Tackling community health challenges through innovation.
Insight 2: Tackling community health challenges through innovation
Medilink Midlands are delighted to be collaborating with Arise Innovation Hubs and Innovate UK in a series of events for autumn and winter 2025/26. The second of these looks at an overarching theme in the NHS’s current 10-year plan, which aims to make the NHS fit for the future.
As we look to move from research to reality how are we going to enable more of us to be treated within the community, keeping our hospitals ready for those times when we really need them. In a recent paper by the Welcome Trust it becomes clear that we need to put research at the heart of health, we need to improve and equalise outcomes.
We will look at the barriers and opportunities for working with the community addressing the following questions:
- How do we enable patchy patient engagement to become a network of proactive and involved citizens?
- How do we enable research to be embedded into everyday care, with trustworthy data infrastructure and incentivised for all to engage?
- How do we ensure adoption of innovations are widespread, allowing innovations to be scaled?
Agenda:
10.00 – 10.30: Arrival, networking and refreshments
10.30-10.35: Introduction and Welcome by Arise
10.35-10.50: Setting the scene I – what does a day in the life of a doctor look like in 10 years? How do remote monitoring technologies change the way the health service operates
Bruce Adams| Clinitouch part of Spirit Health Managing Director
10.50-11.05: Setting the scene II – How do we co-create the digital solutions and support tools for healthcare of the future
Dr Alice Byram| Royal Society of Medicine president of Digital Health and entrepreneur
11.05-11.10: Q&A
11.10-11.30: Coffee & networking break
11.30-11.45: Lightening pitches
Seacrest Care Services | Ebun Ojemuyiwa
Graphene Trace |Dr Scott Dean
11.45-11.55: Q&A
11.55- 12.20: Support available to innovators
-Supporting MedTech innovators working in healthcare
Nicola Wheeler-Thorn| AND Technology and Research Managing Director
-Support available from innovateUK
Mike Herd | Innovate UK Business Growth Scaleup Director
–Introducing Connected Innovation
Scott Cogman | Connected Innovation hubs Director
12.20-13.00: Networking lunch
*Please ensure you register using an institutional or Business email account
*Please note that places are limited – if you cannot attend once registered for the event please email [email protected]
Speakers
Event Chair: Dr Beverley Vaughan, Arise Innovation Hubs Director
Beverley is a scientist by training, having worked in academia, start-up and business sectors, including Cambridge University Teaching hospitals, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and University of Oxford. Currently, Director at Arise Innovation hubs, part of Anglia Ruskin University, small but beautifully formed and importantly close but not within the golden triangle powerhouses. Beverley has been building a pipeline and success stories in the local environment has involved using knowledge of other clusters and adaptation to a different ecosystem. Collaborating with our community to harness the skills and talent in ARU to support them, on a bespoke and case by case basis. Proud to have delivered programmes such as ABOVE and learnt how being small can make you nimble but success relies on powerful and strategic partnership.
Dr Scott Dean, Founder and CEO of Graphene Trace
Dr Scott Dean is the founder and CEO of Graphene Trace, a MedTech startup based at Arise Chelmsford. The team is developing Sensore: an advanced pressure ulcer prevention system designed for wheelchair users and the wider care sector. Sensore brings together smart fabric sensors, continuous real-time monitoring, and AI-driven risk alerts to provide a practical, preventative solution.
Sensore is now entering commercial pilots, progressing through Class I medical device certification, and is scheduled for launch in early 2027. Graphene Trace is currently raising a seed round to scale operations and bring Sensore to market. Further information is available at sensore.health
Scott Cogman
Scott leads on the Innovation Hubs network within the Connected Innovation Programme, establishing strategic relationships between the hubs, research institutes and academia and facilitating key conversations around issues such as grow-on space, funding, investment and connecting partners with local innovation support.
Bruce Adams , Managing Director at Clinitouch,
a UK-based remote patient monitoring platform. With a background in global health and social technology, he is passionate about how digital health can transform lives worldwide. Clinitouch, part of Spirit Health, is dedicated to making healthcare more accessible, simple, and affordable for all. Bruce joined in 2021 to build on a decade of successful NHS deployments and to expand the platform’s impact internationally. Working closely with the Department for Business and Trade, he and the Clinitouch team have developed a growing global presence, now spanning 30+ partners in 15+ countries across five continents.
Ebun Ojemuyiwa, Founder & Healthtech Innovator of CheckUup,
Ebun Ojemuyiwa is the founder of CheckUup, a preventative mental-wellness platform that identifies early behavioural shifts to strengthen support networks before crisis.
With over 15 years’ experience leading governance, risk and transformation across major institutions including HSBC and JPMorgan, she blends data-driven strategy with human-centred innovation.
As a Director at Seacrest Care Services, Ebun works closely with vulnerable young people, giving her deep insight into gaps in early intervention and community support. She is committed to advancing trustworthy, preventative digital solutions that ease pressure on NHS services and improve equitable outcomes across communities.