Who We Are
Who we are
Find out more about the team who make up the North of Scotland Innovation Hub
In Scotland, operational healthcare is publicly funded and is provided by fourteen local territorial NHS Boards, alongside a national public health body and 7 Special NHS Boards who provide specialist and/or national services. The North of Scotland Innovation Hub consists of NHS boards: Grampian, Tayside, Highland, Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland. This accounts for 26% of Scotland’s total population living in 69% of the countries land mass (NHS Grampian, 2019).
Remote and rural living is prevalent in the North of Scotland and gives way to unique challenges linked to accessing healthcare services. We have in-place a combination of regional and board-level governance, necessary to ensure strategic alignment to North of Scotland Chief Executive Group priorities, and all aspects of clinical, research and information governance.
NHS Tayside
NHS Tayside Innovation Team can provide access to a fantastic test bed covering a diverse range of rural and urban populations within Dundee, Perth & Kinross and Angus. Dundee is home to Ninewells Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe. Our team provide project management and innovation support to industry partners to allow them to co-create and co-design with a whole range of clinical and non-clinical departments. We also have excellent links with academia, including the School of Medicine which is located in Ninewells Hospital. This strong triple helix model of healthcare, academia and industry will be further enhanced by our partnership with the Tayside Innovation MedTech Ecosystem (TIME), a collaboration with the University of Dundee that will create an ecosystem in which innovation can flourish in the region.
Come and join us in this exciting and forward-thinking innovation community. Find out more about the team and our projects by visiting the NHS Tayside Innovation website: https://www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/OurServicesA-Z/InnovationTeam/index.htm
NHS Grampian
NHS Grampian takes forward Scotland's national health agenda, tailored to the needs of the Grampian population of half-a-million people, spread over 3,000 square miles of city, town, village and rural communities. They work at national level with Scottish Government and National Boards such as Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS 24, NHS National Services Scotland, Health Improvement Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland.
NHS Grampian’s Innovation HUB was established in 2016 and is a specialist team in a unique position to work flexibly across formal and informal decision-making structures. Seeking opportunities, considering the potential, and embracing the possibilities of innovative healthcare solutions are what draws together this mixed group of passionate individuals. The Innovation Hub exists to match the best ideas and solutions with the most difficult healthcare challenges. Working with patients, the NHS workforce, industry partners and academia, they strive to improve patient care for today, whilst building up on the existing legacy of innovation in the North East for generations to follow.
NHS Highland
The RD&I Division provides support and governance for all innovation activities across the whole of NHS Highland. We work with a huge range of stakeholders in the innovation space, including NHS staff, investing in new products, working with small businesses seeking to test bed their ideas and products, and with corporate businesses to seek to effect large scale change in health service provision.
We sit on innovation committees and groups at local, regional and national levels, seeking to promote the work of NHS Highland and to obtain funding to achieve effective change through innovation.
NHS Western Isles
NHS Western Isles Innovation Team comprises the Research & Innovation Lead, who is also the Head of Health Intelligence, with additional project management and research expertise sourced as part of each project collaboration. In addition there are links to local digital health technology enabled care staff and staff supporting service redesign and quality improvement. Find out more about the team by visiting the NHS Western Isles website: https://www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/research-and-innovation-service/
NHS Orkney
As a small health board NHS Orkney does not have an innovation team, but innovation sits within the Medical Director’s portfolio and an improvement and innovation approach across the organisation is encouraged.
NHS Shetland
Although there is no dedicated innovation team within NHS Shetland, several senior managers play a proactive role in promoting innovation within the Health Board and North of Scotland.