Life sciences big ideas should be used to tackle NHS crisis

The post-pandemic crisis in the health service provides a "unique opportunity" to introduce big new ideas to the NHS, according to Scotland’s Chief Scientist (Health).

Professor Anna Dominiczak told The Scotsman’s annual life sciences conference: “The NHS needs to stay healthy for our future - and it’s not at the moment, that’s the truth. But every problem brings with it a unique opportunity.” This “burning platform” opened up the opportunity for innovation and new ideas, she added.

Prof Dominiczak said it was crucial to introduce new ideas to the NHS with a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach - so they were used in all 14 health boards in a similar way, not piecemeal.

“We need to consider radical innovations which can be quickly adopted across Scotland," she added.

"We need to simplify the way of doing that without losing the quality control.”

Prof Dominiczak, who took up her post in July, used three examples of potential ‘quick wins’ for the NHS: digital dermatology, where patients sent in photographs to reduce inperson appointments by up to 70 per cent; a technologybased closed loop system for patients with Type 1 diabetes; and a genetic test to reduce the amount of people hospitalised by adverse reactions to medicines.

The conference heard that Scotland’s life sciences industry was worth £7.4 billion, and set to smash through its £8 billion turnover target by 2025. Part of the growth plan was a new export strategy for life sciences, launched this week by the Scottish Government.

Mark Cook, Co-chairman of the Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group (LSSILG), said the strategy offered companies lots more help to succeed and get into very large markets, like the US.

David Brunton, of the LSSILG Internationalisation group, said around 200 organisations had fed into the export strategy, which was focused on supporting smaller businesses to get into new markets, with a strong focus on the US.

He said it was vital to act quickly: “There is no point unless we follow through.”

A full report on the The Scotsman Life Sciences conferences 2022 will appear on Friday, 2 December.