban conservation areas, and is considered an ideal location for SMEs needing to establish a base for product development, clinical trials or procurement routes.

There are also wider influences too, which mean its time is now, of which Lee is well aware.

“We see four main drivers; shifting demographics which mean more people are living longer; rising demand for personalised care; greater awareness from patients and their families about the standards and services that are available, and the economic pressures for greater productivity in our health economy,” he says.

“There’s been a transformation in the provision and delivery of healthcare, based around connectivity, and the ability of digital

technologies to deliver cost savings. As we’re seeing from the work done here, big data and genomics are now improving patient outcomes by using personalised and evidence-based solutions.

“The achievements of the health and life sciences cluster here, and across Greater Birmingham, are giving us a reputation as a powerhouse of excellence, at regional, national and increasingly, international levels.

“We have established a reputation for innovation, that has become a catalyst for growth, and this area is now regarded as one of the UK’s leading investment locations; not just for healthcare and life sciences, but for research, development and personalised healthcare projects,” says Lee. “We saw direct evidence of the EMQ’s growing presence at international level when we exhibited at the Arab Health exhibition and conference, in Dubai, earlier this year. We talked about such issues as the scale, scope and quality of our existing healthcare providers, and the opportunities to expand.

“Connectivity is also a crucial element of our success, so we stressed then how close we are to London – and even more so when HS2 arrives – the direct flights available from Birmingham Airport, the presence of Midland Metro and SPRINT routes that will soon run past our front door, and of course, New Street Station.

“We also highlighted the value to be had from a development and investment perspective, compared to the over-heated property market in London, and the depth and breadth of our lifestyle and leisure offer.

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“As a direct result of discussions at Arab Health 2018, a Harley Street-based specialist has already opened, and we will shortly be able to reveal that a leading private healthcare provider will be taking space here, with other occupiers keen to follow.

“We calculate that our presence at that event has delivered a pipeline of inward investment of some £70m, which will create 300 jobs.”

The UK’s traditional destinations for healthcare and life sciences, notably London, Oxford and Cambridge, are already struggling to deliver quality new space for tenants – and opportunities for would-be investors.

It’s quite the opposite across Calthorpe’s estate though, where careful resource management through the late 20th century has both preserved the EMQ’s timeless appeal, and delivered an array of potential development sites.

The most spectacular is New Garden Square, a £350m mixed-use scheme being delivered through a joint venture with regeneration specialist U+I, on a 10.7 acres site along the Hagley Road.

With some 56,000sq.m of space suitable for research and development uses or as offices, alongside 2,400sq.m of leisure and retail space, 400 apartments and the potential for a 100-bed

hotel, including the existing Grade II-listed buildings, it demonstrates strategic vision on a grand scale.

Other shovel-ready locations are Regency House, a landmark building offering up to 2,062sq.m of contemporary space for medical uses inside a classic period property; 30 Highfield Road, designed as a 2,790sq.m medical centre, which includes operating theatres, and up to 9,000sq.m at Pebble Mill plot four.

As he cites that quartet of schemes though, Lee stresses the long-term Calthorpe belief that successful development is never just about providing space, however high the quality.

“Everything we do is about building communities; through placemaking and by creating an environment where people want to work, live and relax, and that is the core principle driving our priorities for EMQ and our wider investment strategy,” he says.

“Together with our partners and our stakeholders, we want to grow what we have here, alongside the medical and life sciences’ offer of Birmingham and the West Midlands.

“We want to regenerate Edgbaston’s commercial centre, to create somewhere where businesses want to relocate to, and work within, and to continue the evolution of Edgbaston Village, as a family-focused leisure and lifestyle location.

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“We also want to help further develop the improved transport infrastructure that is bringing Edgbaston into Birmingham’s central zone.

“There is a collaborative culture and real willingness within the area to support companies and innovation in medical sciences and healthcare.

“As healthcare providers look to see how they can make savings through the patient pathway, due to the cluster of healthcare excellence and the proximity to leading digital and engineering capabilities, EMQ offers real opportunities for companies to relocate here and accelerate their growth.” n

Calthorpe Estates, 76 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B16 8LU 0121 248 7676 www.calthorpe.co.uk

Artist’s impression of the New Garden Square, £350m mixed-use scheme

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Darren Wright

A tale of two tenants Ian Halstead learns more about the Serendip incubator in the heart of Birmingham from programme manager Hugo Russell and two of his tenants, Inside Outcomes’ Darren Wright and Katie Buckingham, founder of Altruist Enterprises.

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nnovation Birmingham Campus styles itself as the city’s leading location for the digital and tech community, and its blend of modern open-plan offices, alongside space for meetings, conference and other events, is certainly pulling in an array of entrepreneurs, innovators and investors.

Its focal point is the landmark iCentrum building, housing the Serendip Smart City

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Incubator, where digital start-ups are helped to survive and prosper by being located alongside large and established commercial organisations.

Managing the Serendip programme for Innovation Birmingham – the city region’s arm of the Innovation Engine – is Hugo Russell, who coaxes and cajoles his tenants to engage with each other, their larger neighbours, academics and the wider world.

At its heart is the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, which attracts potential tenants to the possibilities of health innovation via its Meridian platform.

“Meridian is very effective, at raising issues around digital health in general, at stimulating interaction between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this country and overseas, and at driving innovative techniques, products and processes towards the NHS,” says Russell.

“The NHS is rightly risk-averse, so we need a safe and secure environment where ideas can be bounced around, discussed, and hopefully coalesced into solutions. Something obvious to one person could be crucial intelligence to another, and effective engagement is the most powerful catalyst for innovation.

“What was once called Health 2.0 Birmingham is being relaunched as Health 2.0 West Midlands with a focus on ‘horizon scanning’, where

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Katie Buckingham

Hugo Russell

everything from artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning is all mashed up together, including, of course, such emerging technologies as blockchain, and our two newest tenants are very much in this space.

“Darren is incredibly analytical, and because of his years of experience within the NHS, he has a deep understanding of the skills and language needed to operate within and alongside the NHS. “Katie is incredibly passionate, and her work is very personal to her, but she will need to soak up the experience and knowledge of Darren and others about the intricacies of the NHS. “You then have other tenants who have neat

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“The buzz you get from seeing a community working together is amazing.”

Hugo Russell

ideas, and an interest in the NHS, but now need to validate their concept, and prove that their ideas work and that they are safe. Some people think they can just create an app, and everything will be fine, so they benefit particularly from mentoring and meeting their peers.

“The buzz you get from seeing a community working together is amazing, as the ideas that are generated by random contacts and formal meetings. I’d say maybe 30% of this site’s success is about having decent space, but the rest comes from the collaborations which happen here.

“However, the success of Serendip as a digital health incubator, and of iCentrum as a place for start-ups in our three core sectors of transport, health and sustainability, is that we provide the governance, the data management and the other elements that underpin the structure.

“Every tenant needs to have a clear and very explicit sense of what they are about, what they want to deliver and above all, if they have sufficient funding to achieve their goals. You might have a world-changing idea, but it won’t become reality if the money runs out.”

Altruist Enterprises provides bespoke training to help organisations prevent, identify and tackle stress within their workplace, and as befits its social enterprise nature, it also provides free or subsidised talks and workshops to young people and parents, about mental health and autism.

Founded in August 2013 by Katie Buckingham, she says with a neat turn of phrase that her vision is to achieve “parity of esteem” between physical and mental health in the workplace.

She established her company whilst at one of the enterprise academies operated by Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, and has since acquired a raft of awards and commendations, but there’s also a deeply personal foundation to her choice of career.

“I suffered severe anxiety from the age of 10 to 16, which sparked a passion in me. When I was

17, I started doing mental health workshops for a charity, which made me realise I wanted to work for myself,” says Buckingham.

“I realise from my experiences just how important it is that we do much more to identify and address issues around mental health and stress, and to reduce the impact that they have both on individuals, and the organisations which employ them.

“There’s a great deal of talk about the importance of increasing productivity across our economy, but nowhere near enough talk about the relevance of good mental health on achieving that goal.”

One of the most stressful jobs around, even before the impact of austerity cuts on the public sector, was working for the emergency services, so its good to see that Altruist has been brought in to assist the West Midlands Fire Service.

“At the moment, we’re providing support to around 150 of its employees. Initially, we worked with staff at their call centre, but we were then asked to roll out our programmes to their volunteers,” says Buckingham.

“I am on the steering committee of the West Midlands Combined Authority looking at mental health issues, and it has an ambitious strategy of looking to work with 500,000 people across the region on such issues.”

She’s honest enough to admit making mistakes after beginning her business career, but has since assembled a powerful team of staff and non-executive mentors to drive Altruist forward.

“It is quite a process identifying the right people, and you’ve always got to be aware of what you can do, and what you can’t. For instance, I am not a techy person, so coming in to iCentrum and Serendip, I wanted to use its digital community to ‘absorb’ technical expertise.

“Its still early days, of course, but even the first few months here helped shape our

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a spirit of local enterprise, and CIC status made sense. We work for organisations in the voluntary and social services sectors, and its obviously very important that they tailor services to the people they are trying to help in their community.”

Which is, of course, where the data and analytical expertise of Wright and his colleagues comes in, because services can’t be tailored to need unless providers understand the precise outcomes of their services.

Its equally important that Inside Outcomes

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“My vision is to achieve ‘parity of esteem’ between physical and mental health in the workplace.”

Katie Buckingham

business model, and we have created an online community that will include e-learning about stress and mental health.

“We’re profit-making and sustainable, and raised some revenue via crowdfunding to increase our ability to provide services. We now have eight mentors, and the latest is Mark Rogers. He was recently chief executive of the city council, of course, but I’d met him when he was at Solihull, and I was on its youth council.”

Buckingham is also raising the profile of herself and her business through speaking in public, via digital forums and at events.

Her first presentation to a global audience came in February at an Adobe conference, and in a busy month, she also launched Altruist’s human resources guide for companies; a free downloadable resource to help employers perform audits and identify gaps in their wellbeing provision, and then to implement a robust action plan.

Inside Outcomes Community Interest Company (CIC) was founded by Darren Wright, who, although his undergraduate qualification was in law, has since worked in the NHS and local authorities in a range of roles around

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analysing needs, and devising and delivering services, related to healthcare commissioning.

His experience in early interventions on drug abuse, smoking, cancer, obesity and cardiovascular diseases mean his current venture is – like Altruist – focused on improving well-being, but whilst Buckingham’s attentions are on the mind and the soul, Wright’s are very much on the body.

His evolving passion has been to ally his long-established data skills to his knowledge of preventative healthcare, allowing organisations to analyse and understand the impact of their service provision on people and their health.

Inside Outcomes has also evolved since its 2014 formation, having begun corporate life as a consultancy and limited company, it became a CIC a year ago.

“We wanted people to use our software to determine the outcomes of their service provision, essentially it was about selling software as a service (SAAS), but we then decided that we could reach more people by making out software available by open source,” says Wright.

“We were also committed to developing

can use the language and mindset of the public sector in general, and the NHS in particular, to work effectively with its clients.

“I’ve been in Birmingham for 25 years, and almost all of that time has been working in the public sector and with healthcare providers, so its a great asset to have,” admits Wright.

“I’ve always been passionate about taking data and translating it to demonstrate outcomes, and I’d known Hugo since 2004, so when we had the chance to come to the iCentrum, and work with other start-ups in digital health, I couldn’t wait to get here.

“The day-to-contact has been invaluable, its also a great place to find out about events that relate to our sector, and because of the space for meetings and interviews, with clients, potential recruits or even investors, its put a more professional face on our company.

“We’re already working with several branches of Citizens Advice and Age UK, and we believe coming here will help us attract more clients.

“Increasingly, we’re also looking to partner with organisations that don’t work directly in healthcare, but whose members, staff or customers could improve their wellbeing outcomes by a simple and effective strategies.

“As people live for longer, there is more social isolation, and I think it is becoming the most profound problem facing our society.

Being alone and feeling isolated has a massive impact of health, but loneliness is very difficult to tackle.

“As we evolve further as a CIC, I’d love to see us become more involved in the creation of place-based communities, and identifying ways of improving health outcomes for different groups.” n

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Six STPs towards healthcare Tony Davis, commercial director at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN), offers an insight into the challenges of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs).

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t’s more than three years since the concept of STPs was unveiled, and NHS organisations and local authorities across England were asked to collaborate to develop “place-based plans” for the future of healthcare services in their area.

The initial plans then went through a lengthy process of analysis, assessment and engagement, before they were refined and further developed, and then stress-tested to ensure their underlying assumptions were credible and that the proposed services were capable of delivery.

Even after three years, I’m regularly asked what STPs are, how they are progressing and how they operate across the West Midlands.

Briefly, we have six; covering Birmingham & Solihull, the Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Stoke & Staffordshire, and Shropshire, Telford & the Wrekin.

Their primary aim is to ensure health services are fully integrated across the patient population, so patient data, knowledge, medical records and anything else can be swiftly and efficiently shared between provider organisations.

The original plans were established to drive greater collaboration, so the various providers and commissioners could come together as partners, to deliver their STPs. Now we’re beginning to see the emergence of integrated

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care services (ICS).

Typically, a patient receives care from several professionals across different providers, and sometimes care becomes fragmented and complex to access. Integrated care is designed to reduce those inefficiencies.

In theory, ICS should also identify savings to be made from greater efficiency, better collaboration and shared back office systems.

However, the new models are necessarily complex, as they involve several existing providers, commissioners and local authorities, and have the potential to spawn a range of new service providers.

At WMAHSN, we see the development of STPs, and the onset of ICS, as offering new opportunities to increase the adoption of innovation in the way that healthcare is provided and delivered.

Across the region, different models are evolving because, as intended, the six STPs reflected local need. Some are further along the journey to achieving ICS status, for historic reasons, and of course, each has different challenges.

These could be about different technologies, a different population mix, or different logistical issues between urban and rural areas. The secretary of state hasn’t set a deadline, because he recognises that they’re approaching their targets whilst under very difficult financial pressures.

The different STPs upon which the new models will be based can also have different strategic focuses. One might be on acute care, another on issues around mental health, and one might wish to tackle different forms of diabetes, for example.

We will be working very closely with our three AHSN membership and innovation councils, to identify areas where they need our input or support, require specialist advice, or have other potential gaps in their models.

At the moment, we’re only working proactively with three STPs, because the models for each area are reaching maturity at different times.

One strategic challenge, which will have an impact on all six in different ways, will be the presence of the right leaders with the right experience. Everyone across the region has bought into the concept and the goals, but inevitably, some are better placed to meet their targets.

In the West Midlands, we have a unique opportunity to work holistically across all healthcare sectors, primary, secondary and acute, and to deliver innovative systems that deliver the best possible outcomes for patients given the financial resources which are available.

Critical to achieving those goals will be the creation and adoption of new models of care, better use of data, artificial intelligence and new operational structures.” n

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Profile

Helping hand for med-tech Medilink WM is the industry association for life sciences and medical technology in the West Midlands.

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ur organisation was created 15 years ago to provide information and knowledge exchange for the emerging medical and healthcare cluster in the West Midlands,” says Richard Stone, chief executive of Medlink WM. “Our mission was then, and is still, to maintain an active network through which med-tech industry can be linked to the regional infrastructure; including businesses, universities, healthcare, clinicians, and other support organisations with expertise in the med-tech and healthcare sectors.

“At its simplest, we exist to help industry raise its profile and promote the region’s products and services. We use various channels to encourage and facilitate information flow between members and the medical sector regionally, nationally and globally.

“We also deliver specialist skills training through master-classes, and provide a promotional platform to industry across this region through digital means; via social media, newsletters and e-bulletins.

The aim of all this activity is to help support the regional economy by assisting companies to establish, develop, innovate and grow”.

Stone says his organisation has a strategic plan that underpins its operations, and helps him and his colleagues achieve their challenging targets.

“We are passionate believers in knowledge exchange, so we bring together research and technical expertise to increase the rate and level of innovation, and offer support to help

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companies become more innovative, to drive improved productivity and increase their competitiveness,” he says.

“We also focus constantly on creating the right environment for innovation, by providing links to ensure an integrated network of facilities, organisations and individuals exists to turn innovations into economic growth.

“Our final core strategy is to foster enabling and emerging technologies, utilising research and industry strengths to identify and prioritise investments related to the future prosperity of the region to maximise the benefits and outcomes.”

Medilink WM is a membership-based body, with a network of more than 4,000 contacts in more than 1,000 organisations. It represents all aspects of the sector, including private and public institutions; from multi nationals to potential high-value start-ups, as well as the NHS and universities.

“We engage with all facets of the NHS, local and national government, and their various representative bodies, clinical regulators, and other key stakeholders across the region,” says Stone.

“We provide specialist sector knowledge, and dedicated support to businesses, to help boost the region’s economic output from life sciences by overcoming barriers to growth.

“We also provide expert assistance to companies engaging with Meridian, WMAHSN’s online health innovation exchange, designed to support the West Midlands innovation

ecosystem and the spread of good practice across the region.”

Meridian is a pioneering and interactive platform for anyone to share their innovations and ideas, build groups and networks, and make contact with people whose innovations could change healthcare delivery in the West Midlands.

“We assist with innovation submissions to Meridian, and help develop key relationships with appropriate clinical groups and stakeholders, to assist the right innovations to evolve and move forward with the NHS”, says Stone.

“Also – working closely with MidTECH, the West Midlands NHS technology transfer office – we help identify opportunities to collaborate with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting the commercialisation of NHS intellectual property, resulting in licensing and spin-out opportunities for industry that will generate wealth and employment.”

Medilink WM is a founding member of Medilink UK, which supports more than 3,000 companies, and Medilink Midlands – a strategic alliance of Medilinks across the region.

Medilink also provides the industry gateway for the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network’s (WMAHSN) innovation and adoption service.

“Our team works alongside partners and stakeholders inside and outside the NHS, to accelerate innovation, the adoption of best practice and to identify gaps in current

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provision,” says Stone.

“For companies that have an innovative product or service that has significant potential to benefit both patients and the health service, the gateway will look to facilitate their needs.

“Effectively, we provide a ‘front door’ to the NHS for industry, acting as a single point of entry for all med-tech companies and life science businesses who wish to engage with the WMAHSN.” The organisation’s effectiveness has brought glowing tributes from its members.

“Since joining I have found their short courses and services a valuable resource,” says Bob Roopra, of Birmingham-based Roopra Medtech Consulting.

His consultancy provides proof of concept and commercialisation guidance for disruptive medical technologies, emerging in the diagnostic healthcare space.

“Medilink’s drive and commitment to work with and connect businesses sets them head and shoulders apart from anyone else. Joining this organisation was the best business decision I made,” says Roopra.

“Being a member offers great networking opportunities and access to knowledge and expertise that one would not ordinarily have”, says Harrison Law, an account executive at the Stourbridge-based IHN Insurance Brokers.

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“They have given us guidance and an appropriate platform on which to showcase our expertise in such a varied and complex sector.”

The biggest event in Medilink’s calendar, its annual Medical and Healthcare Business Awards, brings together representatives, clinicians, researchers, and academics to celebrate the region’s most innovative and successful companies across the medical and healthcare technology sector.

The prize ceremony takes place each January, celebrating achievements across six categories: start-up, innovation, export achievement, partnership with the NHS, supply chain, and outstanding achievement.

Winners then represent the region on the national stage at the Medilink UK Awards in April at the Medtech Innovation Expo, the UK and Ireland’s leading showcase for medical design and manufacturing technology.

“These awards offer a great opportunity for our members to put their company’s product or service in the spotlight,” says Stone.

“They generate great exposure for the region’s medical and healthcare industry and provide a platform for our members to shout about their achievements and success stories.

“We work with life science companies daily, helping them achieve their goals and

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requirements, from support with research and development (R&D) activities, through to innovation support or help with NHS adoption goals.

“Through this continual interaction, we know the breadth and the depth of the skills and knowledge of the life science businesses in the region, and the passion they have to succeed in whatever they are doing.

“And in the current climate of political, economic and commercial doom and gloom, the Medilink WM awards give us a very welcome opportunity to showcase and celebrate good news, the positivity inherent in our regional businesses, and to shout about their many success stories.” n

For more information please contact Richard Stone T: + 44 (0)121 452 5630 M + 44 (0)781 345 8296 E: richards@medilinkwm.co.uk www.medilinkwm.co.uk

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avigating the health innovation landscape Medilink WM’s membership manager, Joanne Mewis, explains how her organisation helped bring an innovative Italian healthcare business to the West Midlands.

“We lead member companies to commercial opportunities in the medical market, through market intelligence, business introductions and networking, and always base our support on a full understanding of each member’s specific challenges and goals,” says Joanne Mewis, Medilink WM’s membership manager.

“We pride ourselves on our up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of both our industry and its networks, across health technologies and the life sciences sector.

“Our membership service provides a gateway for essential connectivity to the business, clinical, academic, regulatory, and finance communities, helping individuals and businesses to form new collaborative partnerships and navigate the increasingly complex health innovation landscape.”

The latest example of how Medilink WM membership works in practice came after the Department for International Trade (DIT) introduced the organisation to an Italian company looking to establish a presence in the UK to promote its products to the fast-growing med-tech market.

Bimar Ortho S.P.A. was founded in 1986, and has acquired a world-class reputation in the field of orthopaedic and ortho-biological solutions, initially for its innovative expertise in foot surgery, and subsequently in upper limb surgery including ligament, tendon reconstruction and provision of orthopaedic prostheses.

In its domestic market, the company operates through a network of distributors and agents, supported by product managers, and having recognised the UK’s med-tech sector as a

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thriving ecosystem of researchers, scientists, engineers, designers, and NHS clinicians, it approached the DIT for guidance.

“We wanted to be in the West Midlands as it provides a wealth of opportunities for companies like ours looking to expand into the UK’s life sciences sector,” says Bimar’s UK general manager, Kevin Edwards.

“It was crucial that we established ourselves in an area giving us access to a highly skilled workforce, accelerated clinical programmes and which had an established and well-connected life sciences community.

“My colleagues and I found Medilink to be very professional, approachable and courteous at all times. Their experience, combined with their professionalism and key contacts in the sector, mean that we now confidently expect Bimar Ortho to make a noticeable impression on the NHS in 2018.”

The innovative product that the Italian company expects to be the catalyst for its success in the UK’s healthcare economy is software-based, and designed to treat major fractures to the head and upper torso.

The products currently available can create complex complications after surgery, but the Bimar Ortho approach is to assist orthopaedic surgeons via a digital web-platform, which suggests patient-specific operation techniques allowing them to use the required cage, plate and screws with greater precision.

“We’ve teamed up with a specialist digital company to provide a portal for pre-op planning through virtual and tangible three dimensional (3D) models,” says Edwards.

“Our software will save considerable time in

the operating theatre, and because surgeons can study precise information about each patient, the procedures will be far more accurate than previously.

“We are in the final trial stages, and when our system is fully tested, we plan to launch it in the UK, most likely through a partnership with a major hospital NHS Trust.”

“The key to this region’s life sciences growth is its research and development (R&D) facilities and renowned clinical trial capabilities, coupled with its unique demographic advantages,” says Mewis.

“With local, regional and national support networks to help with accessing investment and funding, we are poised to capitalise on our ecosystem of assets to create a globally significant resource for the life sciences industry.

“Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, and I’m delighted to welcome Bimar Ortho, an innovative international business, to Medilink membership and to the West Midlands.” n

Want to join our network or find out more ?

Get in touch with Joanne Mewis T: 0121 452 5630 E: joannem@medilinkwm.co.uk www.medlilinkwm.co.uk

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The name’s

Marsh -Sarah-Jane Marsh Sarah-Jane Marsh is chief executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Ian Halstead caught up with her to discuss her career, her values – and her love affair with Russia.

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ociety has changed almost beyond recognition in the digital era, but our fascination with espionage remains undimmed; whether its an IT-savvy savant hacking the apparatus of a foreign state, or the mysterious workings of our own GCHQ. Female spies are always the rarest of this secretive breed, so even today, the names of Mata Hari and Ethel Rosenberg remain far more evocative than later generations of their male peers.

Sarah-Jane Marsh was on the cusp of penetrating the murky world of espionage too, after following her studies in history at Lancaster University, with an masters degree in Russian and European Studies at the University of Birmingham – where her specialist subject was the Russian revolution.

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“I knew I wanted to work in the public sector.

I had no desire to go off and work in banking, or have a job just making profit. I wanted something with a structure around it, because its a big move from full-time education to work,” she recalls.

“However, I was also really interested in how history is rewritten to suit the perceptions of the current ruling generation, and the story of the revolution has been written and written again. I’ve always loved history, and been intrigued by how there are different versions of the ‘truth’.

“I had to read Russian as it was spoken in the early 20th century to study original documents, and that was how I became involved with MI5, after I joined the civil service’s fast-track programme.”

Its easy to see the logic of a contemporary George Smiley, as he carefully vetted the young Marsh’s credentials. Intelligent, confident, and thoughtfully ambitious, her specialist linguistic knowledge might well be an asset in espionage activities.

This was after all the year 2000… former KGB agent Vladimir Putin had just been elected Russian president and immediately made his personal and imperial ambitions very clear, so every Western intelligence service was scrambling to bolster its Russia team.

However, Marsh had also applied to the NHS’s fast-track management scheme, and by chance, her focus turned in that direction.

“That April, my dad had a heart attack in his early 50s, needed a quadruple heart by-pass in the Walsgrave Hospital at Coventry, and I was

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travelling from home in Dudley to there every day. I’d never really sat in a hospital before, but gradually started to think about management within a hospital environment.

“I had gone quite a long way through the MI5 recruitment process, but then the job offer suddenly came from the NHS and I joined that autumn.”

Her dad – a Black Country coal merchant – soon recovered, but his illness proved a notable moment of serendipity for his daughter’s career path.

Marsh’s first decade inside the NHS climaxed with her appointment as chief executive officer at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, via a spell as planning and productivity director at Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, and the NHS’s national executive team has continued to carve her name with pride upon its management rosters.

She integrated the Birmingham Women’s NHS Trust into her current organisation, the first such body in Europe, before leading the evolution of Forward Thinking Birmingham, an innovative mental health programme for the under-25s.

A year ago, Marsh was also appointed chair of the NHS England Maternity Transformation Programme Board, tasked with making maternity

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care safer, and giving women greater control and choice – just after the Birmingham Children’s and Women’s NHS Trust was named trust of the year by the Health Services Journal.

To achieve such progress over a sustained period is impressive. To do so and be so well thought of that seemingly everyone in the regional NHS speaks to her merits is slightly unnerving.

Pleasingly, Marsh is very willing to concede that there have been moments of good fortune – and that she’s had the support of key individuals who identified her precocious talent.

“Once you come off the scheme, your progress is up to you. I’ve done enough and achieved enough to be confident that I’ve done a good job, because things just don’t happen by luck, but have also met some people who’ve been inspirational and very supportive along the way.

“At Walsall, for instance, I was working for the deputy chief executive, who was also finance director, and I was the only person in his department who wasn’t an accountant.

“After two months, he moved up to acting chief executive, and asked me to stay in his team. I was only 25 or 26, so no more senior

than a ward manager, but I found myself working at a very senior level. It just happened.

“When the new chief executive came in, she knew of the fast-track scheme and saw me as a useful resource in her team. I did several projects for her, and then got promoted, because she trusted me.”

A recurring theme in Marsh’s upward trajectory is self-awareness – about the need to enhance her skill-set for new and ever-more senior roles – and an impressive honesty.

Her rationale for moving to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH): “I decided that I’d moved up too quickly, hadn’t acquired some experiences that others had and realised I needed a more operational job; involved with planning, governance, risk and suchlike, and looked for a chief operational officer’s job at a trust in this area.”

Her later decision to go for the chief executives position at the hospital: “I didn’t apply at first – but quite a few who did were the usual suspects. I’d like to think that the NHS has moved on since then, but the candidates were widely regarded as ‘male, pale and stale’, and quite a few people I’d worked with – including the chairman – encouraged me to apply.”

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How she took on the demands of that high-profile role in her early 30s: “My priority was to get BCH working properly, as it had lost something of its reputation. I’ve always been very transparent about what I haven’t done.

There’s a danger at the executive level that people aren’t willing to say they’re stuck, but I did, and asked others with different experiences to help me.”

Her approach to setting the hospital on its long journey to recovery: “I made sure everyone knew what we needed to do. I don’t mean having a ‘Big Vision’ on a poster, but clarity was very important. You focus on improving the quality of care, need to be relentless in making those improvements, and you surround yourself with good people.”

The factors which then led the BCH to be awarded ‘Outstanding’ status: “There were lots of reasons, but staff engagement was key, and it took three years of hard work. Making it a great place to work.

Making staff feel valued. Encouraging people

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“Today, workforce decisions are driven purely by finance, but we must get ahead of the curve”

to move up through the ranks, and even at the micro-level, reminding people to take breaks.”

Marsh also offers a passionate perspective on how the NHS might evolve, and what strategies might help guide it.

“I believe we need a workforce plan, for the next 10 years at least. Today, workforce decisions are driven purely by finance, but we must get ahead of the curve. It takes years to ‘grow’ healthcare professionals, so you need long-term horizons.

“We also need to think about how we can support our people. A lot of the so-called ‘over-spending’ in the NHS is down to the use of temporary staff, because we can’t find the full-time people we need, and we could do a lot more to strengthen the links between where people train and where they work.

“We must adapt too, to how the current generation want to work and live. Someone in their 50s might well want different things from someone in their mid-20s, and it isn’t about ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ values. We have to reflect that, and we need to think their different approaches through.”

Even on such a controversial topic as how the NHS dovetails into our present political landscape, when news bulletins present it as in a state of near-permanent crisis, Marsh is willing to be upfront – and her views deserve to be heard by the widest audience.

“I have no negative words about Jeremy Hunt, but do think the NHS hasn’t been one of the major topics of conversation during elections.

I feel that healthcare is being driven by the Treasury, and finance departments,

because the NHS dropped off the government’s list of priorities.

“We appreciate that money isn’t endless, but it absolutely isn’t about low productivity. We outstrip all other sectors for productivity, but sometimes the lack of funding is the reason productivity isn’t higher.

“For example, our operating theatres don’t work as efficiently as they could, because we haven’t got the staff, and we can’t discharge patients because the social care structures aren’t there.

“If I was an elderly patient, needing treatment from a system I’d paid into all my life, I’d be very angry if I was on a trolley at night, wondering when I could move into a ward. We must invest, because if we don’t, the real costs are higher.

Children don’t go to school. Parents don’t go to work. People develop mental health issues.

“Keeping people as well and as fit as we possibly can should be the building block of our society. We need to change our own narrative about the NHS. We’re being positioned as ‘takers’ rather than ‘givers’, which is simply wrong.

“Politicians and commentators need to understand just how much excellent healthcare contributes to our society and our economy, and we all need to have conversations about what people need.”

As Marsh pauses to reflect, a faint rustling and a bustling can be heard through her office’s creaking wooden walls.

Some might say it was simply the sound of children’s feet, scampering along the corridor on a school visit, but it was surely a smattering of distant applause from the founding father of the NHS, Nye Bevan, who was equally passionate about healthcare’s pivotal role in society – and Russia too. n

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Ambitious for the best Amanda Wood is a professor of developmental neuropsychology and director of Aston Brain Centre (ABC). She met Ian Halstead to outline her vision for the organisation’s future.

Amanda Wood with one of her students, Manisha Kali

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ost people will never encounter developmental neuropsychology… but should you need to understand the concept of this fast-evolving science, and its vast potential to save and improve young lives, there’s surely no more passionate or compelling advocate than Amanda Wood.

Naturally, her husband, daughter and dog – although not necessarily always in that order – define her private life, and given Wood’s Twitter handle of @academickayak no-one need guess

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her favourite hobby.

However, young brains, the myriad conditions that affect them, and devising innovative treatments to help youngsters live better and live longer, are her professional universe.

She’s from Australia – leaving her addicted to fruity sweets and the fearsome delights of Australian Rugby League – but is clearly talking the same language as the Aston University hierarchy, given the warmth with which her

business case for its new strategic direction has been received.

ABC is a research organisation; looking to study the workings of the brain in sickness and in health, and then to translate its findings into new forms of diagnosis, therapy and treatment.

“My background training was as a clinician, although as a youngster I wanted to be an engineer, but now I’ve moved forward, so much of what I do is about advanced computational analysis of big data,” says Wood.

“My original remit in coming here was to deliver a research project, using MRI scans to better predict long-term outcomes for children who suffer brain injuries early in life.

“However, last year, there was a review of the centre’s strategy – in line with Aston’s next five-year plan – and pleasingly, there has been excellent support for my proposals to expand research and teaching delivery.

“We now aim to establish ourselves as a world-leading centre of excellence for paediatric brain research, and also have a fantastic opportunity to train professionals who work in related areas.

“Whether children’s brains are in health or in disease, questions about their development are really very simple. We now see an awful lot of technological advances, in different disciplines, coming together in a collaborative structure to provide answers in the best way possible.”

Wood is eager to build on ABC’s existing body of work by bringing together colleagues from the new Aston Medical School, and other departments, including engineering, optometry and psychology.

She’s also visibly enthused by the presence

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of the city’s healthcare and life sciences cluster and Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH).

“They’re only 200 metres away, we have fantastic links with them, and are beginning discussions about building our critical mass of research ability, which has huge potential to create an evidence base leading to even-better care for children and their families.

“We have the very latest equipment allowing the study of the brain, from single cells right through to co-ordinated brain functions, with our MRI scanner and our MagnetoEncephaloGraphy (MEG) scanner, which was the first in Europe and remains the UK’s only dedicated scanner.”

Traditional scans identify the geography of a brain and blood-flow, but MEG technology tracks the magnetic signals thrown off by neurons as they communicate, essentially allowing observers to see in real-time how a brain’s networks ‘talk’ to each other.

“We have a niche regional strength across different imaging centres, so we can go out to seek grants and capital investment to support imaging-based research,” she says.

“There’s also a concerted approach in Birmingham to bring academics and healthcare professionals together to solve big problems.

Much of that work tends to focus on adults, and I think we can really focus on the child.

“Nowhere in the UK has this resource, and we are also well-positioned to start training professionals, the radiographers, oncologists, engineers, physicists, mathematicians and psychologists.

“We’re fortunate to have several existing faculty grants which will support our work, and also have a clinical service – so the BCH and hospitals in London have clinical studies done here, which generates income.

“The greater focus is building our critical mass, so I’m looking to make key appointments, both academic and research, and looking to our industrial partners, to help change the way we think and operate.

“We’ll look to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to judge their interest in

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“You shouldn’t be doing research if you’re only going to look at stuff you already know.”

developing tools and technologies with us.

Traditionally, that’s something most academics don’t think of, but its certainly well done here, and the next step is to identify potential partners.”

Wood is equally happy to discuss her centre’s challenges as the five-year strategy moves from the planning phase to delivery.

“I don’t think we’ve capitalised on the links between BCH, which has the patients, the companies which have the products, and the academics who can deliver the research.

“In terms of future joint ventures, we need to be better academically aligned. For example, we have junior members of the faculty interested in issues around child nutrition, and also keen to establish relationships with industry.

“The other area we can enhance is on the engineering side. Much research we do depends on smart people with science and engineering skills, and I think we can use them – and other colleagues across the university – to discover current research and development (R&D) projects in industry with which we can help.

“Can we, for example, have our postdoctoral fellows or young research assistants work collaboratively to create a fantastic nexus, rather than being isolated in the so-called ivory towers?

“Its already an area Aston does very well, and there’s certainly scope for ABC to embrace that approach. We can also learn a lot from seeing how other universities and institutions work.

“Aston’s success is built on its tremendous success at engaging with industry, and as someone who hasn’t previously worked in that space, I was delighted to learn at my interview, that I would be encouraged to translate my research into something commercial.

“Equally, it would be remiss not to look outside. We don’t want to adopt someone

else’s approach, but can gain insights by looking at other and innovative ways in which a research-based neuro-imaging centre might work.”

Wood is also refreshingly upfront when asked about her leadership vision for ABC. “Its too easy to remain static, but I think the greatest advances often come by looking outside individual disciplines. Some research might be considered high-risk, but then its also high-gain. We’re not doing this to feather our CVs. “I was constantly told I’m too ambitious, but eventually worked out not to apologise for pushing the envelope. You shouldn’t be doing research if you’re only going to look at stuff you already know.

“I think the ABC’s raison d’etre should be that there is nothing wrong with being ambitious, with wanting to do the best research and with wanting to improve lives.

“If I can convince one student that their future lies in studying the brain, my job is done.

If I can say to one family, we have used all our computer science and fancy tools, and we’ve scanned brains, so we can now help your child have a better life, then job done too.

“Equally, although passion and excitement make the days fly by, those qualities always have to be underpinned by the facts and the figures.

“In the medium-term, I want us to attract the top post-doctoral fellows and students, alongside expansion of our training provision for undergraduates and professionals who align with our activities.

“Long-term, I want to see a seamless relationship between the activities at the BCH and our centre, so clinicians and academics can collaborate to answer important questions about child health.” n

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A park with

potential Steve Taylor, director of strategy and operations for Birmingham Life Sciences Park, at the University of Birmingham (UoB), updates BQ2 about the park’s evolution.

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ife sciences is already a sizeable chunk of the region’s economy, employing roughly 23,000 people and with close to 700 companies working in the sector.

Even for an industry well used to size and scale though, the life sciences park planned for

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a site just shy of 10 acres, in the city’s Selly Oak district will be something special.

With a projected investment of £171m, and the potential to create 2,200 jobs, it will be a landmark project for both the city, and its target sector.

The park is being delivered by Birmingham Health Partners (BHP); an alliance between the UoB, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

BHP is a strategic grouping, seeking to accelerate access to drugs, devices and diagnostics to deliver better treatments and care to patients throughout the West Midlands, and the park is very much its flagship project.

Taylor was brought in last November to oversee the transformation, strategic direction and development of the former industrial site, having previously headed several research teams and projects for the UoB. “We’re still developing the park’s offer, but the site should deliver around 500,000 sq ft of developable space in two phases,” he says.

“The first will be an innovation hub for the UoB, with what we might call ‘entrepreneurial space’ and the potential for incubation space.

“That phase would probably account for up to a third of the space, and the second phase would be more traditional space for businesses who wanted to co-locate with the university, the clinics, the life sciences cluster and the Edgbaston Medical Quarter.

“We’re keen to engage with developers, but we’ve also been talking to the government, to the GBSLEP and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).”

An early GBSLEP investment was the catalyst for the site to be assembled and remediated, when it was owned by the city council.

However, given the ever-increasing pressures on public sector resources, the appeal of support from a cash-rich development partner is clear.

“We’re open to discussions with any developer who could handle a project of this scale, but my preference would be for a developer-investor,” admits Taylor.

“We presented at MIPIM 2018, the world’s largest property event, recently to ensure that people are aware of the potential of the park, and to make a business case for the scheme as a development and investment opportunity.

“We’re not working to a tight timetable, but already we’ve had good engagement, and Andy Street (the WMCA mayor) is very interested in how we take this forward.”

BHP’s managing director, John Williams, describes the life sciences park as a key element of his organisation’s strategic vision.

“Its a part of a suite of opportunities for start-ups on the UoB campus, including the BioHub, the BizzInn and Birmingham Research Park, which will help us deliver innovation at pace and scale across the wider West Midlands,” he says. n

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Pebble Mill Birmingham PLOT 1

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Pebble Mill is a world-class destination for healthcare and medical sciences. Located on the Calthorpe Estate, it is part of Birmingham’s growing and internationally-renowned healthcare cluster within Edgbaston Medical Quarter. www.pebblemillbirmingham.co.uk

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Another development by:

0121 248 7676 enquiry@calthorpe.co.uk

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We are building a world class destination at Pebble Mill Calthorpe Estates’ director of development, Ralph Minott, updates on progress at Pebble Mill, and how the healthcare and life sciences destination continues to grow on a global scale in the heart of Birmingham.

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he BBC, drawn to Edgbaston in the late1960s created a regional centre of broadcasting excellence, which could attract talent from far and wide. The site won fame as Pebble Mill studios, and spawned an array of notable programmes; including the world’s longestrunning radio soap, The Archers, and the everpopular Top Gear. The BBC thus heralded Pebble Mill into Birmingham folklore and history.

Since Calthorpe took back control of the Bristol Road location, its vision has been on an even-greater scale: to develop a landmark destination of international size and scale, inside Edgbaston Medical Quarter, which has evolved on its estate during the Pebble Mill development years. Fifteen years ago Calthorpe Estates embraced our now long-gone Regional Development Agency Advantage West Midlands’ vision for the A38 Technology Corridor from Aston to Malvern, for a priority planning designation for regeneration land for science and technology uses and employment.

Through the decade that followed, including the disbanding of the UK’s Regional Development Agencies, Ralph Minott recounts however “a realisation with the support of

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the city council, and other strategic partners, that a ‘one glove does not fit all’ policy could and clearly did not apply to all land along a 40 mile corridor: travelling from the city centre of Birmingham, through countryside, market town and village sites, simply adding a title or brand of ‘science and technology’ to land, did not make it a science and technology location: nor ‘spirit’ science, tech companies or jobs. The right uses would always identify and be pulled to a location’s employment and business strengths.

“It has been pivotal to the assembly and preparation of the 27-acre site having a city council that has been on the full 15-year Pebble Mill journey, and that fully understand the locational strengths of the Edgbaston Medical Quarter particularly, and the needs and determinants of occupiers.

“The £50m Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry, designed to treat some 200,000 patients each year, and be the dental training centre for 600 dental students and trainees, and a 62-bed Bupa care home, both responding in design terms to Calthorpe Estate Masterplan and forward looking design guide for Pebble Mill, are already in place; and work on a spectacular

private hospital operated by Circle Health on Plot 5 is well advanced. Permission has also been granted on Plot 6 to bring in two major leisure brands, which will add an important amenity offer for visitors, patients, their families and staff to Pebble Mill Birmingham.

“Calthorpe has also invested some £6m providing the infrastructure that links the six plots, and access to and from the site with the adjacent arterial highways; and environmental improvements, including a tranquillity garden, cultivating Pebble Mill’s 100 plus year old established landscaping, but also supporting an Environment Agency (EA)-led flood mitigation scheme to alleviate the long-time flooding from the tributaries that feed into the River Rea, and pass through Pebble Mill and the surrounding catchments.”

Now the landowner is on the cusp of being able to confirm the two final elements of the Masterplan, with a genuine prospective tenant line-up that will finally complete its plans, hopes and dreams into reality, as Minott explains.

“As we’ve steadily progressed Pebble Mill Birmingham, the most pleasing aspect has been that companies wishing to come here have raised the bar for their own strategic ambitions.

Circle Health for example have significantly scaled-up its private hospital proposal, on course to open in early 2019.

“In November 2017 Circle secured approval for an increase from the approved 15,000sq.m. proposal of the hospital on plot 5 to 19,000sq.m. which will offer future flexibility to keep with the pace of change and demand. The new

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Artist’s impression of Building 4 at Pebble Mill.

capacity will allow Circle to add on rehabilitation at Pebble Mill as well,” says Minott. The ‘stateof-the-art hospital’ will bring to Birmingham the high-quality care and excellent hospitality that Circle is known for in its existing hospitals in Bath, Reading and Nottingham. Circle Birmingham hospital will provide three operating theatres (expandable up to six), an endoscopy procedure room, and in-patient bedrooms, packed with the latest technology; along with the capacity to extend theatres and inpatient facilities as demand increases, Circle will now be able to add comprehensive rehabilitation facilities for patients with musculoskeletal and neurological conditions.

“The continued growth of EMQ, and the wider healthcare and life sciences cluster in Birmingham mean interest in our site continues to increase, but where Pebble Mill’s location above all, and unrivalled proximity of its development opportunities to such a special healthcare cluster; the growth of skills, and ease for clinicians, noting the likes of QE Hospital Birmingham and University of Birmingham therein, crystallises its attraction.

“At Plot 4, for our ambitious £26m Building 4 proposals to meet known occupational needs that we are in advanced discussions on, ignoring other medical specialist opportunities we’d like to try and find homes for, we now need a scheme of around 9,000sq.m, more than our

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5,000sq.m. original vision.

“The last pieces of the Pebble Mill ‘jigsaw’ will feature medical and technology businesses that align themselves to the Pebble Mill catchment cluster, with one of the highest performing and proven international medical catchment reputations in Europe, for quality of care, information technology, clinical education and training and research, especially being a regional centre for cancer, and world-renowned for trauma care, and rehabilitation.

“We have an ambition to see proton therapy treatment develop in the region, and believe Pebble Mill and EMQ can play a key role in this, as much as we believe we can offer expansion opportunities for the local NHS Foundation Trusts through our flexibility and simple land holding position.

“Adjacent to Selly Oak we are hugely mindful of the dynamics that student land use outside the confines of the university campus plays, and for our approved schemes at Plot 6 Pebble Mill for student accommodation and important leisure amenities to the Pebble Mill, the need to manage these with the same attention that we place elsewhere on the estate, but we are proud of the Flood Mitigation Project that these uses have helped fund.

“Within the River Rea Partnership, the jointly funded flood mitigation project with the environment agency is not just a great

example of partnership working, but much more about the genuine only means of funding the environment agency’s proposals to reduce the local Selly Park North catchment flooding in a realistic time frame. At a cost of some £4m, 50% of the funds had to be found from third party contributions. An opportunity to take a long term view, it saw Calthorpe Estates committing £2m in 2016 on the back of the future prospective value from the proposed student accommodation and leisure amenities, this enabled the EA to secure the project approval and the project is now well underway.

“Pebble Mill resonates the huge pride we have at Calthorpe Estates, in reaching our 300th anniversary in 2017, proudly working with Birmingham City Council, who have both challenged and guided us to ensure at Pebble Mill we provide catchment solutions.” n

Pebble Mill Birmingham

Calthorpe Estates 76 Hagley Road Edgbaston Birmingham B16 8LU 0121 248 7676 www.calthorpe.co.uk

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West Midlands leads the way in partnership Professor Dion Morton, who heads Birmingham’s Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, and leads the regional arm of the NHS’s 100,000 Genomes Project, gives BQ2 an insight into his work.

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e’re three years into the project, which will transform diagnosis and treatment for patients with cancer and rare diseases, and there’ve been two major changes.

In the West Midlands, we’ve created a new and co-ordinated structure so our 18 NHS hospital trusts can collaborate effectively. The NHS is notoriously complex and its the first time this approach has been attempted.

Its been very successful, not least because we’ve introduced a linked IT system, so data and information can be shared in real-time. For instance, I could be here at the QE and look at data for a patient in Hereford.

In some sectors, that might not seem radical, but within the NHS its a huge innovation. Its been an enormous task, but its been embraced by healthcare professionals and managers, and – most importantly – by our patients.

We’re all proud that the West Midlands is leading the way, and is the only region where hospital trusts and clinicians are working together so efficiently.

The second change has been the ability of the healthcare fraternity to use genome data to diagnose very rare conditions for the benefit of patients and their families.

Some are so rare that previously a doctor might only see one or two cases in their career, but now we can develop and introduce genomic-led treatments for these patients.

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Being able to tackle rare conditions will be huge, because although they’re very small in terms of patient numbers, they probably account for 20% for our total healthcare budget.

The genomics project is equally important for treating cancer, because its a condition driven by genetic changes in the footprint of an individual’s DNA, so only by looking at the whole of that DNA can we determine what has changed.

You could even define cancer as a rare disease, because each one has a subtly different footprint. As we make further advances into genomics, the treatment of cancer will evolve because we’ll identify new and individual treatment pathways.

This project’s progress also underlines how the NHS itself is evolving. For the last century, medicine has been about the study of disease under a microscope, but in the last 20 years, the focus has increasingly been at the tissue level (DNA), which has been a profound change.

Now, thanks to our growing understanding of genomes, we’re starting to predict the onset of diseases, rather than waiting for them to happen. Medicine is moving into prevention and genomics is central to that transition.

Healthcare costs year-on-year tend to increase, largely for demographic reasons, but genomics offers a change to reduce costs

because it tells you which therapies won’t work.

For example, in my speciality of colorectal surgery probably 90% of patients who receive chemotherapy after surgery will receive no benefit. However, genomics will allow us to pre-determine which treatments which will – or not – work for individual patients.

So, we’ll have a tremendous opportunity to rationalise the use of medicines, rather than simply accumulate them. Driving down the cost of identifying a whole-genome sequence has been crucial. It cost around US$2bn to identify the first, but now it can be done for few hundred dollars.

We’ll also be able to develop novel and targeted therapies, which will substantially reduce the cost of treatment.

In short, genomics offer a unique opportunity to transform how healthcare is delivered. Such progress couldn’t be achieved outside the NHS, where genuine collaboration can be achieved, as we have demonstrated.” n

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“Medicine is moving into prevention and genomics is central to that transition.”

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Luxurious new care home Built on the site of BBC’s fondly remembered Pebble Mill Studio, our luxurious new care home provides nursing, residential, dementia and respite care.

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NEW CARE HOME AT THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY General manager Gareth Richards explains the philosophy behind the new £12m Bupa care home, which has been purpose-built at the Pebble Mill Birmingham site.

P

eople in Britain are living longer than ever before, with life expectancy rising year after year thanks to better lifestyles and medical advances.

The latest figures published in December 2017 by the Office for National Statistics shows there are now 11.8 million people aged 65 or over in the UK. The number of centenarians in the UK now stands at 14,570, a 65% increase over the last decade. Of these, an estimated 800 are aged 105 and over, double that of 2005.

The shift in trends means the demand for care home places will almost double within the next 20 years and also means that provision

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for the elderly in their later years has to adapt and change. Nowhere is this more evident than in the flagship purpose built £12m Pebble Mill Bupa care home, which has been built on the site of the iconic BBC studios in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Plans for the building began to take shape two years ago, and the 62 bedroom home was completed earlier this year.

Part of Bupa’s “Select” collection, the home will serve the people of Edgbaston and the wider city – and its obvious when stepping into the building and meeting the staff that this is no ordinary care home.

For a start, its located within a health care

“community”, which includes the highly praised dental hospital and the Circle Private Hospital.

Pebble Mill sits at the heart of the Calthorpe Estate, home to the burgeoning health care cluster, and every care has been taken to provide world class facilities as part of the regeneration of Pebble Mill.

The man tasked with overseeing the launch of the care home, and ensuring Bupa’s promise to deliver “healthier, happier lives,” is general manager Gareth Richards.

With a senior business background in retail management before he joined Bupa, Richards brings a wealth of experience to the role, and is very obviously proud of the new building, which will also bring more than 80 jobs to the city.

Richards managed sizeable operations in the retail world, and comparisons with his new role are not lost on him.

“Providing a high quality service is all about offering people the best possible choice,” he says. “We provide reassurance to families at a time in their lives when they are making a big decision about the provision of care for their loved one. That reassurance is very important, as people want to know that the standards and service we are providing both meet their needs but also are the right choice for them. They are putting their trust in us to help them arrive at that decision.”

And the care is first rate, with the home offering 24-hour support, accommodation and personal care, offering specialist residential, nursing, day care, convalescence and end of life care, as well as support for those living with dementia.

There are, of course, many considerations to be mulled over when deciding on care provision for elderly people. Amongst those are first impressions, and the brand new Pebble Mill Bupa care home cannot fail to stick in one’s mind. From the feature rooftop terrace looking out over neighbouring Edgbaston, to the landscape garden complete with dining area and its own pizza oven, to the standard of facilities in each of the 62 rooms, to the beauty salon and multi-purpose activities room, every care and attention to detail in terms of quality has been taken.

With 26 nursing rooms, 26 rooms for people living with dementia and ten residential rooms

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“Providing a highquality service is all about offering people the best possible choice.”

all with en-suite bathrooms, the three storey building is at the cutting edge of latest design.

The sparkling kitchen facilities on the top floor look like something straight out of a five star hotel – but Richards is also very focused on the fact that this will be a home in which the residents should feel completely comfortable and relaxed.

“Yes, we offer the very best in every aspect of what we do, but our residents get involved at the outset in making their own mark when they join us. They can add decorations and artworks to their room to make it as personal to them as they want it to be. We also encourage people to make suggestions about what activities they want to take part in, and that will form the basis of many conversations they will have with staff. Our work is focused on stimulation, engagement and communication with our residents.

“The activities we offer and encourage become increasingly important as people get older,” he adds. “We know we get the basics right, its actually all the other little things that set care homes like this apart.”

For example, there is no set structure to each day – if residents want to undertake a certain activity, staff will ensure that they go the extra mile to help. Regular club activities such as watercolour painting and gardening are driven by what the residents want to do. This includes the Big 12, an arrangement whereby each month of the year is themed to a different country, and staff help residents pay a “virtual visit” to countries around the world, tasting its food, and theming individual rooms – all of which helps provoke memories and engagement in the residents, who thoroughly enjoy being involved.

Food at the Pebble Mill care home is excellent, and is an important component for residents and their families when choosing a

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“Our work is focused on stimulation, engagement and communication with our residents.”

home. Meals are served in the restaurant or in their rooms if preferred.

“Because choosing a care home is a group decision for the whole family, we encourage people to come in and see for themselves – for instance, stay for Sunday lunch, spend an afternoon with us, meet other residents in a relaxed environment,” says Richards.

“We want people to ask the questions that are bound to be on their minds. Its important to us that they see our residents happy and responsive, that they are alert and interested and that they are encouraged to do the things they want to be doing.”

And that extends to Richard’s staff, who buy into the welcoming ethos of the home. “All our staff have an inherently caring nature,” he says.

“They all want to make a difference, be that through nursing needs or through interaction.

I’m able to encourage that approach by applying a lot of what I learned in my retail life to Bupa – I’m a problem solver and like to get

the very best out of every person who works here.”

Richards talks enthusiastically about the staff going “above and beyond” – and that’s evident in the home too. Each floor of the building is a nod to Pebble Mill – the site famously once owned by the BBC, renowned as being the home of Midlands Today, BBC WM and where programmes such as The Archers, Top Gear and Gardeners World were produced.

Each floor will contain subtle artworks reflecting the TV history of the site. Pebble Mill is a name that will resonate strongly with many of the people who will make their homes here over the years, which seems a fitting way to ensure that everyone living here will be as comfortable as they possibly can be. n

Pebble Mill Care Home 0121 667 6169 Bupa.co.uk/pebble-mill

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LIVE DEBATE

THE VOICE FOR BUSINESS DEBATE A stellar line-up from Birmingham’s healthcare and life sciences community mulled over the sector’s challenges and opportunities for the BQ2 Live Debate. Caroline Theobald kept the conversations flowing, Jolly Media captured the event in pictures, and Ian Halstead distilled the discussions.

The national debate about public healthcare has become exhausting. All sides hurl insults and accusations, and obsess on the issue of resources.

However, those at the BQ2 event were of an analytical and creative mindset, making proceedings all the more enjoyable and productive.

Each guest set the scene by identifying the strategic challenges which most exercised them.

Tony Davis, commercial director of the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN), made the case for disruption as

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the catalyst for innovation.

“We see opportunity, because of how existing healthcare models and systems can be disrupted, and how we harness the powerful relationships between academics and industry to create new and more efficient models.

“Primarily, our systems have always been focused on place, so the perception has been that the healthcare providers don’t do anything until patients come to them and want their issues to be fixed.

“One area for disruption is to look proactively at prevention and self-care, even maybe for private purchase solutions, to

manage demand.

“We need to make the system more sustainable, so people don’t go into the ‘fix me’ phase until they have done everything possible to resolve their issue. ”We must also work with industry, to start to articulate value and savings, drive innovation into healthcare and educate patients so they become involved in creating their own solutions.

Steve Taylor, director of strategy and operations for the Birmingham Life Sciences Park, highlighted the crucial role of collaboration.

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“Its about developing the right partnerships and the right narrative with government and business, for growing out the park and developing economic opportunities.

“Universities, the NHS and companies in our target sectors will be important partners as we evolve our agenda, as will the public.

“We must drive innovation forward, to create economic opportunities, and to bring everything back to better healthcare for patients. I see this debate, not simply as a ‘call to arms’ for the park, but as a chance to increase collaboration and raise the sector’s profile here and overseas.”

John Williams, managing director of Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), saw significant scope for partnerships with individuals and organisations outside the region.

“Our core function is to leverage opportunities for innovation between highlytalented academics and business. A good example would be our relationship with Oxford University, in an auto-immune alliance to accelerate new insight, diagnoses and therapies.

“My key issue is the relative invisibility of the West Midlands with regard to healthcare and life sciences. When I talk to colleagues elsewhere, I don’t think we have been as effective as we might in terms of getting our key messages across to politicians, business leaders, influencers and decision-makers.

“We are embarking on a critical period when our messages must be coherent and consistent. Our asset base is considerable, and our influence should be greater for us to grab a larger slice of the investment cake.”

Nicki Gibberson, Calthorpe Estates’ head of marketing, said her organisation had a twopronged strategy and revealed an intriguing long-term focus.

“Our aims are to deliver the business and office space required by companies, organisations and individuals within the Edgbaston Medical Quarter, and help attract FDI to the estate and the wider healthcare cluster.

“In the long-term, we aim to drive medical tourism here, because everyone would benefit from the money which patients bring to the sector and the city.

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“The government doesn’t support medical tourism, as it can be a political hot-potato, but we consider its actually a positive.

“It would create new revenue streams for the NHS and I’d like to see people realise its a good thing, which doesn’t take away anything from the NHS.” Pam Waddell, commercial director of the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands, was in typically pithy form throughout.

“My burning issue is that, although we have been working really hard around innovation for many years, we should re-balance our approach and focus more intently on demand-led innovation, to pull through and not simply just to push out.”

Katie Judge, executive manager at the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP, said it had been asked to lead on behalf of the West Midlands Combined Authority on local industrial strategy.

“We’re interested in how we can grow the life sciences sector from an investment perspective, and expand the business space.

We recognise our huge life sciences assets and are keen to learn how we might help unlock their potential for economic growth and the benefit of our population.

“Raising the profile of the sector is critical.

We must also ensure the eco-system is strong, and opportunities for collaboration are brought forward. Our strength in manufacturing is another key asset.”

Mention of manufacturing brought Philip Salt, chief executive of Salts Healthcare – the 10th generation of his family to run the business – to the fore.

“We’re proud to have demonstrated change throughout our 300-year history, and are going through massive change today, which is all to do with innovation, manufacturing and Birmingham.

“Innovation is absolutely key to what we do, although we’re always mindful no-one should invent something just for the sake of it.

“My greatest concern is how we square the conflict between innovation in healthcare technology – which usually reduces whole-life costs and increases quality of life – against the current procurement practice of buying on cost.

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“I’ve seen tenders where the weighting for cost price is 70%, and have heard about others, where its 90%. If this mindset is allowed to continue, it will stifle innovation and encourage the use of low-quality products, which are often made abroad. Ultimately, the cost of healthcare will rise and the quality will fall.

“We’re maintaining our place as a highquality manufacturer, and much of our innovation is driven by the NHS, and patient need, but we really must look at whole-life cost not simply unit cost.”

Hugo Russell, programme manager for Serendip at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, was optimistic that his incubator’s model – where various bodies, including WMAHSN, co-locate with digital ventures – could be used to roll-out similar space across the city, “One of the strengths mentioned by tenants who come to Birmingham is the old adage about it being the city of 1,000 trades, and you can get access to an awful lot of stuff – if you know where to look.

“The biggest challenge to me is around ‘trusted facilitation’, so everyone has a clear understanding of why someone recommends they deal with someone.

“It may be the only option, but could also be because of graft, and relationships are not being recommended because they are the best.

I’d love to see cultural change on this issue.”

The merit of involving ‘outside eyes’ was underlined by Dieter Feger, the commercial director for Edgbaston-headquartered Binding Site… who lives in Frankfurt.

“We’re absolutely committed to Birmingham.

Its where the company’s roots lie and home to around 80% of our employees. We’re still investing heavily here, hiring about 100 employees every year, and see that continuing for at least another two years.

“I agree about the pricing challenge which is a huge issue in the UK and Europe. All too often, I hear ‘price, price, price’, and discussions about quality are driven backwards.

“However, our biggest challenge is talent.

We have people commuting from the East Midlands and elsewhere, flying in from Ireland and Western Europe, but many won’t move to Birmingham.

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“The other major challenge is Brexit. I don’t see much change in the short-term, the media coverage is over-hyped and Germans are very interested in retaining a strong relationship with the UK. “Its about human resources. We get recruits from universities and the NHS, but need constant access to quality technicians. We train people, have internship and apprenticeships, and do everything to increase our supply of talent.

“We started a massive training programme three years back, but its still not enough, and our biggest fear is that after Brexit, we might not have the current levels of access to talent from overseas.”

Widening the debate to talent brought Taylor back into the conversation.

“We do get graduates from universities across the West Midlands, but we must attract ones from Oxford and Cambridge to widen our intellectual base “We must also target our approach to bring

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in companies where we have demonstrable expertise, such as diagnostics, medical devices and medical technology.

“I see significant potential to benefit from the nurturing of digital and data-based companies which happens at Serendip and elsewhere, but its not just about a physical environment, we also need to create the right digital infrastructure so companies can ‘plug in’ to our digital communities.

“Big pharma, and medium-sized pharma, will benefit from our expertise in diagnostics, but we must ensure they can integrate effectively with clinicians and academics.

“We must start to tell the stories better too.

We are the UK’s largest genomics recruitment centre, 18 NHS Trusts work here, there are fantastic opportunities around advanced therapies and the majority of companies involved are SMEs.” “Very much. We have to find a way to move beyond saying ‘We are great. Everyone says we are great’ and demonstrate that we are

great because we are a place that will make a difference to your business,” said Williams.

“How do we get recognition for our demonstrable ability to take a difficult problem, and offer practical people-focused solutions which can transform the delivery of healthcare? We must show we can develop practical and real world solutions.”

“The city has a massive strength, the trusts, the universities and the hospitals, the way they work together, and the talent we have,” said Russell. “We must make citizens themselves aware of just what is here, to persuade them the NHS isn’t just there to rescue people, but that they can participate.”

“Everyone agrees transformational change is needed, but we should also identify quick wins to demonstrate what we as a region can achieve,” said Judge.

“We must highlight what has been done and what can be done, and ensure the supply of both new and grow-on business space can satisfy demand.”

“Today’s discussions are a very good start for us, to start thinking about how we can do things differently in life sciences and how we can make a mark,” said Waddell.

“Is there something we all can do, NHS trusts, academics and other organisations to drive more demand-led innovation forward?”

BHP’s Williams suggested that the debate be considered from patients’ perspectives.

“We should ask them what matters in their treatment, to create space and headroom for our amazingly talented people to step back, think how to address those needs, and then provide leadership to take ownership of this process and deliver solutions.

“Our challenge is to marry up the ideas, the thinkers and the influencers, then reach out to the innovators.”

His comments brought nods of assent, before Davis returned to his theme that individuals should play an increasing role in new healthcare models.

“We should all take responsibility for our own healthcare, and look at the lifestyle, choices and decisions which impact our health.

“However, the problem with the place-based system, and why it impacts so heavily on costs, is that it creates silos in terms of investments in healthcare. If we invest in prevention, how do

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we get a return on that investment and where does that return ‘fit’?

“Data, stratified medicine, modelling and AI can help build capacity and start to track how investment impact on health outcomes.

“Year-on-year though, we are driven to make savings and efficiencies to make healthcare affordable and sustainable. Treating sophisticated products as commodities, and demanding constant savings, means you will end up with cheap and unsafe solutions from other global markets.

“However, if patients are involved, and understand the cost of products and services used to treat them, I believe government will change its behaviours around cost and price.”

“I agree with much that has been said,” said Waddell,” but such changes are for the long-term and there are enormous imperatives from year-to-year. How do we begin such long-term changes and cultural shifts?”

Calthorpe’s Gibberson pointed out that softer issues shouldn’t be forgotten when debating provision of business space.

“It was often said in FDI circles that when Toyota came to Burnaston, the deal was clinched because the county council leader guaranteed the executive team memberships at a very grand nearby golf club.

“True or not, it reflects a wider truth that housing, schools, leisure facilities and suchlike are an important element of Birmingham’s offer, when companies and individuals contemplate relocation.”

Feger again offered an international perspective. “I know one individual who went to Tucson, and the state of Arizona offered him a building free of charge, he didn’t pay taxes for three years and got write-offs for his R&D costs.

“Yes, they are still not making a profit, but are turning over US$13m to US$15m a year. They’ve got 10 to 15 people and a small company is on its way. That’s how the world of business works.”

“We often have discussions about North America – and Dieter, I take your point about investment and ‘municipal messaging’ – but quite often also, people seem to think if the right messages are promoted, that private sector investment will be automatically unlocked, but that isn’t so,” replied Davis.

“If I think about coming here, I see messages from the WMCA and others, saying life sciences and healthcare are priority sectors, but I wonder: How? As Dieter says, will I receive free rent or other incentives?”

“Even if you wish to be here, and to invest significant sums in your company, there can be obstacles. We’ve just taken almost 100,000 sq ft at the advanced manufacturing hub in Aston,” said Philip Salt.

“We had to pass an exam to get it, as we were manufacturing, and now have to submit reams of data about noise levels and go through more hoops.

“We are a very quiet manufacturing company, and just 50 metres from the busiest and noisiest motorway in Europe, so these requirements are very hard to understand.” n

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A room with a view

Location, location, location may be the estate agents’ mantra, but its also become the favourite phrase of event planners, corporates and individuals looking for something rather different in the heart of Birmingham.

Every guest at our BQ2 Live Debate could be seen admiring the spectacular city centre views from the MPW private dining room on the Cube’s 25th floor.

Intriguing too, to discover that Birmingham’s seemingly chaotic streetscape makes much more sense when you have a bird’s eye view.

The room – which can seat 22 – wraps itself around the outside of the landmark building, so our breakfast event was flooded by natural light, adding to the sense of theatre.

The adjacent champagne bar is already well known in Birmingham as a setting for luxurious parties, or a large private room for dining or business meetings, but the Haig Club bar also impressed our guests, not least through its eyecatching copper and blue branding.

MPW’s interim sales director, Sasha Ogborne, says that 34-seat venue is particularly popular with lovers of carefullycrafted cocktails, as well as single malts, and its certainly easy to understand why.

And for those seeking something truly spectacular, Sasha says the entire 25th floor is available for hire.

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An institute of all the talents Professor Subrata Ghosh, director of Birmingham’s Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM), updates BQ2 on the progress of the £24m body dedicated to innovation in personalised medicine.

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’m delighted to say that the ITM is now very rapidly-maturing, the different teams are really coming together with their different visions, and we’re seeing the validation of the strategic model created by Birmingham Health Partners.

I have always believed that if you bring exceptional talent together in a cluster that the result will be many and diverse interactions, and that’s exactly what we’re now seeing, across an array of concepts, projects and programmes involving different disciplines.

When I came here, the building was almost empty, but now more than 200 people are working here, with more to come, and its a great sight. We’ve had lots of visits from national and international companies and organisations, which we regard as a tribute to our progress and to the success of the ITM concept.

The third floor of this wonderful building is now operating as a stand-alone medical devices testing and evaluation centre (MD-TEC) for simulation and diagnosis,which has immediately attracted doctors, researchers, and clinicians who are not engineers, to bring their problems and challenges to the team.

We also had a meeting here in February, to showcase to potential investors and industrialists what this centre could do to deliver innovative bio-materials and medical devices.

One remarkable product, for instance, is a

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new form of eye-drop – developed by Richard Williams – which can prevent scarring of the eye after trauma, or because of a disease, which is a major health challenge.

Liam Grover, a specialist in bio-materials, has developed a novel “cement”, which can repair defects in the dental area and in bones. He’s demonstrated that the concept works, and he’s now at the stage of seeking investment.

We have a novel endoscopy centre here, led by Marietta Iacucci, who specialises in immunology and immunotherapy, and when I saw her presentation on the latest advancements in endoscopic imaging, I was hugely impressed.

She’s already achieved tremendous results, when she was working in Germany, Italy, Japan and North America, and we’re very lucky to have someone of such ability based at the ITM. Another colleague is doing superb work on imaging the retina using new equipment to detect rare diseases, and Dion Morton is one of the country’s leading experts on genomics, so we really have assembled a very talented group, and there are too many others to mention.

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We’ve also made tremendous progress on new ways to integrate multiple sources of data, because infomatics is becoming crucial to the timely delivery of so many treatments.

I think all these achievements, and more, really do validate the ITM concept because we’re seeing the immense benefits of working in a building that was designed to facilitate collaborations. If you include the right balance of space and infrastructure, then great partnerships and projects do come forward.

Its a very exciting place to be, and I’m constantly surprised by what is happening here.

I always thought it would succeed by virtue of social engagement and professional interaction, rather than a traditional and rigid structure, but you still need to see the model and the theory become reality.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to recruit and develop new talent, to help us break down barriers to advanced healthcare, and to work with our various partners to ensure that innovative treatments and products can be brought to market, and to front-line clinical use, as quickly as possible.” n

“We’re seeing the validation of the strategic model created by Birmingham Health Partners.”

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INNOVATION doesn’t just happen Pam Waddell, director of Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands, offers a personal insight into its strategic vision.

W

e hear a great deal about the crucial importance of innovation, in every business sector, but it very rarely happens by chance.

The Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands was launched in January, to bring together organisations active, or interested in, science and technology-based innovation across the region.

Before it was formally unveiled, we consulted very widely with potential stakeholders, and other individuals and bodies, to see how the original Birmingham Science City brand could evolve into a structure to become a catalyst for demand-led innovation.

People often talk about the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ strategies, and the alliance is much more about ‘pull’ than was Science City. We think this approach will dovetail well with the government’s new industrial strategy, which sees innovation as a crucial driver of increased productivity.

Everyone has been talking about this region’s low productivity for decades, but very little has been done, but now its clear that innovation can play a crucial role with regard to this issue.

The alliance’s core aims are to build and maintain a thriving innovation ecosystem, and to stimulate and help to deliver a pipeline of innovation activity.

Collaboration and partnership working is at the heart of our strategy, so we’ll be working very closely with the LEPs covering the Black Country and Greater Birmingham and Solihull,

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Innovation Birmingham Campus, the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, and Sustainability West Midlands.

Driving innovation into the region’s health and life science sectors is one of the key themes for our working groups, we are establishing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) engagement group, and we’ll also be holding a series of events on policy and practice around issues and challenges which impact upon innovation.

Other people and potential partners are of course welcome to engage with us, and to attend our events. We see ourselves as a coalition of innovation, so we’ll talk to anybody who operates in that space.

The very successful Venturefest West Midlands event, which brings entrepreneurs, investors and innovators together, to meet, engage and exchange ideas about co-operation and collaboration, particularly in sciences and around emerging technologies, will also comes under the alliance’s remit.

Last year, we published a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA) for the West Midlands, backed by the region’s three LEPs, the WMCA and Birmingham Science City, to identify the strengths, opportunities and challenges for science and innovation, and the strategy of this alliance was very much informed by that analysis.

We took time, the best part of six months, to get all our stakeholders and our

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“Driving innovation into the health and life science sectors is one of our key themes.”

staff completely comfortable with the new structure, and I think we are now stronger for that process.

Some work which began through Science City will now be delivered by the alliance. We have been working, for instance, on a very big project about artificial intelligence for the last two years.

At the same time, we’re slightly shifting our strategy in some areas, especially around low-carbon, because of the data and feedback which resulted from the SIA. We will also focus on developing new linkages, and enhancing existing ones, between healthcare, well-being and the regional economy. Yes, the challenges are significant, but we are determined to overcome them.

I feel we’ve established a very strong team of people who have talent, but also underpin their abilities with tremendous tenacity.

Equally, its a team that is prepared to listen, to voices from existing stakeholders and newcomers, throughout the public and private sectors. There’s been too much talk and too much noise, in the past, but now everyone realises this is a time to heed the views and opinions of others. n

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An old company with

lots of new ideas

Birmingham-based Salts Healthcare supplies products, advice and support to people living with a stoma. It also proudly traces its history back to the early 18th century.

Chief executive Philip Salt updated BQ2 on its current progress.

I

’m delighted to say that we’re going through a growth phase, and much of that is down to innovation and our company’s culture. Our founders believed that talking to customers, and finding out what they needed, should be their guiding principle – and it still is.

Many companies simply churn out “Me Too” products, but we see ourselves as a gamechanging enterprise, which can change the lives of its customers for the better.

I’m equally pleased to say we still manufacture our devices here in Birmingham, and our adhesives in Horsham. Yes, we could take costs out by moving production to low-wage countries, but that’s not our way.

We’re also recruiting, because we’ve taken almost 100,000 sq ft at the Advanced Manufacturing Hub in Aston. We’ll be working 24 hours a day, every day of the week, to meet demand, when we move in later in the year.

Healthcare is a hugely competitive sector, however long you’ve been in it, and we always have major competitors, mostly from overseas, looking to encroach on our market, so we do everything we can to stay ahead.

Our unit prices have effectively gone down for each of the past 15 years, and that’s been crucial in maintaining both our market position and our margins. Its only possible to do so, of

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course, by constantly increasing productivity and driving innovation into our business.

We have a formal Salts Innovation Programme embedded into our business model, and take care to ensure that it operates right through our structure.

Its not just the management team that offers ideas, we actively encourage anyone in the company to bring their thoughts forward, and I’m happy to say that some of the best suggestions have come from colleagues in our production and manufacturing teams.

Our programme is about every aspect of the business. We’re not just looking for ways to take cost out of a widget, but also take cost from the parts of the business involved in service.

We are passionate about making the best possible devices and offering the best value for money, and then constantly revisiting the process to see what we can all do better.

We have partnerships with several universities, particularly Aston and the University of Birmingham, so we can benefit from their innovative ideas about the use of existing materials, the use of new materials and potential products.

We also recently signed a confidential research agreement with another UK university, which will be looking at one particular aspect of

our manufacturing operations.

We don’t have a company policy with regard to Brexit, although at a personal level, I voted remain. However, thanks to the fall in sterling, our export sales are very healthy, and have been since the European Union referendum.

Annual sales are running between £90m and £100m, and although there are fluctuations in demand in all markets, something like 35% to 40% of our manufactured products will be exported.

There’s a lot of chatter about trade missions, but we don’t tend to use them, as our brand, the quality of our devices and our customer care is well known in most countries. Most of our overseas sales are via distributors, although we also have our own companies in Ireland and Norway.

We launched our latest range, called “Confidence Be”, last November, and it has been very well received because it is innovative aesthetically, as well as technically. Indeed, we have registered 17 new patented features within the design.

We invested significant sums in research and development for this range, and its very satisfying when a project you’ve all worked on for so long comes off, and the feedback is so positive.” n

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Family firm is leader of the packs Kimal specialises in creating bespoke ‘procedural packs’ for surgeons, clinicians and GPs throughout the UK – and far overseas. Managing director Mark Pettitt tells BQ2 about its current business model and its ambitious growth strategy.

W

e were founded by the father of the present chief executive, Alan Press, more than 50 years ago, we’re still owned by the same family, and are still manufacturing almost all our products in this country.

We’re also very much committed to the Midlands, as our production plant is in Bromsgrove, where we have four cleanrooms, our sterilisation centre is in Derby, our distribution centre is in Droitwich, our international site and HQ is in Uxbridge and across all our sites, we employ just over 300 people.

From October this year, we’ll be more than doubling our distribution operation by taking a 160,000 sq ft hub at Worcester Six, a new business park by Stoford Developments, just to the east of the M5 at junction six.

It is a significant investment – driven by increasing demand across our product range – and its very pleasing for a privately-owned business to be able to commit such funding to its future.

We source components from round the world to create our bespoke packs, which are customised right down to the name of the medical professional who will be using them, so we can effectively take away the complex supply chain requirements of hospitals and NHS trusts.

Kimal has always specialised in devising packs

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for cardiology and radiology procedures, but in recent years, we’ve also moved into packs for keyhole and cardiac surgery.

We also do contract manufacturing for other healthcare companies, often multi-national brands, at our Bromsgrove plant.

We could create any type of procedural pack, but in general, these customers have a particular hi-tech product they want to put into a pack, to which we will add all the so-called “softer items” that they don’t make, and its a fast-growing sector of the market.

Although we’re best-known for procedural packs, we also design and make innovative designs of plastic catheters. These MultiTube products are referred to in the healthcare industry as central venous catheters because they fit straight into a patient’s heart.

These are the only items we make outside the UK, they’re manufactured in the Middle East and then sold worldwide.

Roughly 60% of all health procedures in this country are carried out using procedural packs, and the figure for the United States is around 80%, so those markets are quite mature.

However, there is huge scope to create such packs for many countries worldwide, and we expect exports to dominate our sales in the years to come.

At the moment, we’re selling 60% of our products here, but within five years, we’d

expect to have flipped that figure, and be selling 60% overseas.

We sell direct in Germany and France, as we do in the UK, and also have a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Elsewhere, our sales channels are through a network of longestablished distributors, who really understand us and our products.

In around 18 months, we’re looking to enter the US healthcare market, mainly for our range of catheters, and we’ll also be targeting India and Australia.

Many exporters benefited from sterling’s depreciation since the Brexit vote, but because we source components globally, most of our payments are in dollars or euros.

Increasing exports to countries where we will be paid in those currencies will give us a natural “hedge” against fluctuations.

Attending major overseas exhibitions isn’t quite as crucial as it traditionally was, but we recently went to Arab Health, and we’ll be at trade shows in Brussels in March, and Dusseldorf in November.” n

“

“Within five years, we expect to be selling 60% of our products overseas.”

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COLLABORATING FOR A HEALTHIER REGIONAL ECONOMY Digital innovation, workforce well-being, plugging the productivity gap and the ‘NHS pound’ topped a packed agenda at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network’s (WMAHSN) fourth annual economic summit.

G

ood health leads to good economic growth,” says Professor Michael Sheppard, WMAHSN chair, opening the fourth annual economic summit.

Four years ago, at the WMAHSN’s first economic summit, this was a novel and unfamiliar suggestion.

Today, all speakers agree that investing in life sciences not only improves the health of the local population, but is a key driver of economic growth.

How might the essential investment in life sciences continue in a post-Brexit landscape though, and can the region use strengths in digital innovation and an economically-aware

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NHS as cornerstones for growth?

WMAHSN’s commercial director Tony Davis sets the scene: “All pharma, device and diagnostic conversations are now formed within the context of digital and data. It provides the best economic bang for buck in healthcare spend.

“At the WMAHSN, we will continue to work with our LEPs and devolved authorities to drive investment into life sciences, to support industry and for the benefit of NHS, as well as working with academic colleagues.

“As a partner of Health EIT, a European programme, we’ve attracted close to £2m of additional European funding, creating

great programmes of work, and there is a commitment for UK organisations to be partners of that as it continues.

“Working with the Midlands Engine and regional organisations we’ve also attracted £16m of additional investment into the region, and there could be substantially more as we progress activity over the next two to three years.

“During 2017, we had more than 2,600 interactions with local and national companies, and spent 6,500 hours supporting companies to develop digital products and services that can benefit the NHS in the West Midlands.

“We established the SME innovation fund

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and £50,000 has already been invested in ten companies; and £1.5m loaned to businesses.

Funding can be paid back in shares or equity, or by paying the money back in, making it a recyclable fund.

“Our seven-point growth plan is beginning to make a difference and we’ve heard some incredible stories from organisations about what digital investment means.”

Digital investment is vital for the NHS, which is looking at the optimal ways to deliver care with scant resource.

Andy Williams, accountable officer at Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG, and the Black Country’s STP lead, spells out the role the NHS plays in the regional economy.

“Up to £1 in every £15 in the economy is said to be an ‘NHS pound’. By any reckoning, the NHS is a major economic player just through its direct expenditure, and its also important as an employer and landlord and contributor to local productivity.

“We now need to address a triple challenge, to deliver sustainable health and care. We must address health outcomes, address consistency in the quality of care and try to balance resources. The figures show that the NHS is a big player in our regional economy – annual spend of £2bn, 29,000 jobs.

“A significant portion of the workforce is involved in health and care, but I believe we’ve undersold our potential contribution.

“There are really huge opportunities here, to spend money wisely, differently, and to think about how we are doing this in a way that contributes to well-being in a wider sense, so we’re quite excited about those opportunities.”

Addressing the scale of those opportunities, Kathryn Hudson, programme director for Birmingham and Solihull STP, says: “The STP is a partnership of organisations that has a significant reach, commissioning for over 1.3 million people.

“Health is everybody’s business and our whole approach is to bring together health and local authorities and other partners, and by coming together we can make a better impact on people’s health and well-being.

“One goal is to maximise resources and productivity but going forward we have significant challenges. These are about our

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Sean Russell

Tony Davis

Olivia Hind

“

Katie Judge

“Health is everybody’s business. By coming together we can make a better impact on people’s health and well-being.” Dr Kathryn Hudson

future workforce, our estate that needs updating, and taking forward a digital agenda to work smarter and work with partners in a more integrated way. We need the right resources at the right time.”

As Hudson and Williams join Davis in a panel discussion, there are challenging questions from delegates.

“When will we see the benefits of the STPs?” Williams responds strongly: “I think you could argue that we’re seeing them straight away really. But when will we realise all the benefits? Never – this is an ongoing process.

“We didn’t start from a standstill, and we’re already a year into delivering changes. Some changes have already made a difference to delivery of care.

“We’re working to a five-year timeframe, so the acid test will be the extent to which we’ve delivered sustainable health and care in five years’ time. NHS structures come and go fairly frequently, but ideas endure. We have to get a balance of short term and long-term solutions and the benefits of partnership working don’t change.”

One way benefits are being delivered

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straight away is through digital health and WMAHSN’s business manager Neil Mortimer is clear about the significant impact of digital disruption.

“Digital is just how things work now. But digital health isn’t about the technology, its about people using technology, using data, to improve knowledge. We’re establishing Digital Health West Midlands, a digital health and data learning community and a digital global exemplars network to spread learning.”

Sharing his experience working with and establishing start-ups, Cliff Dennett, the head of business development at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, says: “The good news is that we have growth in start-ups. Problem is, its easy to start a business, but growing it is hard.

“We need to fix the problem of a single founder starting up, and not growing beyond a few employees. The winner is the first company to grow and scale.”

Providing an emotive example of a start-up hoping to use funding to help achieve scale, the co-founder of Birmingham-based Give Vision, Elodie Draperi, shares her innovative technology idea.

“We have developed an augmented reality technology to help people with sight loss and we’ve been testing our virtual reality headsets with hundreds of people across the UK. “We’ve raised more than £800,000 and

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“

“We need to fix the problem of a single founder starting up, and not growing beyond a few employees.

The winner is the first company to grow and scale.”

we’re researching with Moorfields and Aston University. Working with our wide network, including WMAHSN, we hope to bring this technology to more people.”

Olivia Hind, head of partnerships at Oviva – a provider of technology-based solutions and intervention programmes related to diet – said her organisation was also using collaboration to address diabetes, a major issue for the NHS. “Type 2 diabetes is a problem in the West Midlands, with a higher prevalence than the national average. We know that 60% of people do not have good self-care. We tried to develop a programme that would overcome barriers to improve health outcomes.

“Our programme and app has a 75% uptake rate, and a clinically significant health outcome.

It also delivers a £1,000 saving per participant, which could save the NHS more than £100m nationally.”

Inspired by the debate, delegates then posed questions, first challenging whether there is sufficient supply of skilled workforce to

address digital development needs.

“Signs are encouraging that the supply of skilled developers is improving. There’s been a 2% increase nationally, and we’ve had a 7% increase in Birmingham,” said Dennett.

One delegate questions why they can view a bank statement or turn on their heating via their mobile phone, but not book a GP appointment.

“Back in 1998, when I was chief executive of a primary care trust, 37% of my patients could book an appointment through their digital TV, and then it stopped. We’ve had electronic booking, and then the national programme came in,” recalled Mortimer.

“The reality is, there are a lot of innovations, but whether you’re a patient, a carer, a clinician, an entrepreneur, or a manager in the system,we need to find ways of proving that doing it is right, and not doing it is wrong.

“That’s why at the WMAHSN we’re working on collaborations. Not everybody does bank online, but those that do, should be able to

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look at how we can work from the top down and the bottom up to create little nudges that support people to be healthier.”

In the final panel discussion, a delegate asks what can be done to help and encourage SME owners to address well-being in the workplace.

“There is a well-being charter currently being developed, which will enable board engagement and communications. As part of that, we’re working to develop a toolkit for businesses,” said Russell.

Following many mentions of grassroots involvement, a delegate asks what efforts are

interact with the NHS that way too.”

Calling on delegates to grasp the opportunities to do just that, Pam Waddell, director of the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands, said: “We have 105 pages on the Midlands Engine, and 100 pages of the WMCA’s innovation strengths, and a 250-page industrial strategy document – but how do we actually move forward and make something happen?

“The Midlands Engine has accelerator projects in development, the combined authority has an innovation board taking a strategic lead, and we have the new Innovation Alliance WM, helping get projects off the ground.

“We also have an innovative health working group, which is open to new members. There is still ERDF funding available, the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and the Shared Prosperity Fund are the government’s response to reduced EU funding. We should be ready to take these forward, putting us at the forefront of the AI and data revolution, so stay engaged.”

Katie Judge, executive director for the GBSLEP, picked up this theme, adding: “Our organisation, alongside the others, is in the position to deliver this industrial strategy, and to add value by bringing together the public sector, private sector, local growth fund and local growth hubs, to make sure we engage and support SMEs.”

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With so much planned for the region, Davis explains the WMAHSN’s role in ensuring effective collaboration between the many health and technology bodies to improve productivity.

“Working with the combined authority to improve productivity and skills, our research shows we need a long-term approach to skills that is employer-led.

“We need to understand the opportunities around health education and work with employers on health issues like musculoskeletal, mental health or diet and exercise, which are affecting productivity. A lot of considerations around closing the productivity gap are in the health space.

“Our goal at the WMAHSN is to influence all six of our STPs in our region, to be involved, and to understand what their economic footprint is, and work with the combined authority to take this forward.”

Focusing on the need for employers to understand the importance of a healthy workforce, Sean Russell, director of implementation for the WMCA’s mental health commission, said: “One in four people suffer with their mental health, so is there a workplan about how we treat our people in our workforces? Is there awareness?

“Are managers equipped to manage tough conversations? At board level, we all need to

being made to involve the third sector in STPs and WMCA decision-making.

“We are really reliant on our third sector partners to support us, and we have a reference group that supports that. There is a wider plan, as we move forward, to look at how we collaborate more,” said Russell.

“There is also the Innovation Alliance, open to all. Its independent and there’s no cost to get involved. Inclusive growth is important to us all,” added Waddell.

The discussion turned to consider how co-design is already being used in healthcare to engage audiences at the grassroots level.

“Co-design isn’t just trendy and on-message.

Its a principle that we can use, working together across acute and primary care to help promote self-care. It is a person-centred approach that should stay right at the heart of everything we do,” said Mortimer.

Finishing the debate, and the conference, is the issue of how local populations and the third sector can best get involved in the healthcare economy.

“How do we get people engaged with health and well-being, and how do we say that as individuals we have a responsibility to look after our own health?” asked Davis.

“We engage with healthcare when it goes wrong, but the notion of getting involved in staying well is low on everyone’s priority list.

“We need to look at citizen engagement and how we engage in times of wellness as well as in times of illness. Looking at both digital technology and self-care, we must begin learning lessons from other sectors, and this will be a key cornerstone of our digital health plans for the future.” n

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A TEST BED FOR TOMORROW’S HEALTHCARE Ian Halstead visited the latest hi-tech hub in Birmingham’s life sciences cluster to discover how it will help translate bright ideas into commercial reality.

T

here’s much to admire about the Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM), at the heart of the sprawling Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham complex, not least the delightful Art Deco public face of this innovative and ambitious organisation.

The latest element of its fast-growing internal structure is a medical devices testing and evaluation centre (MD-TEC), which only opened in January, but has already attracted an array of

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potential investors, partners and companies.

Like everything in modern healthcare, it has a complex structure; funded largely by the University of Birmingham (UoB) and the ERDF, and operated in partnership with the UoB and Aston University.

There’s a project manager to ensure everything works efficiently, and a specialist small and medium-sized enetrprise (SME) engagement co-ordinator to help attract

regional, national and international businesses.

Like the ITM itself, the central aim is to bring together clinicians, academics and funding together to support the development and delivery of healthcare innovations.

Tom Clutton-Brock, the ITM’s deputy director, leads the third-floor centre on matters related to testing new medical devices for safety and usability, as its clinical director.

Some £7m of funding has enabled the MD-

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Tom Clutton-Brock in the new medical devices test centre

“

“Our target is to become self-funding by December 2019.”

TEC to be fitted out with an operating theatre, intensive care unit, accident and emergency beds and all manner of hi-tech kit to create an authentic hospital environment, albeit with mannequins instead of live patients.

At more than 1,000 sq ft, its an imposing sight, and gives Birmingham an immediate lead in the global race to provide clinical test-beds suitable for manufacturers keen to prove that their products really will work in practice.

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“Regulations covering the use of medical devices, here, in the United States and elsewhere, increasingly expect manufacturers to demonstrate their ‘usability’, not simply their safety and effectiveness,” says Clutton-Brock.

“Over the years, incident reports involving devices have clearly indicated that many problems are down to user error. Manufacturers wanting their products to meet, and even exceed, the expectations of the regulatory bodies now need to test them using real doctors and nurses in a realistic, but simulated, setting.

“The data from those tests then goes into the manufacturer’s technical file, as well as informing design changes and modifications for their final clinical versions.”

However, although the demand is there – particularly from SME manufacturers of medical devices and products – very few locations worldwide are able to offer simulated hospital environments of the required quality.

“There’s a similar, but older, centre in Germany. US manufacturers typically rent a clinical simulator, which costs them a fortune.

I genuinely don’t think anything anywhere can match this centre, and we even use top-end 4K video cameras, professionally lit and with topquality sound systems to capture every detail,” he says.

“Before MD-TEC opened, I’d led the NIHR trauma management healthcare technology cooperative (Trauma MIC) here, and we’d worked with 120 companies in five years, to help them bring new technology products to market more quickly, at less cost and with reduced risk.

“We saw the legislation coming with regard to usability quite a while ago, so were able to start looking at ways to fund and equip the centre well in advance. Half the space is the simulated hospital, the rest is for research into innovative bio-materials, but all of it is for the testing of new medical devices.

“We’re open to working with any form of technology in healthcare, and there was significant interest even ahead of the formal launch. We’re also looking to engage with investors and new sources of finance, as our target is to become self-funding by December 2019.”

The core remit of MD-TEC is to support SMEs

49

in the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP area, whilst Trauma MIC will continue to work with manufacturers across the UK and overseas.

Even before MD-TEC’s doors opened, Clutton-Brock was working with a company specialising in innovative neuro-technology devices based some 5,300 miles away in California’s Sillicon Valley.

The latest product devised by Cerebrotech Medical Systems is a portable wireless visor, designed for use by paramedics, ambulance staff and others who might initially assess patients requiring swift and accurate neurological assessment.

Its chief execuitve, Mitch Levinson, began his working life as an engineer on the R&D side with Hewlett-Packard, but has spent the past two decades in start-ups, and accumulated an impressive track record of developing and bringing revolutionary new products to market.

His current vehicle was established five years ago, based on technology developed at the University of California’s famed Berkeley campus, which passes low-power electromagnetic waves through the brain and delivers a neurological assessment of a patient’s condition in around 30 seconds.

“We can get a lot of information out of the tissue, then use machine-learning algorithms to identify several brain pathologies, including stroke, cerebral bleeding, trauma and swelling,” says Levinson.

“The visor is easy to use, battery-operated and not fragile, and can be used in a range of environments; typically at a patient’s home, in ambulances, hospitals or within an intensive care unit. We received clearance from the Food & Drug Administration in January, and now we’re raising funds in the US, the UK and Europe for commercialisation.

“Our initial application will be in stroke stratification and triage, where we see a big, glaring and unmet need which we know we can improve. Usually, when an ambulance arrives at an emergency caller’s home, a patient might shows symptoms of a stroke, but it could also be due to other conditions.

“It could be a small vessel stroke, or a large vessel stroke, a small clot, or a large clot, but the condition needs to be identified very rapidly and precisely, as the patient might need to be

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taken to a specialist unit, but even a neurologist might struggle to identify exactly what should be done immediately.

“Everyone working in neuro-critical care needs to know when they can intervene, and its very difficult to assess a patient in real-time without accurate data.

“Everything is time-sensitive about strokes, so the visor needed to be fully assessed, which is where Tom and his team have been so useful.

We have data to show the device is more than 90% accurate in determining if a large or small vessel has been affected, and now a usability study of tangible benefit to us.

“Our chief medical officer visited Birmingham to meet Tom for all the tests, he’s a great guy, has a very British sense of humour, and our visor was tested by his colleagues in the critical care team at the QE and paramedics in Coventry, which was exactly what we wanted.”

Clutton-Brock was equally pleased by both the outcome of the project, and the relationship with Mitch and chief medical officer Ed Shusterman.

“We were introduced through a company called Device Access UK, and I wrote two study protocols, one for neuro-critical care staff and one for paramedics. We recruited a dozen staff here, and they used the Cerebrotech visor on a mannequin whilst being filmed.

“We then analysed the videos, wrote a detailed report with still images and videos uploaded securely to the web. We then repeated the tests with 16 paramedics at an

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ambulance simulator in Coventry, and have just completed a similar report.”

However, he wasn’t able to escape the arctic British weather to visit them both in the Californian sunshine. Shusterman visited the ITM five times for face-to-meetings, and they also held another five tele-conferences.

Rather closer to home, Clutton-Brock and his team have also worked with a London-based manufacturer, Braidlock, whose innovative catheter securement device removes the need for sutures to be used during surgical procedures.

“We have developed a range of sizes in two different configurations, but they all work on the same basic premise, that catheters or drains no longer need to be secured by stitches or tape,” says Heather Cameron, the company’s sales and marketing manager.

“We want to help save money, time and lives, and believe our product (which is very patientfocused) will do all three, and its also better for care workers. Sutures often cause tears, which lead to infections, and anything which reduces the number of holes made in patients obviously has to be a good thing.

“We are also confident that our device will be even more interesting to procurement teams, because they can reduce the number of products they use, and also standardise procedures between different NHS Trusts.

“At the moment, there are around 80 different products on the market, and all require the use of sutures that typically take between 15

“

“Tom’s a great guy, with a very British sense of humour.”

Mitch Levinson

and 20 minutes for each patient, and of course, it later takes time to remove them all.

“Our device takes only seconds to adhere to the patient’s skin, so there’s an immediate and significant time saving for each procedure, which of course means saving money.”

Cameron had known Clutton-Brock before joining Braidlock, so was keen to commission his team to carry out tests and usability trials.

“We wanted to ensure we ticked all the boxes with regard to legislation, and also wanted to discover if the product was as intuitive and as easy to use we thought.

“We got detailed reports and observations, and are now using the points he highlighted to inform the work of our research and development department. Development of version two of the device is now in progress, and we are also carrying out clinical trials in other locations.

“As we move closer toward the product launch, we’ll likely work with Tom and his team again to get further feedback, because it was such a productive and proactive collaboration with his group.” n

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@MEDILINKWM @MEDILINKUK

MEDILINKWM

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THE WEST MIDLANDS ACADEMIC HEALTH SCIENCE NETWORK Giving a competitive edge to life sciences in the West Midlands We have an important role in supporting healthcare to increase its contribution to the West Midlands’ economy. We are driven by two imperatives: improving population health and generating wealth in our region. As a membership organisation bringing together the life sciences industry, health and care providers and commissioners, academia and citizens, we are uniquely placed to support healthcare in increasing its contribution to the economy.

We lead, catalyse and drive co-operation, collaboration and productivity between partners, and accelerate the adoption of proven innovations at scale and pace regionally, nationally and internationally. This is achieved in a collaborative environment in which the technology-rich West Midlands’ life sciences community and other members are mutually supportive and collectively attracting additional investment.

The improved generation and adoption of innovation benefits the local economy by boosting productivity and gives the region’s life sciences industry and academic institutions a competitive edge.

To contact us and find out more: www.wmahsn.org | info@wmahsn.org | @wmahsn | 0121 371 8061 BQ2 Health Sciences BOOK.indb 52

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