Developing radical innovation practices in UK healthcare and medical technologies

The UK operates in a burgeoning global health market, currently worth over $200 billion. Increasing emphasis is being placed on technologies, devices and combined systems that improve healthcare by targeting prevention diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation rather than the traditional late treatment of disease. Therefore, cost effective healthcare and improved health management will be delivered in the future through the integration of multidisciplinary technological solutions combined with expertise in health-science decision analysis. Under a $9M grant from the UK government's Higher Education Funding Council a consortium activity has been formed "The White Rose Health Innovation Partnership"' (WRHIP). This project, developed by the authors and partners, seeks to create a dynamic environment for accelerating innovation by using a unique combination of methods to stimulate more effective innovation in healthcare, with the objective to break down the "silos" of Clinical Research and Practice, University Research and Teaching, and Industrial Manufacturing and Supply Chain Activity. Distinctively, the project brings together a range of stakeholders to develop open innovation platforms with a wider range of stakeholders in the Yorkshire region of the UK and the New Jersey Region in US. The paper reports on the ethos and the current progress of this unique transnational experiment providing a reference point for others interested in developing region-region innovation partnerships from the health industry and academia.