Scotland’s Health Research and Innovation Conference 2025

Scotland’s Health Research and Innovation Conference 2025 brought together leading voices from across the country to explore the future of healthcare through research, collaboration and cutting-edge innovation. Held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Thursday, 23rd October, the event featured a dynamic programme of keynote speakers, panel discussions and poster presentations, highlighting the transformative work across Scotland’s health system.

The conference opened with a plenary session chaired by Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Chief Scientist (Health), Scottish Government; and Christine McLaughlin, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, NHS Scotland and featuring a video address from Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. The morning session spotlighted national and UK-wide opportunities in science and research, with contributions from Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive Officer, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and a series of compelling presentations on topics ranging from pharmacogenomics to intelligent diabetes care.

The mid-day programme offered four parallel breakout sessions, each showcasing cutting-edge research and innovation:

Digital Health and AI explored technologies such as acoustic speech analysis for neurodegenerative disorders, VR simulation in medical education and novel diagnostic sensors.
Population Health and Data Science focused on pandemic preparedness, mental health prevention and data access for public good.
Patient-Centred Research & Community Engagement highlighted genomic medicine, point-of-care diagnostics and ethical tissue sourcing.
Innovative Healthcare Delivery featured spatial omics, frugal ophthalmology tools and data-driven cancer pathway optimisation.

HISES Participation and Regional Collaboration

The Health Innovation South East Scotland (HISES) team were proud to attend the conference alongside colleagues from the West of Scotland and North of Scotland Innovation Hubs. The national representation from across our NHS Innovation Hub ecosystem advocated the collaborative nature of the teams driving health innovation across the nation.

HISES also contributed to the conference with a poster presentation showcasing the outcomes of a pioneering pilot project: the Flok Health Digital Back Pain Clinic, trialled within NHS Lothian. Samantha Smith-Garrett, Senior Innovation Programme Manager presented the poster during a moderated poster walk round under the topic of Digital Health & AI. All presenters had two minutes to summarise their work and take questions from our poster scorers/audience.

Poster Presentation: Flok Health Digital Back Pain Clinic

The poster showcased the UK’s first large-scale pilot of a new AI-powered physiotherapy clinic, which provides same-day appointments for back pain with zero waitlist via a smartphone app. NHS Lothian was the first NHS organisation in the UK to make the new AI clinic, called Flok Health available to patients across a range of community healthcare settings. The clinic has been created by a team of physiotherapy and AI experts in Cambridge and is the first digital MSK clinic to have been approved by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The new service was deployed as a collaboration between NHS Lothian, Flok Health, and HISES.

The pilot demonstrated how AI-powered tools can enhance patient choice, reduce pressure on traditional services, and support scalable innovation in musculoskeletal care.

The final plenary of the day was a Scottish Showcase: From Defining Liver Disease Mechanisms to Therapy Development. This session involved provoking presentations and discussions from Professor Stuart Forbes, Regius Chair of Medical Science; Director, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Professor Jonathan Fallowfield, Chair of Translational Liver Research & Principal Investigator, Institute for Regeneration & Repair, University of Edinburgh and Alison Glover, Advanced Therapies Research Manager, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service; Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh. The panel were joined by two patient representatives Sandra Watson and Fergus Nicol who gave their inspirational stories of their involvement with clinical trials and the ongoing support from clinical teams as further research emerges.

Looking Ahead

Scotland’s Health Research and Innovation Conference 2025 reaffirmed the country’s commitment to be a world leader in health research and innovation. With Regional Innovation Hubs driving forward transformative projects and national platforms fostering collaboration, the future of healthcare in Scotland looks increasingly connected, inclusive and digitally enabled.