March 2024 Newsletter

South-East Scotland NHS Innovation Intrapreneur Course – Registration open!

Participate in a one-day course on Thursday, 30th May 2024 at The National Robotarium to discover the world of “Innovation Intrapreneurship” and learn how you can contribute and inspire others in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the NHS through the co-production of innovative products, services, and processes. NHS staff/students, local authority, academic and industry partners are invited from across the South East Scotland region (NHS Borders, NHS Fife, and NHS Lothian) regardless of banding, role, profession, or discipline. We welcome all who have a passion for problem solving and thinking outside of the box! Please note that this event will focus on NHS Lothian as an example, but the learning will be transferable to other Health Boards.

Health Data Science Online Course – Applications open!

Do you want to learn how data science can improve the quality of care or service that you provide? This online course, delivered by the University of Edinburgh will introduce you to the key foundations and data skills necessary for data-driven innovation in health and social care. On this 10-week course, you will:

• learn how data be used to improve analysis and reporting
• gain practical experience in working with data
• understand about the ethical and legal implications of working with healthcare data.

Apply by 1st April to join the next cohort running 8th April – 23rd June 2024 with a limited number of fully funded places available for eligible candidates.

Go behind the scenes at DataLoch

A crucial part of DataLoch’s work is its focus on making health and care data research-ready. Recently, the team has curated lifestyle data – smoking, diet, exercise, etc – from across different sources to offer a single overview. This effort reduces the requirement for each individual project team to explore these lifestyle data and make sense of the ‘messiness’ independently. Other current initiatives include understanding the risks associated with the sharing of free-text data for research; collaborating with researchers to better understand later life through data; and developing semi-automated process solutions that streamline decision-making.

New Director of the EPSRC AI Hub for Causality in Healthcare AI with Real Data (CHAI)

Professor Sotirios Tsaftaris has been appointed Director of the EPSRC AI Hub for Causality in Healthcare AI with Real Data (CHAI). The hub aims to develop AI that can empower decision making tools to improve challenging tasks such as the early prediction, diagnosis,

and prevention of disease, and – crucially- to improve the safety of such technology in healthcare. Professor Tsaftaris said: ‘I’m delighted that the University of Edinburgh will be leading this world-leading consortium to develop next generation Causal AI. Causal AI holds tremendous promise for creating a new generation of AI solutions that are more robust, fair, safe, and transparent.

Usher Building on Edinburgh BioQuarter Update

The Usher Building on Edinburgh BioQuarter is nearing completion, and this new space will offer staff and students opportunities for focused work and collaboration – with the whole of the ground floor open for the wider community to engage, learn and innovate together. This new building will co-locate the Usher Institute with a community of partners from the public, private and third sectors – including small and medium-sized enterprises and health and care providers – working on the shared purpose of developing data-enabled solutions to benefit health and wellbeing

Seer 2 Platform supporting collaboration across NHS boards

Seer is a platform that allows staff to access and analyse data easily, helping clinicians, teams, and boards in decision-making around patient care and the planning of resources. Areas in which it is currently used include cancer intelligence, the monitoring of blood stocks and the flu vaccination programme. Seer 2 is the next phase, which utilises cloud technology and will give the health and social care workforce access to a more advanced version, increasing opportunities to access new tools and technologies with greater flexibility. These features have already been used to create new dashboards to help manage capacity during winter.

CivTech NHS Challenge

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with NHS 24 took part in a CivTech challenge on enabling more inclusive access to key public services, particularly for individuals with disabilities. To tackle the barriers people face in accessing public services, ConnectingYouNow has developed an artificial intelligence assistant named Heather. The solution developed was focused on tackling inequalities and understanding other people’s experiences, within Government and across the public sector and has been designed and optimised for individuals with sight and hearing loss, with the goal to be accessible to everybody. This is now in live testing on ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland), which assists citizens in finding health and wellbeing services, groups, and activities across Scotland.

Medical Device Regulation – Perspectives of a Notified Body

NHS partner InnoScot Health will be continuing its series of interactive webinars this month with some fresh regulatory perspectives from one of the world’s largest certification bodies.

The free to join session on Wednesday 27th March 2024 is entitled medical device regulation – perspectives of a Notified Body and will see InnoScot Health welcome representatives of the British Standards Institution (BSI), the national standards body of the United Kingdom. Taking place 12 – 12.45pm, the session will be led by InnoScot Health’s Head of Regulatory Affairs, Elaine Gemmell, who will provide an overview of the complexities of the current landscape and outline why it is vital to receive professional advice to navigate it successfully.

NIHR & OLS Real World Evidence Programme Call

On 31st January, the NIHR i4i Programme, in collaboration with the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), invites applications to the Real-World Evidence Programme. The Real-World Evidence Programme is being led by OLS as part of the UK Government’s Life Sciences Vision and is backed by £10m of government funding.

The aim of the call is to address the evidence gap required for widespread adoption of technologies that have received a recommendation for early use in the NHS from NICE Early Value Assessment (EVA), as well as developing guidance to support innovators to generate quality real world evidence that NICE and commissioners require for adoption and roll-out. Deadline for applications is 1pm on 27th March 2024.    

Lunch & Learn: Research to Innovation

Join The University of St Andrew’s Entrepreneurship Centres for a Lunch and Learn session hosted by Dr Roger Flint. This session will focus on how to turn research into a tangible business opportunity. Dr Roger Flint MBChB attended St Andrews 2003-2007 and read Marine and Environmental Biology. Currently, he is in the final year of NHS General Practice speciality training in Scotland. This online event will take place Wednesday 27th March 1pm – 2pm and is free to attend.

Secure your FREE place at Public Sector Digital Transformation 2024

Holyrood Connect’s 11th annual flagship Digital Transformation event for the Scottish Public Sector will be returning on 11th June 2024, at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. The trend of digital transformation shows no sign of slowing as more and more organisations across Scotland shift their systems to digital.

During the event, you will hear from senior government speakers and thought leaders within the public sector to learn about the progress of the Digital Strategy for Scotland. You will also hear engaging discussions surrounding the shifting landscape of public sector organisations and the foundations needed for a successful digital transition.

Futurescot's Health & Care Transformation Conference 2024

Health & Care Transformation is the essential annual conference taking place on 16th April 2024 which is dedicated to charting the path towards the recovery and rejuvenation of the NHS. This event serves as a nexus for bringing together the ‘triple helix’ of government, industry, and academia to harness the full potential of technology and innovation.         By leveraging these tools, the conference aims to alleviate the pressures on the system, shifting from a reactive to a proactive era of care. Key themes include fostering seamless data flow across healthcare sectors, empowering startups within the NHS and social care, and facilitating transformative change.

NHS Scotland Event 2024 – Call for Posters now open

This year’s NHS Scotland Event will take place on Monday 10th June 2024 at the SEC in Glasgow. The theme for this year’s Event is Planning for the Future: Delivering Health and Care Services through Innovation and Collaboration. The call for poster abstracts is open with a closing date of 21st March 2024. Poster abstract submissions are welcome from NHS Scotland employees, our voluntary and partner organisations, and other public or private sector organisations on any aspect of work they are undertaking in, with or on behalf of NHS Scotland.

Latest funding opportunities

Check out the latest health and care funding opportunities from across the sector on the funding section of our website.