20 Aug 2024
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05 Dec 2024
Health Innovation Manchester: 2024 Year In Review
As we approach the end of 2024, we are reflecting on the remarkable progress made across Greater Manchester in advancing research, developing collaborative partnerships, and integrating transformative solutions into our local health and social care system.
Throughout December, Health Innovation Manchester (HInM) will showcase some of our most significant moments and achievements from 2024 by highlighting standout stories across blogs, news articles, and invaluable insights shared by key stakeholders and partners from every part of our health ecosystem.
Each day, we’ll feature a new highlight, celebrating the breakthroughs, collaborative endeavours, and innovative projects that have driven real impact for health and wellbeing in our communities. Join us as we revisit these transformative moments and reflect on how far we’ve come together.
Click through the tabs below to explore our 2024 highlights.
This year, HInM published a new three-year strategy, Innovation with Impact, outlining its priorities for delivering innovation across Greater Manchester to tackle the city-region’s biggest health challenges.
In the new strategy, HInM has unveiled an updated vision to be world leading in improving the lives of local people, transforming care and boosting the economy through innovation. This is backed by achieving four strategic objectives:
- Address high priority drivers of population health by deploying proven innovations at scale, with a major focus on primary and secondary prevention.
- Establish GM as a global learning market for accelerated access to novel innovations at scale
- Optimise digital and data products and services to understand the population, define their needs and develop new models and pathways.
- Work with partners to enhance the GM system’s capacity and capability to deliver health innovation and demonstrate impact.
Prof Mark Britnell became HInM’s new chair in September, joining the board of senior leaders to accelerate world-leading innovation to improve the lives of Greater Manchester’s 2.8m population. Mark brings his vast experience of global public and private health systems across 81 countries, having led organisations at local, regional and national levels.
He was vice chair of KPMG UK until the end of December 2022 and before that was Global Chairman and Senior Partner for Healthcare, Government and Infrastructure at KPMG International. In 2000, Mark was appointed Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham, where he masterminded the largest new hospital build in NHS history, and later went on to run the NHS South Central region before joining the NHS management board as Director General at the Department of Health, including leading the national NHS innovation strategy at the time.
He is a Trustee of The King’s Fund, a professor at the Global Business School for Health at University College London and an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
As chair, Mark will lead the HInM Board, comprising global industry non-executive directors and senior representatives from across Greater Manchester’s health, care, civic and academic bodies. He has taken over from Rowena Burns, who was an original founder of HInM, and has been at the helm as chair for several successful years.
People in Greater Manchester are set to receive more personalised care through a newly launched digital care plan and a patient-facing app ‘My GM Care’ – further enhancing the GM Care Record, which shares vital health information for GM’s 2.8m population to inform better care and treatment.
Digital care plans for dementia and heart failure were launched in the GM Care Record earlier this year to enable clinical teams from GP practices, hospital and social care to be able to view a person’s agreed care plan and personal preferences.
A patient facing ‘My GM Care’ app was also launched, allowing patients to contribute to the care plans, self-record blood pressure, weight and mood, and share personal information with care professionals, with the aim of improving care quality, supporting people to take control of their health, and ensuring the wishes of each patient are respected.
Both products are being tested in Tameside and Glossop, with the hope for further roll out across Greater Manchester, as part of a collaboration between NHS Greater Manchester, HInM and tech supplier Graphnet.
The Greater Manchester Health and Care Champion Awards 2024 were held at the Science and Industry Museum on 11th July.
More than 500 people were nominated for 13 categories. The Greater Manchester Health and Care Champion Awards are organised by NHS Greater Manchester and were first held in 2018. They are the only Greater Manchester-wide awards which recognise the exemplary contributions of our whole health and care workforce.
We are delighted to share that Nicky Timmis (Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement Manager, HInM) won the Equalities Champion Award.
Nicky, a dedicated professional with nearly 30 years of experience in health and social care, shows unwavering commitment to breaking down barriers and challenging inequalities. She has left a lasting impact on the experiences of countless individuals. Nicky’s journey in the field has consistently revolved around marginalised groups and those facing disadvantage, including but not exclusive to looked-after young people, individuals with substance misuse issues, and those living with dementia. Nicky’s efforts include supporting public panels in influencing business planning, Solutioning Processes, GMCR Governance structures, and collaborating with Programme Directors to ensure diverse voices influence decision-making at the highest level.
Asthma affects around 200,000 people across Greater Manchester with most keeping their symptoms under control with the use of inhalers. People with uncontrolled asthma are referred to a severe asthma service who assess patients to see if they require high-cost biologic injections or other treatments to control their symptoms.
The respiratory team at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) reviews 6 -10 new patients with uncontrolled asthma every week and the team need to see each patient’s medical history to review their asthma.
Lynn Elsey, Consultant Respiratory Pharmacist at MFT and Lead Pharmacist for the North West Severe Asthma Network discusses how her team are now able to access vital information in less than 5 minutes
Lynn says, “Before we see patients, we need to understand if they have been managing their asthma appropriately with inhalers. Before we had the GM Care Record, we would spend at least 30 minutes per new patient calling and emailing GPs and community pharmacies to understand the clinical history. With the GM Care Record, we can access vital information in less than 5 minutes. The team can quickly check medications, repeat prescriptions, last issue, and care history which helps decide on an appropriate course of treatment.”
Health Innovation Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University officially launched a strategic partnership in January 2024, celebrating a new era of collaborative research and innovation aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of Greater Manchester’s citizens. The partnership, set to run to December 2025, underscores the shared commitment of both institutions to harness their combined expertise and resources for the benefit of the local community and beyond.
This collaboration aligns with Greater Manchester’s strategic focus on health innovation, a sector identified as crucial for addressing local health needs and advancing global medical research. With the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board managing a £6 billion health and care budget, the region is uniquely positioned to support rapid innovation and integrated health solutions.
The partnership will focus on two main strategic objectives:
- Advancing Research in Sport and Health: Leveraging the capabilities of the Manchester Metropolitan Institute of Sport to explore how physical activity can improve population health outcomes.
- Enhancing Mental Health Outcomes: Focusing on research to improve mental health services, particularly for children, young people, and individuals with autism and learning disabilities.
Health Innovation Manchester released its Annual Innovation Impact Report for 2023 to 2024 in August, highlighting the difference it is making to improving the health and wellbeing of the Greater Manchester’s population.
Now in its seventh year of operation, the report particularly focusses on four priority areas that has delivered the greatest benefits to the health and care system. This includes, working on improving the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease, the development of a more effective obesity pathway, the wider deployment of virtual wards to enable people to be treated at home and optimising the GM Care Record to give clinicians better access to information to support more informed care for patients.
Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), part of HInM, announced 15 outstanding individuals as Honorary Clinical Chairs for 2024.
The MAHSC Honorary Clinical Chairs are awarded on an annual basis by The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health Promotions Committee. They are awarded to individuals who have made a major contribution to their clinical specialty, including excellence in research and education.
MAHSC is designated as an Academic Health Science Centre by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. It brings together The University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, and the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to undertake world-leading research to tackle diseases, develop new treatments and transform patient care.
In October, HInM announced a groundbreaking strategic partnership with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to initiate a five-year real-world evidence study (SURMOUNT-REAL UK), subject to relevant approvals.
The announcement has been made as part of a collaboration agreed between Lilly and UK Government, unveiled at the Government’s International Investment Summit.
The study will evaluate the real-world effectiveness of tirzepatide in weight loss, diabetes prevention, and prevention of obesity-related complications for adults with obesity. The evidence generated will seek to increase the global evidence base on the long-term impacts of weight loss medicines and potentially inform the UK’s care pathway approach to the treatment of obesity.
Significantly, the five-year study will also aim to collect data on healthcare resource utilisation, health-related quality of life and changes in participants’ employment status and sick days from work.
HInM has worked with the University of Manchester and local digital trials company NorthWest EHealth to develop the study approach.
The Health Innovation Accelerator has been established to rapidly improve the diagnosis and treatment of disease across the 2.8m Greater Manchester population. The Accelerator encompasses two projects, the Advanced Diagnostics Accelerator and the DEVOTE programme, delivered through a partnership between HInM, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), The University of Manchester, and industry partners.
Through these programmes of work, the Accelerator is addressing several of Greater Manchester’s major morbidities including liver, heart and lung disease, by using academic, clinical and industry excellence to better understand data, digital tools and innovative point of care testing to improve health outcomes for patients. This partnership working has also been used to bring together expertise to deliver enhanced genomic diagnostics that are helping to optimise precision medicine for citizens across the region.
At Health Innovation Manchester and NHS Greater Manchester, one of our missions is to improve patient care by enhancing digital services for healthcare professionals and patients.
We are thrilled to have received industry recognition for GM Care Record programmes, showing the value of partnership to achieve success, winning three awards in two months.
We are immensely proud of these achievements, which reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting healthcare professionals and improving patient experiences. Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated team and partners, these initiatives will help transform care for the people of Greater Manchester.
In her latest blog, Laura Rooney, Director of Strategy at Health Innovation Manchester (HInM) reflects on 2024 and shares the thoughts and comments from other HInM staff members.
“As we approach the end of another year, it’s a fitting moment to pause and reflect on the achievements, challenges, and learnings that have help to shaped Health Innovation Manchester over the past twelve months. 2024 has been a transformative year as we launched our latest 3-year strategy, ‘Innovation with Impact’, and continue to harness innovation to address some of the most pressing health and care challenges facing the communities of Greater Manchester.
At the core of our journey this year has been the collective effort of our talented and dedicated team. In this special end-of-year review, we’ve invited some of our team to share their personal highlights and insights. These reflections offer a glimpse into the progress we’ve made and the people who have driven it, as we work towards the vision for HInM that continues to guide our work”