Hospital clinicians from a wide range of medical backgrounds came together with patients and innovators from industry and universities at the second of seven partner showcases co-hosted by the Oxford Academic Health Science Network (Oxford AHSN).
They were welcomed by Jean O’Callaghan, Chief Executive of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust which co-hosted the event at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, on 12 May 2016.
Jean, who also chairs the Oxford AHSN’s Patient Safety oversight group, emphasised the importance of clinical collaboration in creating opportunities for innovators which will ultimately benefit patients.
She told the audience of approximately 50 people: “The work being undertaken by Oxford AHSN is encouraging wider spread and adoption of innovative medicines, diagnostics, devices and digital applications across the whole region that are making a difference to patients and reducing costs.”
Dr Paul Durrands, Chief Operating Officer at the Oxford AHSN, then set the scene with an overview of the breadth of collaborative work across the Oxford AHSN region.
This was demonstrated in the wide-ranging presentations by the clinical leaders of some of the Oxford AHSN’s workstreams along with industry and university partners. Topics covered included addressing variation in children’s services, developments in capillary film technology, commercialising life sciences research, establishing a regional clinical trials unit and research in the emergency department.
There were also updates from the Oxford AHSN’s Patient Safety theme and Clinical Innovation Adoption programme. Dr Durrands explained its role was to help the NHS move from a position where it is good at adopting innovation somewhere to a situation where this happens at pace and scale across the system.