Health and Wealth in Northern Ireland: Capitalising on the Opportunities

Background

Building on increasingly robust evidence that health innovation has significant potential to reduce inequalities, deliver better health outcomes and drive economic growth, leaders across these Islands and beyond are deepening their investment in the health and economy agenda. This report sets out how, with the right collective leadership, strategy, investment and clear metrics, we in Northern Ireland can align to coordinate health innovation and transform outcomes. In short, we have the potential to move from “good in parts” to “a highly innovative system” to ensure we can deliver for our citizens and play a leading role, alongside other world-class systems.

Key findings

Bringing the evidence together from the desk top review, interviews, and seminars, and comparing this with the 10 optimal characteristics and feedback from industry leaders, there are a number of issues that require action if the current NI ecosystem is to become world class:

• There is a need for a clear narrative and mindset in senior leadership (political and executive) that sees general spending on health, and specific spending on health and care R&D, innovation adoption and spread as an investment rather than solely a cost
• There is an opportunity for government in NI to strengthen the ecosystem by developing more coherent cross departmental policy and oversight that spans health, wealth and education - setting a collective strategy with a small number of high-level shared goals and priorities
• Alongside a more coherent cross departmental policy position, the ecosystem also requires better practical coordination – NI has some excellent jigsaw pieces but not a coherent jigsaw picture
• There is an opportunity to build on the strengths in the academic and R&D system - at present it’s good but it would benefit from stronger alignment with current service problems and a greater focus on applying its findings in practice and at scale
• The ecosystem would benefit from developing a stronger approach to innovation priority setting including placing greater emphasis on cross-cutting research priorities – i.e., developing more research breadth as opposed to solely focusing on depth in specialist areas
• The health and care system needs to be better at signalling its problems and priorities to potential suppliers and innovators
• The ecosystem would benefit from the investment in and further development of effectively delivered underlying enabling centralised functions and production of a standardised innovation pathway(s) – e.g., horizon scanning, innovation pipeline/portal management, joint research service, procurement, data collection and analysis
• There is a need to engage the general and clinical managers in the health and care delivery system more directly in innovation spread and adoption – at present the system is under major operational pressure and managers are focusing on short term problems
• There is an imperative to ensure that not just the managers of the system but the boards of the Health and Social Care Trusts and the emerging AIPBs own and prioritise R&D, innovation adoption and spread including developing strategy, assurance and culture that supports R&D and innovation as part of their governance responsibilities 
• There is a need to increase the marketing and promotion of NI’s commitment to life sciences innovation adoption and spread

Recommendations

The report outlines 10 recommendations for action:

1. The need for an aligned policy mindset. 
2. A shared vision, mission and purpose.
3. The establishment of a Joint Committee or standing cross-departmental forum.
4. The development of a cross-cutting, key innovation metrics dashboard.
5. Supercharging and refocusing the current centralised R&D support.
6. A new approach based on shared and appropriate access to data and analytics.
7. Trust Boards set up Health and Care Innovation and Technology Sub Committees. 
8. Health and Care leaders prioritise R&D and innovation adoption and spread.
9. Identification of a cross-departmental development budget.
10. Ecosystem leaders set out an organisational development programme.