School of Health and Social Care: Health Innovation Expedition course
In June and July, the University hosted a new incentive to solve real problems in health and care using The Health Innovation Expedition course as an innovation vehicle. The course was free to participants and was aimed at nurses, midwives, Allied Health Professionals, pharmacists, health scientists, social care colleagues from across the East Midlands as well as university research staff.
“We wanted to bring together the academic expertise from the university with the operational knowledge of the NHS to solve real problems in health collectively, and we certainly achieved that goal.” said Dr Fabian Seymour, Course Director of the Health Innovation Expedition.
27 people completed the course, from 9 different professions and across 12 East Midlands organisations. The participants learnt about the innovation process and worked as inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional teams on practical scenarios of real unmet clinical and social need. The course culminated in a Dragons Den celebration event which was attended by over 60 people. The teams pitched to the ‘Dragons’, who were:
• Alison Mlot- Commercial Manager: East Midlands Academic Health Science Network
• Prof. Mark Gussy – Director of Lincoln International Institute of Rural Health, University of Lincoln
• Dr. Sunil Hindocha – Interim Medical Director Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board
• Karen Dunderdale – Director of Nursing United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust / Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
• Angela Shimada – Deputy Director AHPs and Clinical Transformation, Lincolnshire Community Health Service NHS Trust
“There has been interest from external organisations wanting to explore further development of some of the teams’ solutions which is incredibly exciting. Some of the participants have already gone back to their organisations with a whole new toolset to enact positive change for patient benefit.” said Dr Kirsten Guy,Allied Health Professional Research Lead for Lincolnshire.
The course feedback has been incredibly positive. There is clearly an appetite for introducing and learning about the innovation process and there is hope that the course will run again in the winter.
Participants Comments:
“It was such an insightful course. I learnt more than I had hoped and will definitely take some key principles and apply them into my practice”.
“This course was excellent. It was really intense but worthwhile. Its opened my eyes to new ways of working and how to try and make impactful change in the NHS.”
For further information please contact:
Kirsten Guy, Allied Health Professional Research Lead for Lincolnshire (kirsten.guy@nhs.net)
Dr Fabian Seymour, Course Director and Managing Director of the Health Innovation Expedition (www.healthinnovationexpedition.co.uk)”
Story submitted by Caroline Riley
criley@lincoln.ac.uk