U.K. Health ‘Innovation Hub’ Opens at Dell Medical School

The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) and the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin have established the “ABHI Innovation Hub.”
 
The creation of the Hub, a first for ABHI, will offer U.K. companies the opportunity to develop their U.S. business within an ecosystem of clinicians, investors and mentors. It offers companies a compelling office location, providing them the infrastructure to focus on accelerating market access in Texas and beyond.
 
The Hub will be located within Dell Med’s Health CoLab, a new initiative that provides space and creates connections for start-up companies that share the school’s mission to create healthier communities, starting in Austin, Texas, and the surrounding area. The Health CoLab directly supports the school, seeking out innovation that promotes health, enhances medical services, increases care resources and access for people in this community in ways that can be scaled to other communities.
 
“The ABHI Innovation Hub at Dell Medical School will offer U.K. companies a unique opportunity to collaborate in a truly world-class facility,” said Phil Kennedy, chairman of the ABHI. “The Hub will support promising medical technology innovation while looking to develop value-based healthcare for the benefit of patients in Texas, throughout the U.S. and at home in the U.K.”
 
The Dell Medical School has a strong focus on supporting health entrepreneurs and businesses. In addition to the CoLab, companies that base themselves in the Innovation Hub will be able to participate in the Texas Health Catalyst, a program designed by the Dell Medical School to foster health research and advance innovation.
 
“We are very excited to be working with ABHI to strengthen ties between the U.K. and Austin across a variety of health and technology areas,” said Ruben Rathnasingham, assistant dean for Health Product Innovation at Dell Medical School. “We look forward to working with the ABHI, its members and the U.K. going forward.”
 
The partnership also extends support to Texas-based companies that are looking to understand and enter the U.K. healthcare market. Through ABHI’s International Membership scheme, companies looking to introduce medical technology (MedTech) to the U.K. will be offered insight and market-access knowledge, as well as assistance from a number of partner organisations, including the U.K.’s Department of International Trade.
 
“Through this collaboration, companies will be closer to a range of initiatives that we have created and are continuing to create at Dell Med,” said Mellie Price, the school’s executive director of Commercialization. “They will find themselves in a rich, creative environment.”
 
The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) is the industry association for the medical technology sector in the United Kingdom. The ABHI’s mission is to champion the benefits and use of safe and effective medical technologies to deliver high quality patient outcomes. With over 260 members, the ABHI leads the advocacy of the industry in order to advance access to medical technology. Its membership includes some multinational businesses and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The future of education, care and research is taking shape at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, the first medical school in decades to be built from the ground up at a Tier 1 research university. Created in unprecedented partnership with local taxpayers, who in 2012 voted to support the vision of improving health and making Austin a model healthy city, Dell Medical School is focused on harnessing the power of innovation, technology and partnerships to modernize academic medicine, create new clinical care delivery models and foster a thriving research environment.