Meeting NHS needs

Demand signalling and horizon scanning 

Health Innovation Oxford and Thames Valley works closely with NHS partners to help them identify and articulate unmet health and care needs. This process, known as demand signalling, allows NHS organisations to clearly define their most pressing needs, paving the way for more targeted and effective solutions. 

We provide support by conducting horizon and innovation scans, leveraging extensive resources such as Beauhurst, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) pipeline, and other innovation databases. Additionally, we tap into a robust network of industry contacts, academic partners and other key stakeholders to source potential innovations. This process helps identify suitable, evidence-backed innovations that align with NHS needs. 

By narrowing the field of potential solutions to a shortlist of promising innovations, we add significant value to NHS stakeholders. Our approach saves time and resources, enabling NHS teams to focus on innovations that are most likely to deliver impact. Ultimately, this collaborative process supports the NHS in adopting the most appropriate technologies to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. 

Innovation and insight panels 

We hold regular Innovation and Insight Panels to help innovators develop their ideas and get direct feedback from key health and social care professionals. 

Each one focuses on a specific clinical theme and provides innovators with a forum to present adoption-ready innovations with relevant system stakeholders from across our region. Innovators receive direct feedback from potential end users, commissioners and procurement leads on their value proposition and potential fit with local system needs. 

We then facilitate introductions and follow-up activity based on expressed interest, which could include real world evaluations, pilots or local adoption of the innovation. 

Recent panels have explored managing respiratory diseases, reducing opioid use and digital tools to guide healthcare. Future interests will include maternity, mental health and severe mental illness, cancer, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. 

Please get in touch if you are an innovator with a compelling, market-ready innovation seeking direct feedback on your product or service or a local health system stakeholder wanting to play your part in assessing new and impactful innovations.