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Should our medical data be shared widely with doctors, patients, and medical researchers to help benefit ourselves and others? In this podcast we discuss the ethics of Big Data in healthcare with medical lawyer Bleddyn Rees.

The NHS is responsible for over 5% of the UK greenhouse gas emissions. Can innovation help the NHS make a difference in combatting climate change? Kathy Scott from Yorkshire & Humber AHSN explores.

In the first episode of a new series of Healthy Thinking podcasts, the Minister for Health and Social Services shares some of her thinking about the priorities for NHS Wales.

Value-based healthcare involves patients and clinicians working together to make shared, informed decisions to improve patient outcomes. In this episode, Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Deputy Chair of the Board Chris Martin hears from three value-based healthcare experts: Consultant Victoria Bates, who was commissioned by Swansea University to explore VBHC; Emma Clifton-Brown, who is Head of Health and Value at Pfizer UK; and Dafydd Loughran, clinical entrepreneur at Concentric Health.

Covid-19 has ushered in a new era of urgent innovation and with it, a new way of working and collaborating. In this podcast, Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Deputy Chair Chris Martin hears from two people at the heart of this response. Pryderi ap Rhisiart - managing director of the Menai Science Park, M-Sparc on Anglesey - discusses the pioneering work that has been taking place there to tackle the pandemic: “The Covid pandemic meant we had to work together, pulling people from different sectors and businesses together, resulting in new innovation…. And the whole community is driving it forward. It’s been quite something to witness it and I’m proud to be in the middle of it,” said Pryderi. Amongst a number of new products which have been devised there is a device for opening doors using elbows, a police drone and a revolutionary virus-killing mask or snood. The latter was the brainchild of Paul Hope, founder of Virustatic Ltd. The snoods have been scientifically proven in laboratory tests as effective against SARS-CoV-2 at a cellular level. Since March the company has ramped up the production from a weekly run of 40,000 to 400,000 a week. Lucy Hope - Paul’s daughter - is communications director at Virustatic tells us more on the podcast: “Being in Wales and based in M-Sparc...experiencing the willingness to collaborate and innovate together because of the adversity, is like nothing we have ever experienced before.”

In the first of a two-part story, Cari-Anne Quinn tells the story of the Spread and Scale Academy; a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In this episode, we hear from Joe McCannon and Becky Margiotta, founders of the US-based company, The Billions Institute, who led the Academy. Since 2015, their company has created transformational learning experiences for over 500 foundation and non-profit executives who are leading large-scale change efforts in the social sector. Joe McCannon says, “To do this big change work, you have to be operating at a very high level personally, everything is about relationships.” The Billions Institute is the pioneer of the Model for Unleashing, which encourages innovators to ‘Dig Deep’ into their motivation for change and ‘Dream Big’ about where they’d like to take their project. “It's really breaking beyond the confines of what you can do with the resources you have and flipping it to thinking of what needs to be done and how can we get there?”, says Becky Margiotta, who created and led the 100,000 Homes campaign, that mobilized 186 cities to house 105,000 people off their streets in just four years. More than 50 delegates came to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in Cardiff in 2019, to attend the Spread and Scale Academy. We’ll hear their story in the next episode.

More than 50 delegates from the NHS teams Wales and across the UK came to the Life Sciences Hub Wales in 2019 to attend the inaugural Spread and Scale Academy - a groundbreaking, immersive programme geared to give innovators the tools they need to lead adoption at scale across their organisation, region or across Wales and beyond. In the second of a two-part story, Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Cari-Anne Quinn meets the delegates who were learning how to ‘dig deep’ and ‘think big’ from the leaders of the Academy, Joe McCannon and Becky Margiotta, founders of the US-based company, the Billions Institute.

The onset of the Coronavirus pandemic has placed an unprecedented demand on the provision of Personal Protective Equipment for frontline health and social care workers. Offers of help have been pouring in and Life Sciences Hub Wales has been appointed by Welsh Government to collate and offer guidance to businesses offering their services to support NHS Wales. In this podcast, presented by Life Sciences Hub Wales’ deputy Chair Chris Martin, we’ll hear from a panel of experts recorded at a recent event who explain what manufacturers need to do - and consider - in order to effectively and safely produce and supply PPE products to the NHS.

If you're an entrepreneur with an exciting new product or service that you think might benefit patients, where do you turn to for expert advice and support? In this episode of Healthy Thinking, we find out about Accelerate - a pioneering collaboration between Life Sciences Hub Wales and Welsh universities. The programme does what it says on the tin - it accelerates up the innovation process by offering bespoke research, access to clinicians and patients and development expertise to enterprises. Head of Life Sciences Wales’ Accelerate programme, Keith Palmer talks to three members of the programme who are passionate about developing innovation in the healthcare sector: Dr Sean Jenkins of University of Wales Trinity St David, Barbara Coles from Cardiff University and Dr. Natalie de Mello HTC Senior Innovation Technologist at Swansea University. “We love innovators," says Natalie, "we have four partners with a huge wealth of experience and it means that at every stage of development from bench-testing to bedside, you have somebody who can help.”

Cari-Anne Quinn turns her focus to industry in this episode to understand how the private sector can work together with the NHS in order to improve patient outcomes. Healthy Thinking visits Zimmer Biomet, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical implants. And it’s a demand area. Nearly 200,000 hip and knee operations were performed in Wales, England and Northern Ireland in 2017. The hips and knees produced at the company’s Bridgend plant - its second-largest in Europe - are shipped across the world. But the company is going further, working hand in hand with hospitals’ orthopaedic teams to improve patient experience during their hospital stay and to help reduce costs. “We know that those processes can be very inefficient.” said Ruth Griffiths, UK Lead ZB Connect Signature Solutions, “Hospitals are only places you should come to when you have to come to them. I think that any pathway optimization programme will deliver significant returns that will help the hospital to be able to deliver care to the wider community, reducing their waiting lists and reducing their cost per patient.” We visit Wrexham Maelor Hospital in northeast Wales which worked with the company to help reduce the length of stay for orthopaedic patients. Neil Windsor, head of innovation at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, ran the pilot, which involved taking patients through a ‘joint school’ before they were operated on: “The main premise of the programme was if we psychologically prepare the patients for surgery, that outcomes will be better, length of stay will be reduced,”. “Almost overnight we’d halved length to stay.” Neil continued, “Interestingly, clinical complications weren't increased whatsoever. We had no increase in readmission rates as a consequence for the earlier discharge. Patients loved it.” “Collaborative working between industry and the healthcare providers can make a huge difference,” says Cari-Anne Quinn, podcast presenter and Chief Executive of Life Sciences Hub Wales, "It can mean that Health Boards can deliver more with less to improve the quality of care for Welsh patients”.

Healthy Thinking goes behind the scenes at the third annual Welsh Health Hack - a two-day innovation marathon which pairs industry experts, digital technologists and data companies with NHS staff to help solve their problems. After the medical teams set out the challenges, the delegates form cross-functional teams and thrash out a technological or digital solution, which they then present to judges in a Dragons’ Den-style finale. The top four pitches receive investment. Deputy Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Chris Martin is the chief ‘dragon’ judging the pitches. “We’re looking to satisfy three criteria: how well does the solution meet the operational clinical need. The impact and value - no point in doing if you don't actually have any impact. And finally, deliverability. So how easily, quickly, realistically, can the solution be delivered? Because what we want to see are quick wins.” Chris presents this episode, telling the story of the Hack from the first-morning registration through to the unveiling of the winning ideas. We also hear about one of last year’s successful pitches - a new app which helps men and women complete vital physiotherapy exercises after breast surgery. The BAPS app, was developed by a team from Velindre Cancer Centre and Cardiff company Rescape Innovation Ltd, is starting to make a difference to patients’ recovery. Donna Egbear is a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and was part of the BAPS app team: “it was really refreshing to work with people who had such a sort of can-do attitude. And it's different to anything you do within the healthcare sector.” The Welsh Health Hack is organised by Life Sciences Hub Wales, the Bevan Commission and other partners.

In 2008, a Commission reporting to the World Health Organization on the social determinants of health put a bold claim on its front page: ‘Social injustice is killing on a grand scale.’ “It wasn't just a slogan” Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the chair of that WHO Commission, tells us: “that was based on the evidence and the urgency that I felt then and still feel”. Sir Michael is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He has made it his life’s work to understand and tackle social inequality and how it impacts on our health. He’s served as President of both the British Medical Association and the World Medical Association and also wrote the Marmot Review into health inequalities in England in 2010 - a review he is due to revisit next year; ten years on. As a member of The Bevan Commission, Sir Michael, advises Welsh Government and others on health and social care policy. “Wales has always struck me as a conundrum. The health statistics in Wales look dreadful. The inequalities are getting bigger in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy (but) the people I talked to in Wales are terrific. There is a lot of committed people in Wales who I think are ready and willing to act.” In this podcast, Sir Michael talks about his work and how the creation of ‘Marmot Cities’ around the world - place a commitment to turning the tide on social inequality and give him hope for the future: “I think we need to look at where we're heading and where we're heading potentially is for the better.” Chair of Life Sciences Hub Wales, Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, presents this episode of Healthy Thinking.