Propel Healthtech has released the second episode of its new podcast series, bringing together two experienced voices from the region’s health innovation ecosystem to explore how innovators can successfully navigate the journey from idea to NHS adoption.
This latest episode features Olivia Burns, HealthTech Navigator for Start-Ups at Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, and Jude Gordon, a trained General Practitioner, former Clinical Director at C the Signs and former Workstream Lead for Scale-Ups at Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire.
Together, they discuss how Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire supports innovators at every stage of their journey, from early-stage start-ups developing their first product through to ambitious scale-ups preparing for wider NHS adoption.
In this Episode Two of our Propel Healthtech podcast series:
- how Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire supports both start-up and scale-up innovators through dedicated support programmes
- why collaboration across the NHS, universities, industry and ecosystem partners is critical to successful innovation
- the common challenges innovators face when developing solutions for health and care
- how the West Yorkshire health innovation ecosystem is helping businesses accelerate growth and adoption
- the importance of building relationships, understanding NHS priorities and learning from others who have successfully navigated the system.
Throughout the conversation, Olivia and Jude share practical insights into the challenges faced by healthtech innovators and explain how tailored support, expert mentoring and strong regional partnerships help companies overcome barriers to growth.
Olivia explains: “I think one of the challenges that I see is that innovation is a process, and I think when you’re dealing with the NHS there are a lot of other processes that you need to go through… When I was an innovator myself, I did get frustrated with the NHS, but then when I did my MBA Degree and I studied health systems as a whole, we didn’t just look at the NHS, we looked at Saudi Arabia, the UAE, America, on how innovation plugs into these ecosystems. One thing that I learnt is that innovation needs to fit in with the demand of the healthcare system and meet a particular pain-point of that system.”
They also explore why West Yorkshire has become one of the UK’s leading environments for health innovation, bringing together the NHS, academia, industry and public sector partners to create an ecosystem designed to help innovation thrive.
Jude commented: “We have a mixture of partners that were already associated with the Propel Healthtech West Yorkshire programme… So, companies like Hill Dickinson or Pd-m for example, so various ones where they can support companies at different stages, but as part of building out our programme there are also challenges or focus areas that are different for each cohort. So, part of what I’ve been doing is broadening the range of people who are coming to speak at our events, and a key one of those is investors and broadening the types of investors that we have linked to the programme.
“Bringing in innovators who have kind of being there and done that, whether they’re West Yorkshire based or not, getting people in on panels to come and speak to the innovators about their experiences… those who have been in that Founder position, and can say ‘this is how I tackled this’ or ‘this is how I tackled that’ and I can do that to an extent from my own experience, but obviously everyone’s experience is slightly different, so I’m keen to get lots of different voices on the programme so that the cohort can learn from those types of people.”
Looking ahead at the Propel podcast series
Hosted by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber and delivered in partnership with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Propel Healthtech supports ambitious innovators working to improve health outcomes through technology and innovation.
This new podcast series forms part of Propel Healthtech’s commitment to championing innovation, sharing knowledge and creating meaningful conversations across the healthtech ecosystem.
Future episodes will feature innovators, healthcare leaders, academics and industry experts from across the Propel community and wider health innovation landscape, offering valuable insights for anyone seeking to develop, adopt or scale healthcare innovation.
To watch Episode Two in full, visit our YouTube channel or listen via Audioboom and hear first-hand why innovation, collaboration and evidence remain critical to improving health and care outcomes.
