Meet the Needs Assessment Team

We spoke to Ben to find out more about his role and to hear how you can make the most of the service.

Q: Explain to us how the Needs Assessment Service works, and how it supports innovators.

Navigating the various aspects of the innovation ecosystem is complex especially in healthcare, there are regulatory obligations, evidence generation requirements, clinical pathways. That’s all before you then try to navigate the NHS and clarify who will buy or use the innovation.

We review the innovation records to understand what it is you have/are creating and which areas of development have been achieved so far, we then consider which of the support organisations are best placed to potentially support you and allocate onward support through our Needs Assessment Summary report.

Q: Is there a particular type of innovation you’re seeing a lot of at the moment?

We see a wide breadth of innovations from patient information platforms and apps, to diagnostic tests, to transport management, to artificial intelligence approaches for clinical or administrative decision making. There are many digital solutions being developed and innovators are quite often unsure on how to get started, e.g. identifying partners to help develop their solutions or identify funding to develop a minimum viable product. Due to research or innovation funding announcements or new policy announcements, we may see slight surges in submissions in particular clinical or operational areas but there hasn't been an obvious trend we’ve seen thus far.

If you want to know more about what the NHS is looking for, the Discover the opportunities for innovation section includes specific topics and areas being reviewed through NICE.

Q: How do innovators get the most out of the Innovation Service?

We recommend that all innovators should check out the Innovation guide section on the service prior to submitting an innovation record to help prime themselves and ensure they understand what information is required. By being transparent on what development has taken place, and in some cases what has not, the Needs Assessment Service are able to provide a bespoke needs assessment and refer an innovator to the most appropriate support organisations.

The innovation record is a dynamic record capturing pertinent details relating to an innovation in real-time. It holds information that can be updated by the innovator and allows uploading of relevant documents. Innovators will benefit most by keeping their records up to date, showing what progress has been made, particularly as the support organisations use the service to horizon scan for relevant local and national programmes of work (e.g. NICE).

Q: What do you most enjoy about your role?

The innovations that come in are extremely varied and many have the potential to be impactful in patient care but also in the way the NHS is run…

It’s rewarding to see innovators make progress in developing their idea or their evidence base with organisations they have not previously worked with. Without their submission to the service this development may not have taken place, or it may have taken a lot longer to find the relevant contact to facilitate the development. The service provides an opportunity to accelerate the development of your innovation via the Needs Assessment Service making timely and appropriate referrals to one or multiple support organisations within the service.

You can read more top tips from Gemma about how to fill out your innovation record here.