At the NHS Confederation conference and exhibition - in Manchester in June, the nine English NHS Innovations Centres (or ‘hubs’), prompted themselves under the NHS Innovations brand.

As well as showcasing a wide range of technological and healthcare innovations, senior staff from the nine hubs met with CEO’s and directors of the numerous NHS Trusts attending the conference to explain how they plan to retain their individual identities and regional responsibilities whilst increasingly pooling information, sharing expertise and working together. The intention, said John Stedman CE of NHS Innovations South East, one of the centres - is to ensure that we are even better-placed than before to promote better patient care and improved outcomes by bringing innovation from within the NHS through to commercialization.

 Later that same month, NHS Innovations staff were at Venturefest in Oxford, meeting delegates at an extremely popular and busy exhibition stand and running a seminar for business leaders and entrepreneurs. The main purpose of the well-attended seminar was to bring healthcare businesses up-to-date on the work of the centres and, in particular, to explain their role in helping businesses with innovative healthcare products to access NHS markets.