Loading Events

IN-PERSON EVENT: East of England HealthTech Cluster: Connecting People, Creating Opportunity

Tuesday 14 January 2025 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm GMT

Medilink Midlands - Reshoring UK             SEHTA. Improving Health - Increasing Wealth

This event, hosted by Medilink Midlands, Health Tech Enterprise and SEHTA is the second in a series of growing the East of England MedTech cluster. In this session we will be summarising and feeding back on the gathered opinion of the first event and laying out the next steps for supporting HealthTech in the East of England.

Attendees will benefit from an expert talk on the deployment of digital health into the primary care sector and we will have a number of SME pitching slots available in which companies can present themselves and highlight any interesting development areas or immediate support needs.

There will be ample time given for networking, to allow delegates to find new connections and share views on the regional needs and focus.

This event is also your chance to influence the future of support in the East of England and contribute to shaping the vision of a MedTech Cluster in the region.

Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, learn and have your voice heard!

Programme: 

10:00am – Registrations, Refreshments & Networking 

10:30am – Strategic Overview & Welcome, Neil Roberts, Managing Director, SEHTA & Dr Anne Blackwood, CEO, Health Tech Enterprise

10:40am – What will be on the GP’s desk in three years time? – A digital health fast forward! Simon Rudland FRCGP, Chair Suffolk GP Federation, Visiting Professor of Integrated Digital Health University of Suffolk and Honorary Senior Lecturer Norwich Medical School

11:00am – Innovator Pitches: 

  • John Cooling, Director, Whzan Digital Health
  • Aseptuva
  • James Brown, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Supersense Technologies
  • Japeto
  • Mohammad Najlah, Interim Director for the Medical Technology Research Centre, Anglia Ruskin University and Star-Up Founder

11:20am – Anglia Ruskin University Support, Dr Beverley Vaughan, Arise Innovation Hubs Director, Anglia Ruskin University

11:25am – Closing Remarks and Next Steps, Melanie Davidson, Chief Executive Officer, Medilink Midlands

11:30am – Networking

12:00pm – Close

Tickets:

£15 plus VAT for members of Medilink.

£25 plus VAT for non-members.

NB. Please email [email protected] for booking codes.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR PLACE*

Please ensure that you secure your place, as spaces are limited and available on a first come, first served basis, priority will be given to East of England organisations.

*Please note registration for this event closes at 5pm on Tuesday 7th January.

Speaker Profiles: 

Melanie Davidson
Melanie Davidson, Chief Executive Officer, Medilink Midlands
Melanie brings a background of industrial research and business development from West Pharmaceutical Service’s Drug Delivery Division. She also broadens our bioscience reach having studied Animal Science at The University of Nottingham. Before joining Medilink, Melanie gained valuable experience in economic development and international investment at the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).


Dr Anne Blackwood, CEO, Health Tech Enterprise
Anne is Chief Executive of Health Tech Enterprise (HTE), a leading NHS innovation and technology consultancy based in Cambridge. Anne has been actively involved in intellectual property management and commercialisation of life science technologies for over 20 years. She is also Chair of the Medtech Accelerator, a joint venture with public sector partners that awards proof of concept funding to develop medical technologies that meet a clinical need in the NHS. She was formerly Chair and co-founder of Medovate, a venture backed innovation development company dedicated to the commercialisation of medical technologies created within the NHS. Anne is passionate about improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare services through technology and innovation.

Simon Rudland FRCGP, Chair Suffolk GP Federation, Visiting Professor of Integrated Digital Health University of Suffolk and Honorary Senior Lecturer Norwich Medical School
Simon is an enthusiastic, innovative, portfolio GP who has over 30 years of NHS experience. He was a lead GP at Stowhealth working with McLaren Applied Technologies and Proteus as well as other companies. In 2019 he took up a three contract as a visiting GP on the remote island of Hoy in Orkney. He supports general practice at scale and undergraduate education recognising how important digital health is to community care. Through his work as a Clinical Advisor with Health Innovation East he has been privileged to work with some game changing technologies.


Dr Beverley Vaughan, Arise Innovation Hubs Director, Anglia Ruskin University
Beverley joined the Arise Innovation Hubs as Director in June 2021, with over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare and life sciences sector. Beverley trained as a clinical scientist in Haematology and working at Cambridge and London University Hospitals.  Working in the innovation sector for the last 10 years with roles in Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT) and the University of Oxford.  Whilst at SBC Beverley supported the development of translational research facilities and raised funding from multiple pharma and biotech companies for the Open Innovation Challenge in Neurodegeneration. At CGT Beverley managed a wide portfolio of project from novel drug discovery spin outs to NHS led delivery of cell therapy products. Most recently she was responsible for the delivery of a drug discovery consortium-UKSPINE- pivoting traditional pathways to meet the demands of healthy aging with partners, Universities of Oxford, Dundee and Birmingham, Medicines Discovery Catapult, The Francis Crick Institute and Sanger Centre Cambridge.  Since joining Arise as Director Beverley has been working on building the life science strategy for their newest hub located on the Harlow Innovation Park, leading on strategy, fund raising and partnering activities to build a cluster of expertise within this synapse of the London-Cambridge corridor. She is also a member of the NC3Rs CRACKIT advisory panel.

Neil Roberts, Managing Director, SEHTA 
Neil has been the Managing Director since April 2021, having previously been COO since July 2018. In July 2022, Neil was appointed non-executive Chairman to the Board of Exhalation Technology Ltd, which has attracted more than £11m in investor funding. In addition he is a business Mentor at Imperial College, London, as part of the Imperial Venture Mentoring Service.
Based on more than 30 years as a Senior Executive in the medical technology market, he has a track record of success in driving business development and growth, via sales and marketing, domestic and international distributor management, market access, major accounts, new business integration, and change management. This has been gained in the UK and in export both within an SME and market leading corporate environment.  His approach is based on pragmatism, enabled by detailed market understanding, with the highest importance placed on the execution of consequent action plans as the key to success.  He has managed product though NICE Technology Appraisal (TA), and other market access processes.  Served as Industry Representative on the RCOphth Working Party into the safety of laser eye surgery in the UK, and as Chair of the Ophthalmic Special Interest Group at the ABHI.  A degree in Medical Biochemistry from London University has been enhanced by business management education at Ashridge and the completion of leadership studies at Harvard.


John Cooling, Director, Whzan Digital Health
John joined Whzan in December 2014 having established Haverstock Healthcare in 2008, a GP federation of 29 Practices delivering primary and some secondary care services to approximately 500,000 NHS patients in North London. Since joining Whzan John has helped the Company to expand its healthcare services across the NHS and developed social care technology to support vulnerable people accessing social care. Previously, John served as a Director and Chairman of Microlease PLC from 1991 until 2006. Microlease is now part of Electrorent, the largest global provider of test and measurement applications. John also served as Chief Executive of Goodhead Group PLC from 1993 until May 2006.  John is also a partner with LGF Partners, a London based debt advisory boutique for early stage and fast growth companies.

Arise Innovation Hub, Harlow Innovation Park

Maypole Boulevard
Harlow, Essex, CM17 9TX United Kingdom

Organiser

Linsey Horsepool Medilink Midlands

Terms and Conditions for all events

To read through the terms and conditions of our events, please click here.

Code of conduct for all events

To read through the code of conduct expected by all event attendees please read Code of Conduct – Medilink Midlands Events.