BNSSG Healthier Together

Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship

The Innovate Healthier Together (IHT) Fellowship is a community dedicated to reimagining health and care across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It serves as the go-to-network for both new and established health and care innovators with a passion for improving health outcomes across the region.

Sign up to the Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship

The IHT Fellowship provides space for health and care professionals across all disciplines to remove themselves from the operational pressures of their day-to-day roles. By providing time to think creatively, be inspired, and make meaningful connections, our health and care change makers will be empowered to reimagine how we deliver our services to the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire community.

“The Fellowship gives us the opportunity to do things differently. We now have the chance to create a community that will support each other, be brave enough to innovate, to test, fail, and learn from that. In the end, it’s about doing things better. This Fellowship is a group of people that can start us off on that great journey.” – Professor Sir Steve West CBE

Contents

Latest news

Reflections on Our Recent Discussion Group: Handling Failure in Innovation

Innovate Healthier Together Development

Things you might find interesting

Regulations and NHS Tendering: Delays in HealthTech Innovation

The Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) reports that regulatory complexities and NHS tendering rules are slowing HealthTech innovation. Regulatory approvals now average 3–5 years from idea to adoption, driving some companies to consider markets abroad. While NHS requirements often prioritise low-cost tenders, the ABHI is calling for reforms to support value-driven procurement and clearer sustainability guidelines. Despite these challenges, 30% of companies plan to expand UK operations, indicating optimism for the sector’s growth potential.

Find out more about the ABHI’s report and recommendations

Volunteer Opportunity: Be an Assessor for the NHS Innovation Accelerator!

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme is seeking clinical assessors to help evaluate this year’s applications between 23 October and 17 November 2024. Assessments take 20–30 minutes per application and can be done online. Clinical expertise across areas like cardiovascular health, digital health, cancer care, neurodivergence, respiratory issues, and more is especially needed.

This is a volunteer role, with assessors eligible to designate themselves as ‘Assessor for the NHS Innovation Accelerator.’ No commitment to multiple rounds is required, and many assessors find the experience highly rewarding.

To volunteer or share with interested clinicians, please register at nia@uclpartners.com

Join Q Health: A Community Driving Quality Improvement in Health and Care!

We’re excited to share an opportunity for our fellows to join Q Health, a dynamic community working to advance the quality and safety of health and care across the UK and Ireland. With free membership, Q Health offers valuable resources, networking, events, and special interest groups for members, led by the Health Foundation and supported by partners throughout the region.

As a Q Health member, you can attend events like the upcoming online workshop, Improvement’s Role in Delivering the 10-Year Plan in England, with Paul Corrigan. This member-only session will explore how improvement approaches can contribute to key NHS shifts—from hospital to community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital—as the NHS prepares for its next 10-year plan.

If you’re interested in joining the Q Health community or need extra support with your application, please reach out to us through the Fellowship inbox.

Don’t miss the chance to connect, contribute, and make an impact in health improvement.

Save the date: Bristol Patient Safety Conference 2025

We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming Bristol Patient Safety Conference on 14 May 2025, held virtually for healthcare professionals nationwide to share learning and innovation in patient safety. This independent conference will feature expert speakers, discussions, and a poster competition with exciting new opportunities.

Explore last year’s posters for ideas, view QI tools favoured by judges, and find guidelines for submitting a strong entry here.

Health Tech Takes Lead in UK’s Venture Capital Investment Surge

The UK’s health and life sciences sector has emerged as a powerhouse in venture capital (VC) investment, raising $2.3 billion in 2024, with nearly $1 billion secured in Q3 alone. This rapid growth ranks health tech alongside enterprise software and just behind fintech as the UK’s most VC-backed industries this year.

Highlights include femtech unicorn Flo’s $200 million funding round—Europe’s largest ever for a femtech company—and major biotech investments in Myricx Bio, ViceBio, and F2G. With UK-based VCs expected to close the year with a record $12.2 billion in capital, the outlook for health tech innovation remains strong into 2025.

Read more about how health tech and life sciences are leading the way Read more about how health tech and life sciences are leading the way

Calling Participants for a Lung Cancer Study – Join LungFit!

Are you, or someone you know, living with lung cancer? We invite you to participate in a new research study, led by one of our fellows, testing *LungFit*—an app designed to support people with lung cancer. Created by Oxford Brookes University researchers alongside lung cancer survivors and healthcare professionals, this innovative app provides:

  • Personalised exercise recommendations
  • Activity tracking features
  • Resources on managing symptoms like breathlessness, fatigue, and depression
  • Guidance on diet tailored for lung cancer patients

Your involvement will shape a valuable tool for those facing lung cancer, offering support in day-to-day wellness and symptom management.

If interested in joining this study, please reach out to Suriya Kirkpatrick at 19228607@brookes.ac.uk or 07717 435363.

Resources of the month

Upcoming Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship events

The Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship regularly hosts exclusive events, delivering a mix of online and in-person engagement opportunities for the community. We aim to create forums for collaboration and knowledge exchange, supporting our fellows in continuous learning, exchange of the latest trends, and discussion regarding advancements in health and care.

These events serve as vital touchpoints for people from diverse backgrounds to connect, share insights, and explore new ideas in the industry.

Our goal is to cultivate an environment where interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly around innovation, is not just encouraged but actively facilitated and supported.

These events are exclusively for Fellowship members.

Sign up to the Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship

The dates and locations for some of our upcoming events are still to be confirmed. Be sure to check our socials and this webpage regularly for the latest updates.

Once you are a Fellow, you will have access to our email group and our private LinkedIn group, where you will also get all the latest updates about the Fellowship and our multiple resources and tools.

Events calendar

How to use LinkedIn - Masterclass

Networking Event

Investment and Business Processes Procurement Regulations and Funding - Masterclass

Sustainable Innovation in Health and Care - Discussion Group

Value-based Procurement - Masterclass

Networking Event

Evaluating our Services: Creating a Roadmap to Measure Innovation Change – Taster Session

How to RSVP to these events

If you are a Fellow, you should receive a Microsoft Office calendar invite via email with instructions on how to confirm your attendance at these events.

If you are not yet a Fellow but would like to join this event, please join the Fellowship first where you will have access to these and future events.

Join the Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship

Meet the Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship Team

Ellie Wetz, Associate Director

I’ve had the pleasure of working at Health Innovation West of England for about 10 years now. I was also fortunate to be recently seconded to NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB for 18 months, so feel I know this system and all its partner organisations well.

I’m thrilled that the Fellowship has the potential to accelerate innovation into practice in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. I think the foundations are there – but with a bit of dedicated support to strengthen the culture of innovation through the practical application of design-thinking, networking, thought leadership and collaboration across sectoral and organisational boundaries, I think we could collectively and genuinely, achieve better outcomes for our citizens and patients.

Profile picture of Ellie Wetz smiling at the camera

Get in touch

If you see something that interests you, we would love to hear about it. Big or small, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing healthinnowest.ihtfellowship@nhs.net.

Ellie Wetz
Associate Director of the Innovate Healthier Together Programme
Ellie.Wetz@nhs.net

Fellowship sign up

Interested in becoming a Fellow yourself? By joining, you’ll gain access to these exclusive events that are available only to members of the Fellowship. Don’t miss out – sign up to the Fellowship now.

Sign up to the Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship