Medilink North of England News 2019 Medilink NOE News 2019 | Page 2
FOREWORD
Welcome to the latest edition of Medilink North of England News, reflecting the breadth of Medilink’s North
of England membership and the wider Health Sector. In this edition you will see a focus on Brexit, with
perspectives from across the sector to give you greater insight into what it means for your organsiation.
Set against our thematic backdrops, our forewords feature leading figures from across the Northern
economy, involved in driving growth in the Health Sector – in this issue Tom Riordan describes Leeds’
ambition for health and well-being and economic growth.
The views of Foreword contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Medilink.
TOM RIORDAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LEEDS CITY COUNCIL
In Leeds, we are
focused on putting
people at the heart of
everything we do.
As we strive to achieve
our bold vision of being
a compassionate city
with a strong economy,
this is reflected in our
ambitions for health
and wellbeing and
economic growth.
We want to be a digital
city where everyone
can benefit from the advantages of digital and reach
their full potential as well as be a healthy and caring
city for all ages. This means understanding and
nurturing our world leading HealthTech ecosystem
for the benefit of the people of Leeds, the UK and
beyond.
We are focused on progress with meaning and
therefore digital products and services born and
implemented in Leeds are supporting people to live
healthy, active lifestyles. They are ensuring that
health and care professionals can better support
the people they work with, they are supporting
improvements in productivity and contributing to a
more intelligence led, safer health and care service.
Digital is the fastest growing sector in Leeds and
the city region; with 22% of the digital health jobs
in the UK we have a thriving HealthTech innovation
ecosystem. We are home to two major GP Systems
Suppliers (TPP and EMIS) and to BJSS who built
and run the NHS Spine for NHS Digital. We also
have a growing number of start-ups and scale-ups
like Digibete, a video platform and social enterprise
created in partnership with the Diabetes Team at
Leeds Children’s Hospital. We also lead the way in
Medical Technologies, including the long-standing
presence of De Puy Synthes in the city.
Leeds is home to some of the world’s biggest
datasets including those held by NHS Digital
2
and world leading research and development
through our four universities and our Teaching
Hospital Trust.
The latter are consistently developing new
technology and training new professionals and the
sector is at the cutting edge of innovation allowing
people to gain more control of their own health.
The Leeds Academic Health Partnership is our
flagship project to harness academic expertise and
research to improve health whilst driving forward
innovation, through bringing together three of our
universities, NHS organisations in the city and
Leeds City Council. Our flagship programmes
include the Leeds Health and Care Academy,
developing joined up approach for innovative
learning and development for our 57,000 strong
workforce. The LAHP has also established the
Leeds Centre for Personalised Medicine and Health,
enabling Leeds people to benefit from the latest
innovations, treatments and technologies.
From local and regional projects, through to major
UK programmes such as Grow MedTech which sees
partner universities across the Leeds and Sheffield
city regions leading on the commercialisation of
healthtech innovation, we are making the most
out of the wide ranging skills and talents we have
in the great county of Yorkshire. Our participation
in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration
Program (MIT REAP) is also helping us to plan
further interventions to ensure that our HealthTech
ecosystem goes from strength to strength.
It is this strength and depth through collaborations
between the region’s best entrepreneurs,
innovators and social pioneers and a relentless
focus on working with local people that really puts
our city and county in a great position for further
growth in this crucial sector, and I am very much
looking forward to what the next few years bring for
this ever evolving area.