Going to a land down under: North of England health innovation to be represented at Aussie summit

The Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) will be representing health innovation in the North of England at the forthcoming Commonwealth Innovation Forum (TCIF), taking place in Brisbane, Australia, on 5–6 April.

Chairing a panel at the event will be the CEO of the NHSA, Dr Hakim Yadi OBE. During this panel discussion on ‘Healing the People of the Commonwealth’ on 6 April, ways in which health can be improved through policies, initiatives and innovations will be explored.

“The Commonwealth is young, diverse and growing — 60% of its population will be under the age of 30 by 2020 and the network contains not only some of the most stable economies in the world, such as Australia and Canada, but also some of the fastest growing, such as India, projected to be the second largest economy in the world by 2050,” said Yadi. “We will be exploring health priority issues affecting the peoples of the Commonwealth Nations and will seek to identify those policies, initiatives and innovations that can provide all of the commonwealth with equitable access to affordable and effective world class health services and health outcomes.”

This inaugural TCIF was launched to provide a platform for people from across the Commonwealth come together and assess what possibilities there may be post-Brexit. Containing 53 countries, the Commonwealth covers a quarter of the world’s landmass, contains a quarter of the world’s people and has a combined Gross National Income of $10.7 trillion. It is estimated that the Commonwealth Factor — shared values, regulatory systems and language — makes trade costs on average 19% lower between Commonwealth countries.

“The NHSA continues to work closely with the Commonwealth as a nation partner in health and technology, sharing expertise and innovations,” continued Yadi. “Earlier this year we secured a memorandum of understanding with medical technology accelerator Zicom MedTacc in Singapore which see them come to the North of England first for their UK clinical validation.

“The commonwealth shares many common values and opportunities for the North of England, the whole of the UK and member countries to improve health and wealth through working together I look forward to exploring this with my fellow representatives.”