Sean Fenske, Editor02.24.17
The Greater Manchester region is putting forth substantial effort to become a leader in the use of the most cutting-edge medical device technology to establish a world-class healthcare system. With this in mind, a number of organizations have joined together to form the Health Innovation Manchester partnership. One of the partnering organizations is the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network. Dr. Mike Burrows serves as the managing director of the network. Dr. Burrows was previously the director of the NHS England (Greater Manchester) Area Team and chief executive of NHS Greater Manchester before that. At a recent industry event, I met with Dr. Burrows to see what this initiative was all about and how it could be of interest to medical device manufacturers.
Sean Fenske: What is the purpose of the Health Innovation Manchester partnership?
Dr. Mike Burrows: Health Innovation Manchester is a new partnership designed to deliver research excellence and also ensure there is rapid adoption and uptake into local healthcare services. Arrangements to date in a health economy that covers three million people have been fragmented. Health Innovation Manchester will enable us to establish a more effective set of engagement arrangements for industry partners. It will build on the award-winning Innovation Nexus portal (www.intohealth.org) that enables a broad range of support functions for industry—including, for example, procurement expertise—to operate as a single team.
Fenske: Why is this initiative being put into place? What are the challenges being addressed?
Dr. Burrows: The initiative has been put in place to respond to the needs of the newly devolved health and social care partnership in Manchester serving a 2.8-million population. It aims to create a recognized and reliable mechanism for more effective adoption of innovative technologies into healthcare service provision. The scale of the economic challenge in Greater Manchester healthcare, similar to that in most developed nations, means that use of disruptive innovation to deliver twin aims of improving health outcomes while also delivering cost effectiveness becomes a sine qua non.
Fenske: Why is this effort relevant to medical device manufacturers?
Dr. Burrows: The aim is to ensure that medical device manufacturers who have good, well-evidenced innovation will have access to a single gateway to accelerate the adoption and spread of that innovation across the whole Greater Manchester healthcare system. We will horizon scan for those aspects of innovation that meet service need, but with the economies of scale capacity that will be established through single ways of working, we also want to give consideration to industry-led proposals for service improvement.
Fenske: As it relates to medical technology/consumables, what is Health Innovation Manchester attempting to do to help control costs?
Dr. Burrows: The key driver on cost control is the effective use of health economics. Each technology will be assessed in terms of efficacy and cost effectiveness. The conventional mechanisms of cost reduction in the UK have proven ineffective against the size of the challenge so the opportunity is being presented to industry to “show us what you can do” to support cost effective delivery.
Fenske: In what ways is the partnership trying to “fast track” potentially disruptive medical technology?
Dr. Burrows: There is a prioritization process that engages payers, clinicians, and patient representatives to assess against a set of criteria: alignment with strategy, impact, efficacy, and effectiveness. We provide procurement support to assist companies in navigating the sometimes complex public sector processes. Where we can see a compelling case that is perhaps not well articulated to meet service needs, we will provide direct input in the form of health economics to make the case.
Fenske: Can you speak to your own specific sector/project as it relates to forwarding medical technology?
Dr. Burrows: A good example of a UK company that has been supported is Zilico with their Zedscan technology. The following video goes into much greater detail.
Fenske: Any other comments or thoughts you’d like to share?
Dr. Burrows: The aim is to develop Greater Manchester to be the leading part of the English NHS for new technology adoption and uptake. If we can demonstrate that Greater Manchester is operating as a rational at scale marketplace, the hope is that in time, this would attract the best innovation to us for consideration in effect becoming a virtuous circle.
Sean Fenske: What is the purpose of the Health Innovation Manchester partnership?
Dr. Mike Burrows: Health Innovation Manchester is a new partnership designed to deliver research excellence and also ensure there is rapid adoption and uptake into local healthcare services. Arrangements to date in a health economy that covers three million people have been fragmented. Health Innovation Manchester will enable us to establish a more effective set of engagement arrangements for industry partners. It will build on the award-winning Innovation Nexus portal (www.intohealth.org) that enables a broad range of support functions for industry—including, for example, procurement expertise—to operate as a single team.
Fenske: Why is this initiative being put into place? What are the challenges being addressed?
Dr. Burrows: The initiative has been put in place to respond to the needs of the newly devolved health and social care partnership in Manchester serving a 2.8-million population. It aims to create a recognized and reliable mechanism for more effective adoption of innovative technologies into healthcare service provision. The scale of the economic challenge in Greater Manchester healthcare, similar to that in most developed nations, means that use of disruptive innovation to deliver twin aims of improving health outcomes while also delivering cost effectiveness becomes a sine qua non.
Fenske: Why is this effort relevant to medical device manufacturers?
Dr. Burrows: The aim is to ensure that medical device manufacturers who have good, well-evidenced innovation will have access to a single gateway to accelerate the adoption and spread of that innovation across the whole Greater Manchester healthcare system. We will horizon scan for those aspects of innovation that meet service need, but with the economies of scale capacity that will be established through single ways of working, we also want to give consideration to industry-led proposals for service improvement.
Fenske: As it relates to medical technology/consumables, what is Health Innovation Manchester attempting to do to help control costs?
Dr. Burrows: The key driver on cost control is the effective use of health economics. Each technology will be assessed in terms of efficacy and cost effectiveness. The conventional mechanisms of cost reduction in the UK have proven ineffective against the size of the challenge so the opportunity is being presented to industry to “show us what you can do” to support cost effective delivery.
Fenske: In what ways is the partnership trying to “fast track” potentially disruptive medical technology?
Dr. Burrows: There is a prioritization process that engages payers, clinicians, and patient representatives to assess against a set of criteria: alignment with strategy, impact, efficacy, and effectiveness. We provide procurement support to assist companies in navigating the sometimes complex public sector processes. Where we can see a compelling case that is perhaps not well articulated to meet service needs, we will provide direct input in the form of health economics to make the case.
Fenske: Can you speak to your own specific sector/project as it relates to forwarding medical technology?
Dr. Burrows: A good example of a UK company that has been supported is Zilico with their Zedscan technology. The following video goes into much greater detail.
Fenske: Any other comments or thoughts you’d like to share?
Dr. Burrows: The aim is to develop Greater Manchester to be the leading part of the English NHS for new technology adoption and uptake. If we can demonstrate that Greater Manchester is operating as a rational at scale marketplace, the hope is that in time, this would attract the best innovation to us for consideration in effect becoming a virtuous circle.