Healthy Thinking

Healthy Thinking asks what the future of the NHS in Wales looks like post-COVID and how one health board is meeting the challenge head on with an innovative solution to the backlog. Linda Prosser and Paul Mears from Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board discuss their plans.

Healthy Thinking talks to Carla Dix, from Delta Wellbeing, about a new technology-enabled community support system in West Wales that's helping people lead independent lives.

AI technologies have the potential to help address important health challenges. Manish Patel of Jiva AI explores how machine learning can transform the screening of major diseases leading to better management of chronic conditions, delivery of health services, and waiting list prioritisation.

Should our medical data be shared widely with doctors, patients, and medical researchers to help benefit ourselves and others? In this podcast we discuss the ethics of Big Data in healthcare with medical lawyer Bleddyn Rees.

The NHS is responsible for over 5% of the UK greenhouse gas emissions. Can innovation help the NHS make a difference in combatting climate change? Kathy Scott from Yorkshire & Humber AHSN explores.

In the first episode of a new series of Healthy Thinking podcasts, the Minister for Health and Social Services shares some of her thinking about the priorities for NHS Wales.

Value-based healthcare involves patients and clinicians working together to make shared, informed decisions to improve patient outcomes. In this episode, Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Deputy Chair of the Board Chris Martin hears from three value-based healthcare experts: Consultant Victoria Bates, who was commissioned by Swansea University to explore VBHC; Emma Clifton-Brown, who is Head of Health and Value at Pfizer UK; and Dafydd Loughran, clinical entrepreneur at Concentric Health.

Covid-19 has ushered in a new era of urgent innovation and with it, a new way of working and collaborating. In this podcast, Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Deputy Chair Chris Martin hears from two people at the heart of this response. Pryderi ap Rhisiart - managing director of the Menai Science Park, M-Sparc on Anglesey - discusses the pioneering work that has been taking place there to tackle the pandemic: “The Covid pandemic meant we had to work together, pulling people from different sectors and businesses together, resulting in new innovation…. And the whole community is driving it forward. It’s been quite something to witness it and I’m proud to be in the middle of it,” said Pryderi. Amongst a number of new products which have been devised there is a device for opening doors using elbows, a police drone and a revolutionary virus-killing mask or snood. The latter was the brainchild of Paul Hope, founder of Virustatic Ltd. The snoods have been scientifically proven in laboratory tests as effective against SARS-CoV-2 at a cellular level. Since March the company has ramped up the production from a weekly run of 40,000 to 400,000 a week. Lucy Hope - Paul’s daughter - is communications director at Virustatic tells us more on the podcast: “Being in Wales and based in M-Sparc...experiencing the willingness to collaborate and innovate together because of the adversity, is like nothing we have ever experienced before.”

In the first of a two-part story, Cari-Anne Quinn tells the story of the Spread and Scale Academy; a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In this episode, we hear from Joe McCannon and Becky Margiotta, founders of the US-based company, The Billions Institute, who led the Academy. Since 2015, their company has created transformational learning experiences for over 500 foundation and non-profit executives who are leading large-scale change efforts in the social sector. Joe McCannon says, “To do this big change work, you have to be operating at a very high level personally, everything is about relationships.” The Billions Institute is the pioneer of the Model for Unleashing, which encourages innovators to ‘Dig Deep’ into their motivation for change and ‘Dream Big’ about where they’d like to take their project. “It's really breaking beyond the confines of what you can do with the resources you have and flipping it to thinking of what needs to be done and how can we get there?”, says Becky Margiotta, who created and led the 100,000 Homes campaign, that mobilized 186 cities to house 105,000 people off their streets in just four years. More than 50 delegates came to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in Cardiff in 2019, to attend the Spread and Scale Academy. We’ll hear their story in the next episode.

More than 50 delegates from the NHS teams Wales and across the UK came to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in 2019 to attend the inaugural Spread and Scale Academy - a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In the second of a two-part story, Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Cari-Anne Quinn meets the delegates who were learning how to ‘dig deep’ and ‘think big’ from the leaders of the Academy, Joe McCannon and Becky Margiotta, founders of the US-based company, the Billions Institute.

The onset of the Coronavirus pandemic has placed an unprecedented demand on the provision of Personal Protective Equipment for frontline health and social care workers. Offers of help have been pouring in and Life Sciences Hub Wales has been appointed by Welsh Government to collate and offer guidance to businesses offering their services to support NHS Wales. In this podcast, presented by Life Sciences Hub Wales’ deputy Chair Chris Martin, we’ll hear from a panel of experts recorded at a recent event who explain what manufacturers need to do - and consider - in order to effectively and safely produce and supply PPE products to the NHS.

In the first of a two-part story, Cari-Anne Quinn tells the story of the Spread and Scale Academy; a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In this episode, we hear from Joe McCannon and Becky Margiotta, founders of the US-based company, The Billions Institute, who led the Academy. Since 2015, their company has created transformational learning experiences for...

More than 50 delegates from the NHS teams Wales and across the UK came to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in 2019 to attend the inaugural Spread and Scale Academy - a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In the second of a two-part story, Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Cari-Anne Quinn meets the delegates who were learning how to ‘dig deep’ and ‘think...

If you're an entrepreneur with an exciting new product or service that you think might benefit patients, where do you turn to for expert advice and support? In this episode of Healthy Thinking, we find out about Accelerate - a pioneering collaboration between Life Sciences Hub Wales and Welsh universities. The programme does what it says on the tin - it accelerates up the innovation process by offering bespoke research, access to clinicians and patients and development expertise to enterprises. Head of Life Sciences Wales’ Accelerate programme, Keith Palmer talks to three members of the programme who are passionate about developing innovation in the healthcare sector: Dr Sean Jenkins of University of Wales Trinity St David, Barbara Coles from Cardiff University and Dr. Natalie de Mello HTC Senior Innovation Technologist at Swansea University. “We love innovators," says Natalie, "we have four partners with a huge wealth of experience and it means that at every stage of development from bench-testing to bedside, you have somebody who can help.”

Cari-Anne Quinn turns her focus to industry in this episode to understand how the private sector can work together with the NHS in order to improve patient outcomes. Healthy Thinking visits Zimmer Biomet, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical implants. And it’s a demand area. Nearly 200,000 hip and knee operations were performed in Wales, England and Northern Ireland in 2017. The hips and knees produced at the company’s Bridgend plant - its second-largest in Europe - are shipped across the world. But the company is going further, working hand in hand with hospitals’ orthopaedic teams to improve patient experience during their hospital stay and to help reduce costs. “We know that those processes can be very inefficient.” said Ruth Griffiths, UK Lead ZB Connect Signature Solutions, “Hospitals are only places you should come to when you have to come to them. I think that any pathway optimization programme will deliver significant returns that will help the hospital to be able to deliver care to the wider community, reducing their waiting lists and reducing their cost per patient.” We visit Wrexham Maelor Hospital in northeast Wales which worked with the company to help reduce the length of stay for orthopaedic patients. Neil Windsor, head of innovation at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, ran the pilot, which involved taking patients through a ‘joint school’ before they were operated on: “The main premise of the programme was if we psychologically prepare the patients for surgery, that outcomes will be better, length of stay will be reduced,”. “Almost overnight we’d halved length to stay.” Neil continued, “Interestingly, clinical complications weren't increased whatsoever. We had no increase in readmission rates as a consequence for the earlier discharge. Patients loved it.” “Collaborative working between industry and the healthcare providers can make a huge difference,” says Cari-Anne Quinn, podcast presenter and Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, "It can mean that Health Boards can deliver more with less to improve the quality of care for Welsh patients”.

Healthy Thinking goes behind the scenes at the third annual Welsh Health Hack - a two-day innovation marathon which pairs industry experts, digital technologists and data companies with NHS staff to help solve their problems. After the medical teams set out the challenges, the delegates form cross-functional teams and thrash out a technological or digital solution, which they then present to judges in a Dragons’ Den-style finale. The top four pitches receive investment. Deputy Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Chris Martin is the chief ‘dragon’ judging the pitches. “We’re looking to satisfy three criteria: how well does the solution meet the operational clinical need. The impact and value - no point in doing if you don't actually have any impact. And finally, deliverability. So how easily, quickly, realistically, can the solution be delivered? Because what we want to see are quick wins.” Chris presents this episode, telling the story of the Hack from the first-morning registration through to the unveiling of the winning ideas. We also hear about one of last year’s successful pitches - a new app which helps men and women complete vital physiotherapy exercises after breast surgery. The BAPS app, was developed by a team from Velindre Cancer Centre and Cardiff company Rescape Innovation Ltd, is starting to make a difference to patients’ recovery. Donna Egbear is a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and was part of the BAPS app team: “it was really refreshing to work with people who had such a sort of can-do attitude. And it's different to anything you do within the healthcare sector.” The Welsh Health Hack is organised by Life Sciences Hub Wales, the Bevan Commission and other partners.

In 2008, a Commission reporting to the World Health Organization on the social determinants of health put a bold claim on its front page: ‘Social injustice is killing on a grand scale.’ “It wasn't just a slogan” Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the chair of that WHO Commission, tells us: “that was based on the evidence and the urgency that I felt then and still feel”. Sir Michael is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He has made it his life’s work to understand and tackle social inequality and how it impacts on our health. He’s served as President of both the British Medical Association and the World Medical Association and also wrote the Marmot Review into health inequalities in England in 2010 - a review he is due to revisit next year; ten years on. As a member of The Bevan Commission, Sir Michael, advises Welsh Government and others on health and social care policy. “Wales has always struck me as a conundrum. The health statistics in Wales look dreadful. The inequalities are getting bigger in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy (but) the people I talked to in Wales are terrific. There is a lot of committed people in Wales who I think are ready and willing to act.” In this podcast, Sir Michael talks about his work and how the creation of ‘Marmot Cities’ around the world - place a commitment to turning the tide on social inequality and give him hope for the future: “I think we need to look at where we're heading and where we're heading potentially is for the better.” Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, presents this episode of Healthy Thinking.

You’d be forgiven for dismissing APIs as tech jargon, but the truth is we’d be lost without them. If you’ve ever booked a hotel online, ordered a food delivery or done your weekly supermarket shop on your laptop, you will have used an API (an Application Programming Interface). It’s the code that allows information to be passed from one user to another - and without it, the internet as we know it would struggle to exist. APIs are already being used in the NHS, but could they be used more to help transform the way that healthcare is delivered? And what are the ethical considerations that need to be taken into account with regard to the use of patient data? In this episode of Healthy Thinking, Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Cari-Anne Quinn speaks to three people leading the charge in the development of APIs in order to imagine what comes next. Charlotte Nielsen is a technical specialist at IBM. She looks after the API use cases for the company across the UK. Charlotte tells Cari-Anne that the NHS should open up its data to developers in order to truly realise the full potential of APIs: “Obviously in a very secure way and in an appropriate way, especially in the healthcare industry. But in order to innovate, you have to open up that data to whoever it might be that it's relevant to do the job right. “There are people out there who are innovating in their garage. Who are creating applications that end up being world-renowned organisations - the Ubers of this world.” Gary Bullock is Director of Application Development and Support at the NHS Wales Informatics Service. NWIS is already experimenting with APIs: “We did some work … on demographics, on reference data, on diagnostic results and observations. And we also have examples of suppliers who have patient platforms connecting to the national architecture and receiving diagnostic results using those technologies - and using that to care for patients in the live setting.” Also on the panel is Mark Wardle, a clinician and chair of the Welsh Technical Standards Board. He tells Cari-Anne: “It's just so exciting to step back and reimagine how we can provide health with the digital tools that we now have available. And we just need the ambition to do that.”

In December 2018, Mark Drakeford became the new First Minister of Wales. In this podcast, he talks to Professor Sir Mansel Aylward about his agenda to inject innovation into the Welsh economy and embrace artificial intelligence: “If we deploy artificial intelligence in the way that we would want to deploy it, it will be a liberating experience. It will free people up to do many other jobs that only human beings can do. And, if we find the right way of doing this, we will find that artificial intelligence is another one of those big steps forward in creating this sort of society we want to do”. Professor Drakeford left academia for a career in politics, rising through the ranks of the Labour Party to rise to Welsh Government cabinet as Minister for Health and Social Services and Finance Minister. He talks about his pride at what he and his colleagues have achieved for health patients in Wales, including faster access to treatments and the introduction of an organ donation register: “Genuinely groundbreaking legislation. A regime which has saved lives, directly saved lives in Wales. We now know that the other parts of the United Kingdom are following on from what we have done.” Mark Drakeford talks about the importance of innovation within health provision as important to help fight inequality: “We know that there are people who fail to get their needs attended to who don't speak up on their own behalf, whereas other people who are more resourced, better informed, somehow better equipped they get in early they get the treatment that they need. “Where we can use innovation to erode those inequalities - then that innovation will have offered us not just a way of improving healthcare but it will have helped us on the journey to a more equal Wales.” Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, presents this episode of Healthy Thinking.

To launch this new series of podcasts from Life Sciences Hub Wales, we hear from Sir Sam Everington - an innovator in general practice and a leading expert of social prescribing. Social prescribing links patients in primary care with sources of support within their local community in order to improve their health and well being. Social prescribing also encourages patients to take greater control of their own health. “Probably over 70 per cent of people's health and well-being has a whole raft of other factors engaged in it,” Sir Sam tells presenter Sir Mansel Aylward. “The evidence is very clear, for example, that if you have a job you will be healthier. If you get any improvement in your education you will be healthier. If you engage creatively you will be healthier. If you've got a good warm home guess what, you're going to be healthier. And so social prescribing, I often call it as a conspiracy to retrain doctors. It's now - and this is really important - it's what matters to somebody which is really important.” Sir Sam first became a GP in Tower Hamlets in 1989. His transformational approach to preventive and community healthcare in this part of London helped to revolutionise the way primary care is delivered across the UK, eventually leading to his knighthood in 2015. Now chair of Tower Hamlet’s Clinical Commissioning Group and Vice President of the British Medical Association, Sir Sam talks in this podcast about the benefits of social prescribing and some of the major success stories he has seen over the years. “We've got one of our programs - a mental health trust (which) reduced acute admissions by a third. That is stunning. How? They open a cafe seven days a week, staffed by mental health workers. That’s social prescribing.” Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, presents this episode of Healthy Thinking.