Invention
As cited in the Innovation Review (Innovation Health and Wealth, Accelerating Adoption and Diffusion in the NHS), a supply of new ideas, products and services which demonstrably add value is required for innovation to flourish. Added value might be reflected in improved clinical outcomes, safety of care, reduced inequalities, cost reduction, improved timeliness and productivity. The NHS has a number of schemes that you can engage with to support ideas generation and development, whether this be new technologies/devices or new ways of designing and delivering service.
Technology and Product Innovation Directorate
Innovation Challenge Prize Fund
Technology and Product Innovation Directorate
The Technology and Product Innovation Directorate promotes the development and adoption of innovative healthcare technologies across the NHS.
As part of this directorate the National Innovation Centre promotes the acceleration of healthcare technology innovation . It works with industry, academia and the NHS. Online it offers:
- You can make a statement of clinical need – use your clinical experience to identify areas which need a technical solution - you do not need to offer a solution. This will make those who might offer solutions aware of the issue.
- You can assess your idea for strengths and weaknesses, using a balanced scorecard
- You can showcase your idea or invention online (although take heed of intellectual property protection issues).
Innovation Challenge Prize Fund
Innovation Challenge Prizes are targeted at front-line NHS staff and have been created to recognize and reward ideas that tackle some of the most challenging areas of healthcare.
Prizes will be awarded for the achievement of specific challenges, set out in advance. The challenges will range from significant improvements in delivery to major clinical breakthroughs. The awards will be substantial, with prize money amounts that reflect the nature of the challenge and the added value of the innovation to the NHS and its patients.
STOP PRESS - a new round of prize funding has just been announced for 2012! This round will focus on innovation in treatment and care in the following areas:
- Better management of pregnancy
- Medicines - reducing waste, increasing benefits
- Reduction of MSSA and E. coli bactraemias
- Increasing independence for those with kidney failure
- Earlier cancer diagnosis
- Increase receipt of emergency care in the right place and completion of care at first attendance, reducing re-attendance
- Reducing avoidable attendance at GP surgeries and other primary care settings
Regional Innovation Funds
Regional Innovation Funds aim to help find and diffuse innovative solutions through the NHS. The primary aim of the 2010/2011 RIF is to support the delivery of the QIPP
East Midlands RIF Projects are part of a nationally-funded programme. Learning and approaches from successful projects which contribute to increasing quality and reducing cost will be shared across the East Midlands and with the rest of the NHS.
Note that the current funding call is now closed. Please check back for future funding calls.
EU Translational Funding
To follow
i4i Invention for Innovation
i4i Invention for Innovation is positioned to transform the translation of healthcare technologies for increased patient benefit through:
- Guided progression of innovative medical product prototypes
-
Provision of business advice to the medical technology professionals it funds.
In a separate scheme, two pilot Healthcare Technology Cooperatives - Enteric (Bowel Function Healthcare Technology Co-operative) and Devices for Dignity (delivering innovative solutions to support patients with long term conditions, preserving their dignity and independence) - are funded under the i4i umbrella.
Experience-based Design
This is all about improving the patient experience, using patient experiences to design and re-design services in a co-productive approach. It is being developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement as a way of helping frontline NHS teams make the improvements their patients really want.
If you would like to find out more about implementing a patient-led co-design approach, the institute runs experience-based design workshops and has a number of case studies on its website.