NHS England begins international search for world’s best healthcare innovations

NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens has begun a search for ground-breaking healthcare innovations to improve front-line patient care.

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) has already helped the NHS to transform patient care by fast-tracking the uptake of pioneering ideas, equipment and technology for example ventilation tubes that reduce cases of pneumonia and new approaches to mental health care.

A further round of the programme has been confirmed by Stevens which will focus on the clinical priorities outlined in the Next Steps Five Year Forward plan including primary care, mental health and urgent and emergency care.

The initiative has also helped support the uptake of ground-breaking concepts in 469 other NHS organisations. The aim is to provide innovators with a package of tailored support in order to help their ideas gain uptake across the NHS.

Stevens said: “The NHS has a rich history of innovation and it is vital we are able to stimulate and quickly adopt smarter clinical approaches to improve patient care. This is why we’ve created a range of ways to ensure we can drive through innovation in all parts of the system at pace and remove any barriers to doing so.”

Sir Bruce Keogh, National Medical Director at NHS England and Chair of the NIA Programme Board, said: “Through this programme we have been able to match entrepreneurial endeavour with need in the NHS, and the consequence of that matching is that we been able to show very real and tangible benefit for patients and rapid uptake of new innovations.”