Cross-border partnership formed to support Irish medtech

A new cross-border health partnership has been established to support procurement of Irish medtech SMEs in secondary care.

Supported by InterTradeIreland’s Synergy initiative, the All-Island MedTech SMEs (AIMS) is being delivered by Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) and the Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI). AIMs brings together a wide group including SMEs, academics, and healthcare procurement, to capture procurement barriers encountered by medtech SMEs in the Northern Irish and Irish public healthcare systems (Health and Social Care (HSC) and Health Service Executive (HSE) respectively). By involving all stakeholders, AIMs will focus on developing a framework to support procurement and improve medtech adoption in secondary care across both healthcare systems.

HIHI national director Dr. Tanya Mulcahy said: “We have been working with medtech SMEs for nearly ten years in HIHI. The size and liquidity of companies means that smaller entities are often precluded from the procurement process. AIMS will look at how we can address barriers such as these so that indigenous medtech can scale and grow, and our health systems can choose from a wider pool of innovation.”

Ultimately, the All-Island MedTech SMEs (AIMS) is bringing together Irish SMEs and procurement to develop and propose a model for innovative procurement for all-island medtech adoption in Irish health services North and South.

AIMS is funded by InterTradeIreland’s Synergy initiative. A cross-border cluster initiative set up by InterTradeIreland, the cross-border trade and business development body. It aims to scale cross border collaboration among SMEs and other players such as universities, third sector organisations and government agencies using cluster and networking supports.

HIRANI programme manager Dr Siobhán McGrath said: “We are ambitious with AIMs because we know that there are solutions to ensure that Irish medtech SMEs can thrive in the indigenous market. Through creating a network of health stakeholders North and South, capturing common challenges, sharing knowledge in relation to all-island supply chains and procurement channels, we can deliver this.”