Closing the GAP between Healthcare and Technology

3rd June 2014: With healthcare subject to continuous changes, challenges and frustrations, Cambridge Wireless (CW) has teamed up with HEE (Health Enterprise East) and EAHSN (Eastern Academic Health Science Network) to help industry understand NHS requirements and discuss how technology can resolve clinical needs and proliferate closer working.

“Professionals at the leading edge of patient care remain frustrated in the struggle to take innovative ideas from concept to completion,” says Dr Anne Blackwood, Chief Executive of Health Enterprise East. “Regulation and restructuring, as well as ethical and social factors represent challenges, while technological limitations can also frustrate decision-making.” 

Against this background CW, the leading industry forum involved in the development and application of wireless technologies, will bring together a distinguished line-up of prominent clinicians, healthcare professionals and industry technologists to identify how technology can help to resolve unmet clinical needs. 

Focusing on three different clinical pathways – patient safety, respiratory (including COPD) and dementia – leading clinicians from each field will use real world scenarios to explore the challenges and understand barriers such as the restrictions to innovation in the NHS and the detrimental social and ethical impacts of technology on patients.

Dr Blackwood says: “We want this event to nurture a closer collaboration between the NHS and industry and to encourage new opportunities and innovations. The reality of developing useful health tools that improve patient life and deliver an improved health service is one of overcoming many challenging obstacles. This event with CW will foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas that can lead to cutting edge technological solutions designed in response to an unmet clinical need.”

Dr Karen Livingstone, Director of Partnerships and Industry Engagement, EAHSN, comments: “This event will address some very real challenges - technical, commercial and ethical.  Addressing these issues is critical to improve patient outcomes in terms of safety and experience as well as maximising clinical outputs and cost savings.”

Peter Ferguson of Accenture and the CW Healthcare SIG Champion comments: “In this unique event we will bring together clinical teams who have a well-defined understanding of their clinical needs and invite the participants to help form and direct potential solutions. We anticipate an intense afternoon of real world problem solving with the challenge of applying real world innovation to front line care.”

Soraya Jones, Chief Executive, CW said: “We are delighted to be working with EAHSN and HEE and  have a carefully prepared agenda to facilitate round table discussions for industry participants to discuss issues in more depth with each clinical expert.  Delegates will have every opportunity to extend their learning.”

Philips Research Laboratories in Cambridge will host the event, ‘Fostering Health Innovation: Part 1’ which will take place on Thursday 12th June 2014 from 13:30.

Networking opportunities synonymous with Cambridge Wireless will be presented throughout the event which is championed by Rob Blake of Philips Research UK, Peter Ferguson of Accenture, Collette Johnson of Plextek and Paul Winter of TTP.

For more information or to register for this event, please visit the Cambridge Wireless website: www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/events