Nadhim Zahawi MP, Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment, opened the Medilink North of England 2021 Healthcare Business Awards earlier today.
The Minister praised the NHS, academia and industry across the North for their crucial work undertaken during the pandemic and vaccine roll-out.
The awards saw a huge number of competitive applications across the eight categories and was preceded by an interesting panel discussion on the Future of Healthcare, which included:
Lisa Hollins, Director of Innovation, NHSX
Steve Bagshaw, former chairman and CEO, FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies & Industry Advisor to the Vaccine Task Force
Chris Yates, Chief Executive, Abingdon Health
Richard Jones, Chair – Materials Physics and Innovation Policy, University of Manchester
Richard Stubbs, Vice-Chair, AHSN Network & CEO, Yorkshire & Humber AHSN
The award category winners were:
Start Up Award – Lunac Therapeutics
Innovation Award – Abingdon Health
Export Achievement Award – Ethoss Regeneration
Partnership with the NHS: Advances in Digital Healthcare – Mastercall Healthcare
Partnership with the NHS: Acute Care Award – inhealthcare
Partnership with the NHS: Primary Care Award – PCMIS Health Technologies
Partnership with Academia Award – AI Rehab with the University of Central Lancashire
Outstanding Achievement Award – Bluetree Group
Commenting on the event, Kevin Kiely, CEO, Medilink North of England, said “Huge congratulations to the winners and shortlisted organisations that have all demonstrated their ability to do extraordinary things when faced with unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic. A key take home message from the Minister and from the panellists discussing the ‘Future of Healthcare’, was the need to maintain the unique level of collaboration and partnership working that had accelerated our Covid-19 response. This a ‘once in a lifetime’ challenge which we should all embrace”.
Congratulations to all those shortlisted and of course the winners!