On 25th February, as the 6th in the Medical Innovation lecture series, Steve Fairman and Prof Jon Meakins, spoke to the question of ‘Service Delivery Innovations in the NHS’. They drew on some interesting examples of how service innovations can be effective – the simple re-positioning of a fridge led to significant cost savings in [...]

Robert Pitkethly’s (18th February) presentation asked a few important questions. What are Intellectual Property Rights? How do you manage them? What is the purpose of them? How do you get them? He eloquently explained the bewildering array of terms – patents, trademarks, copyright, appropriation, registered designs, confidential information, and he showed that one needs to [...]

Prof Sue Dopson’s presentation for the Medical Innovation lecture series (‘Why is Innovation in the NHS often hard to achieve?’ – 11th February 2009) effectively unpacked the shared, common conceptualisation of innovation in large healthcare organizations as a predominantly rational, linear and planned process. Presenting her research on Evidence-based change in the NHS several important [...]

Oliver Bernath’s lecture ‘How do you make a good idea successful?’ (4th February) was a candid look at the entrepreneurial spirit and how to capture it. Based on his own experiences, some positive and some negative, Oliver showed that being a successful innovator has much less to do with the idea, and more to do [...]

What makes a good Medical Innovation?
In his lecture, “what makes a good medical innovation?’ (28th January 2008) Prof Lionel Tarassenko noted that several important ingredients are required.  The organization developing the new technology must remain nimble, and it must find the right partners in the early stages.  But also, drawing on fascinating examples of signal [...]