Key innovation players among speakers at Medilink EM event

The pro-vice chancellor for innovation at Oxford University, the deputy director of the NHS Innovation Accelerator and an award-winning science author and former BBC science correspondent were among the guest speakers at the 2019 Medilink East Midlands Innovation Day.

On Thursday, 4 July, over 200 representatives from life science companies from multinationals to micro-businesses and medtech to pharmaceuticals came together to celebrate Medilink EM Innovation Day.

Medilink East Midlands is a business support organisation which helps companies who are operating in, or looking to move into, the life sciences sector in the East Midlands. Medilink EM also provides membership to eligible companies in its area and four Medilink EM members also presented at Innovation Day this year.

Guest speakers at this year’s event were:

Sue Nelson is an award-winning science journalist and a former science & environment correspondent for BBC TV News. Sue was the Editor of The Biologist 2010-15, writes for numerous publications and is the author of Wally Funk’s Race for Space.

Professor Chas Bountra OBE, pro-vice chancellor for innovation at the University of Oxford, professor of translational medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, chief scientific officer for the Structural Genomics Consortium, academic lead for the Dementia Drug Discovery Institute and professorial fellow at Keble College, Oxford. 

Chris Barker, CEO of Spirit Healthcare – a Leicestershire-based medical technology company which innovates to find new solutions to ongoing healthcare issues. Spirit’s approach to COPD diagnosis has become a key part of the Leicester and Leicestershire NHS Trust’s operations and is available nationally.

Peter Anderton, a TEDx speaker and director of internal alignment – which helps companies to develop high performance leadership teams and improve overall company performance. 

Professor Dan Clark, head of clinical engineering at Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, who works to evaluate new medical technologies and devices and introduce them to a healthcare environment – particularly the NHS.

Laura Boyd is deputy director for the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA). Through the NIA, Boyd supports Fellows representing evidence-based, high impact innovations from medtech to digital to models of care, ensuring there is a rich body of experience and insights to draw on to share with the wider health system.

Wing commander Marcus Stow, who is chief operating officer at Joint Force Command’s Medical Innovation Hub (JHubMed), which works to apply and adapt technology – including medical technology – to a military environment.

Delegates at the 2019 Innovation Day also heard from four Medilink EM Member companies, who presented on the cutting-edge technology they’ve been developing. These are:

Jon Michaelis, managing director, Neater Solutions. Michaelis built the first “Neater Eater” whilst a student at Imperial College. He is now a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and founder and managing director of Neater Solutions which continues to develop assistive technologies giving people greater independence, dignity and choice in their lives.

Professor John Hunt is the research theme leader at Nottingham Trent University for Medical Technologies and Advanced Materials. He is the academic lead for NTU’s Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF).

Dr Mitch Grigoriu, managing director, AES Group. Grigoriu founded Advanced Expert Systems (AES) in 1989 to develop and commercialise the results of his PhD research into artificial intelligence (AI) which he did at Nottingham University.

Grigoriu is the architect/developer of two clinical decision support AI systems - PathoSys for cancer reporting and diagnosis and HaemoSys for hematological malignancy tracking & reporting.

Simon McMaster is the founding scientist of Footfalls & Heartbeats and has many years’ experience in researching smart textile structures and the nanoscale interactions that govern the movement of these micromechanical structures. During the last ten years McMaster has conducted on-going research in chemistry, nanotechnology and textile technology while developing a network of research and professional relationships with world leading research groups and institutions within these disciplines.

As well as the wide variety of speakers covering a vast array of topics, there was also an opportunity for Innovation Day delegates to meet with over 30 life science companies who exhibited at the conference. 

Medilink EM CEO Darren Clark formally launched the Medilink EM Annual Report for 2018/19 and delegates also had the opportunity to attend the Medilink EM Summer Networking, which took place after the day’s events, featuring a talk on the Growing Rehabilitation Industries Project (GRIP). GRIP is a university project between the Universities of Loughborough, Leicester and Nottingham Trent, with Medilink EM supporting the project as a key industry partner, to help develop the Medical Technology and Rehabilitation sectors in Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester.