Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ Innovation Pop Up is making it easier for industry and healthcare to work together to develop new ways to improve patient care. It provides a front door for innovators to collaborate with clinicians and offers support and guidance to transform the latest advances in science, research, and technology into real-world solutions.
To help ensure that the patient voice is heard in the development of innovations, the Pop Up team, in partnership with Propel Health Tech, brought eight health tech start-ups face-to-face with a ‘Dragons’ Den’-style panel of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) contributors.
Dr Hanif Ismail, Patient and Public Involvement Manager at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said:
“The event’s central aim was to ensure emerging health technologies are shaped by the people who will ultimately use them, rather than being driven solely by clinical or commercial considerations. Rather than assessing technical or business viability, our PPIE contributors provided honest, lived-experience feedback and raised questions that a clinical or investment panel might not think to ask.”
The PPIE panel scored the evening’s pitches against criteria focused on the patient perspective, including accessibility, usability and how well each innovation aligned with the realities of receiving and delivering care. Three winners were announced on the day, and all participating companies received structured feedback to help inform the next stage of development.
Further events are planned later this year.