Date published: 19/12/16
Double support for digital health technologies
A partnership between Translate and the Digital Health Enterprise Zone (DHEZ) is helping put University of Bradford research projects on a stronger footing towards commercialisation.
DHEZ is a £13 million partnership funded by BT, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and the UK government. Led by the University of Bradford – one of Translate’s partner institutions – DHEZ is creating a digital health community of researchers, businesses, organisations, innovators and other professionals.
The research projects supported by Translate and DHEZ all use digital technologies to tackle a current issue in healthcare. One project uses digital technology to improve service efficiency, another aims to ensure best practice in health services, and a third is developing a standardised system for trialling and evaluating digital health technologies.
Translate is contributing expertise to develop a stronger business case for the research, with the aim of attracting external funding to take the projects to the next stage. DHEZ is helping the academics to map out routes to market for the technologies and identify potential industry partners.
Translate Technology Innovation Manager, Sean Clarkson, said: “DHEZ has excellent business and company contacts in the digital sector and connections to clinicians which makes them an ideal partner for Translate, given our position within the academic community. We’re really hopeful that the combined support we can provide to these projects will give them a greater chance of success.”
DHEZ Ltd CEO, Ian Sharp, who is also the regional lead for the Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire, said: “Translate fills an important gap in helping to identify and encourage academic research that could be commercialised. DHEZ can help by providing access to not only larger companies, that many universities already work with, but the smaller SMEs who are often the real innovators. Our work is very closely aligned, but we bring different skills to the table, which makes this a great partnership.”
A joint workshop, run by DHEZ and Translate (in partnership with Regener8), on December 8, brought together clinicians, academics and industry to discuss digital technologies to help people manage and live with long-term health conditions, in particular diabetes, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). Both organisations hope this will lead to further joint projects in the future.
ICT and E-Health
