About us

About

Health Innovation East is funded by the NHS and the Office for Life Sciences to bring together academia, citizens, health services and industry to realise the value of innovations more quickly.

Our focus is the East of England, but we are part of a national network which enables us to deliver at scale.

At Health Innovation East, we have a passion for health and technology and a desire to take healthcare forwards and solve difficult problems for the benefit of our community.

Together, we support innovators from insight to implementation – helping them design and engineer new technologies and products, navigate complex systems and generate value propositions that make a positive and lasting health impact.

Insight

Insight

Idea

Idea

Implementation

Implementation

Impact

Impact

We are based in the largest technology cluster in Europe

We support the health and care system across the East of England and have particular expertise in HealthTech. This is an extraordinarily vibrant area for health and life sciences technology and innovation, employing 16.2% of total national life sciences employees, with 1,235 employees having joined the region’s core MedTech sector between 2009 and 2017. At the heart of our region is Cambridge, one of largest health and life sciences technology clusters, where we are based.

Now more than ever is the time for the Health Innovation Network:

Our depth of knowledge

We understand the NHS in depth. We see opportunities and know how to remove barriers.

Many of our staff come from the NHS, with clinical or operational backgrounds. We understand the needs of health and care providers and patients in our region and are highly well placed to support innovators in developing their ideas.

Our track record

We work to enable access to the innovation ecosystem to deliver impact for patients.

In the last year, we have provided over 4,500 hours of face-to-face support to innovators, including over 850 1:1 sessions.

Our work is not only improving patient care and taking the NHS into the future, we’re aiding economic growth in the region too.

Our funding

Because we are funded and mandated by the NHS and the Office of Life Sciences to help innovators, we are free to make the right decisions in your best interests and for your long-term success.

Most of our support is provided free of charge and we are also able to provide funding for select projects such as the instigation and evaluation of pilots.

We will always be clear about any costs or our commercial gain in any arrangement and anything we make will be invested back into helping future innovators in our community.

Tamsin Brown - Glue ear app

As an innovator it can be overwhelming finding the right support. It has been very helpful having Health Innovation East to talk through uncertainties and give impartial advice on what’s best for the project.

Dr Tamsin Holland Brown, Community Paediatrician at Cambridgeshire Community Service NHS Trust and Founder of Hear Glue Ear

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