Royal Devon and Exeter partners up with Health Enterprise East

Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust has partnered up with Health Enterprise East (HEE) which will help the trust to develop, commercialise and fast-track medtech innovations.

In the first months of the partnership, HEE will be reviewing the trust’s current portfolio of innovations, supporting them to identify those with the potential to improve both the quality and efficiency of care provided.

Dave Tarbet, business development director at the trust, said: “At the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, we work in collaboration with Exeter University to carry out cutting-edge research into new treatments and improved understanding of disease.

“Our new partnership with Health Enterprise East will build on this and give us access to advice, insight and funding to convert our research into viable products and new services for the benefit of patients.”

HEE will also look to provide coaching to trust staff to help them identify areas of unmet clinical need that technology could help to solve. Further, HEE will work with staff to facilitate collaborative partnerships with third parties including industry, academia and the charitable sector on innovations of mutual interest.

The ultimate aim being to benefit patients by giving them rapid access to the latest innovative treatments and technologies.

Dr Anne Blackwood, CEO of HEE, said: “The south west is a new region for Health Enterprise East so we are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand our services into this area, especially in partnership with such a well-regarded NHS trust.

“We currently partner with 24 NHS member organisations across primary and secondary care and mental health, 19 of which are hospitals. We look forward to working with the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust to ensure that ideas that have the potential to change patients’ lives are identified, supported and commercialised.”

The trust is due to go live with the implementation of an electronic patient record from Epic, after NHS Improvement – which has to sign off on any large scale IT investment programme before it can proceed – and the trust board, approved £42m of funding to introduce the EPR.

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