Over the last year, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) has expanded their Innovation team to provide additional support to healthcare innovators, both internally with NHS-led innovations and externally to support SMEs, academia and third sector innovators.
This has led to an expansion of partners who support innovators along the Innovation Pathway from idea through to successful commercialisation and deployment. STSFT has grown links with regional universities to offer their support at certain points along the pathway. There has been links created with other regional partners in innovation and business support – such as Medilink and the AHSN.
The additional support for NHS-led innovation has resulted in an increase in STSFT’s intellectual property (IP), which will be looking for potential partners to assist in taking these innovations to market. These are ideas which have been identified by front-line NHS staff as an unmet need and developed with our partners to progress to market, or ideas which have progressed and would need a route to market with a commercialisation partner.
STSFT has worked with businesses across the life cycle of innovation from ideation through to commercialisation. The team provides support on real world evaluations, peer reviews, proof of concept testing, evidence collection for the product/innovation, and assistance in linking in experts in the specialities. All of these are designed to help with the progress of innovations focused on patient outcomes and experiences, staff experiences, and helping the NHS reach net-zero.
If you would be interested in the support offered by STSFT, please contact [email protected].