HTA Hotline – May 13

And so, it’s time for the HTA Hotline, where we provide a peak into the kinds of stakeholders we’re engaging with and projects we’re working on. Over the last two weeks the HTA has been a hive of activity with a diverse range of visitors, visits and meetings. We hope this update will give those that haven’t got in touch yet more of a reason to do so, and give our new friends that have joined or visited us a nice wave!

Into the Wild

The ‘new normal’ of working life is virtual meetings, Zoom events and phone calls, so when the HTA team was invited to a face-to-face event, in the big smoke, we jumped at the chance. The invite to the AWS Healthcare Accelerator Networking Reception came from one of the innovators working with HTA, Dr Julian.  We heard some brilliant pitches and were able to network with the future of healthcare innovation. Thank you to AWS Healthcare Accelerator and Dr Julian for allowing us to attend and be a part of something so rewarding.

That’s when good neighbours, become good friends

We consistently preach that innovation is only successful through teamwork, and so it makes sense for the HTA to make friends with other hubs of innovation like ourselves, to learn where we can support, collaborate, and share to provide better outcomes all round. We had a lovely introduction to our friends at the Digital Innovation Centre in Kent, and we look forward to learning how we can support each other further in the future.

Partners in…Collaboration

Core partner of the HTA, Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust, have spent a lot of time with us over the previous weeks.  We’ve enjoyed face to face catch ups with colleagues we’ve only seen through the computer screen, hosted a number of hot deskers within the HTA and offered our support for tech identification and co-design in mental health space. We especially loved having the Digital Ethics team in the building holding discussions on the alignment of IG and Clinical Safety when delivering digital projects.

V. I.(m)P Visit

Being based on the University of Surrey campus means we have the fortune of being included when important individuals come to visit the Clinical Research Centre (CRC), and last Friday was no exception. After a tour of the CRC, including the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, we had the pleasure of providing meeting space for the leads of UoS Health and Medical Sciences and MP Jeremy Hunt. We’re appreciative of the University allowing us the time to speak about the HTA and show off the facility.

Hybrid Meeting

Of course, we’ve been excited about the face-to-face meetings and events this week. But there is a still a case for the brilliance of online webinars. It is now so easy to bring together the minds of health and care from across the patch, which was highlighted through attending the Health and Care Apps Libraries Webinar held by ORCHA and KSS AHSN.  It was great to learn more about the safety assurances of apps the library can provide to clinicians and health care professionals, and think about how we could tap into this digital power in the future.

• If you haven’t visited the HTA yet but would like to find out more, or if one of these topics sparks your interest, please get in touch and maybe we’ll be featuring you in a future update.