Background
Technological solutions are a key component to meeting the challenges facing the NHS and the changing society in which we live. Safe and effective technologies together with the adoption of innovative solutions at pace and scale are essential for patient benefit and to keep healthcare operating at the limits of science.
Healthcare Scientists need to be given the “tools to do the job” in terms of healthcare technology management techniques, to lead developing and implementing evolving technologies and innovative solutions. The Fellowship scheme will build system capacity to increase medical device regulatory and standards expertise and innovation capabilities for the introduction of appropriate technologies.
Partnering the proven innovation expertise of the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative with candidates keen to develop their innovation skillset, the Fellowship programme offers an experiential framework where skills are built and real-world examples are tested.
Delivery partners
This work will be undertaken in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England (CSO), the Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS), Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), Healthcare Science Cymru, and the National School of Healthcare Science (NSHCS). The programme will be delivered by NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative (D4D), an organisation embedded within the NHS and successfully catalysing medical technology innovation since 2008.
Devices for Dignity work with people living with long-term conditions (across the life course from very young children to older adults) and bring together teams to catalyse technology development in response to unmet needs, which, if addressed, will deliver the most impact for patients, carers and health and social care. Devices for Dignity projects begin with a holistic assessment of functional limitations and challenges that arise from living with long term conditions. Often health conditions are managed in isolation, which is not always effective for patients in identifying the most suitable technology to help them. Devices for Dignity recognise the challenges of overlapping complications of illnesses on quality of life and the ability to live, work and function independently.