First TheHill accelerator helps digital health firms to navigate NHS

TheHill director Megan Morys-Carter says: “We’re excited to be working with such a promising set of digital health start-ups, with new technologies and approaches which could transform the way health and care is delivered.” 

Talks included an introduction to the NHS; patient data, technical integration and clinical trials; reimbursement and procurement, the regulatory landscape and opportunities in Oxfordshire for aspiring digital health entrepreneurs.

Speakers from the NHS, universities and Oxford’s entrepreneurial community included Julie Hart, director of strategy and industry partnerships for the Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN); Vasiliki Kiparoglou, chief operating officer of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre; Dr Roberto Liddi, vice president quality and regulatory, Sensyne Health; Professor John Powell, consultant clinical advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); and Gary Welch, director of procurement and supply chain, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

HIGOE’s Manzoor Ahmed describes the accelerator programme as “an opportunity to learn about various themes in a short and intensive period.”

Ravi Janapureddy of RCube Health says: “The team at TheHill brought together an amazing array of experts to help us better understand what to do next to further develop and validate our technology to take it to market. The programme saved us months of work and lots of money – a hugely valuable experience.”

TheHill has run workshops on subjects ranging from patient engagement to UX design. It also sponsored the Innovation Showcase at last month’s Venturefest Oxford at Brookes University, where visitors had a chance to try out the Wizdish ROVR, billed as the world’s first VR treadmill.

The Wizdish ROVR, a VR treadmill was at Venturefest. Pic: TheHill

Next month, TheHill welcomes a group of European companies, visiting as part of the EIT health bootcamp road trip. Megan Morys-Carter explains: “Anyone working in the health and care ecosystem is welcome to come to our networking event and find out more about their ideas and what’s going on in digital health across Europe.”

She adds: “TheHill will also be running an EIT health bootcamp next year, so if you’re thinking of applying, this is a great chance to hear about their experience.”

For more information, see: www.thehilloxford.org 

About the Author

Karen David

Karen has a long career in writing and communications in technology, finance and creative sectors in Oxfordshire, the UK and internationally.