7th June 2017

Innovative Ideas Emerge from First Ever Welsh Health Hack

Four teams of healthcare entrepreneurs have been offered support and funding to develop their innovative ideas after impressing judges at the inaugural Welsh Health Hack.

The successful pitches include an app providing contraceptive advice for new mothers and an app enabling patients to record key medical data from home. Two platforms won support for their innovative use of data, one designed to improve the scheduling of dialysis appointments and the other to predict which patients are at risk of missing their appointments.

The ideas are all in the preliminary stages of development, and will each be given access to up to £7,500 of Welsh Government and Bevan Commission funding to support the development of initial prototypes.

The projects were chosen from more than 20 entries to the first ever Welsh Health Hack event, held at the Life Sciences Hub Wales. The event aimed to foster health innovation in Wales, by bringing together 100 individuals with a broad range of expertise and experiences. Over 2 days, following a keynote speech by Vaughan Gething AM, these healthcare professionals, developers, designers and industry professionals, formed teams to tackle some of the key challenges for health and healthcare in Wales.

The judging panel included the Welsh Government’s health innovation lead Ifan Evans, the Bevan Commission’s deputy director Christopher Martin, the NHS Wales Information Service’s (NWIS) medical director Rhidian Hurle, the Wales Deanery Sub-Dean Ian Collings and Elidir Health’s CEO Dyfan Searell.

As part of its commitment to supporting innovative startups and entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector, the Life Sciences Hub Wales hosted and facilitated the event with support from the Wales Deanery, Welsh Government Innovation, ABCi (Aneurin Bevan Continuous Improvement Hub) and the Bevan Commission.

Penny Owen, interim chair at the Life Sciences Hub Wales said:

“We are committed to helping the next generation of healthcare entrepreneurs succeed in the sector and to provide valuable support and advice wherever possible.

“The Health Hack was a great event and it was fantastic to see all the talent on offer in Wales. We look forward to seeing the winning ideas develop and gain further success.”
Dafydd Loughran, Welsh Health Hack project lead & Clinical Leadership Fellow said:

“The Welsh Health Hack was developed to connect the ‘hack day’ concept, which provides a melting pot of ideas, to the traditional innovation and funding structures currently available for more mature projects. Our hope is that by linking these two we can empower those on the frontline delivering healthcare in Wales to believe that if they have a great idea, that they can make it happen.

“We were delighted by the problems tackled and the innovative ideas put forward by the teams, and look forward to working with the winning teams to make their ideas a reality.”