Health Make Space (HMS) , a new digital platform led by King’s postgraduate student Dr Faheem Ahmed, allows clinicians to get involved in the start-up scene to create better health technology.

The digital collaboration platform, which is supported by King’s Entrepreneurship Institute as part of their  King’s 20 Accelerator programme , allows healthcare students and professionals to connect with start-ups, matching them by criteria such as time, location and expertise. By connecting with healthcare start-ups, users of the platform can collaborate to create clinically useful technology.

The platform was developed after Faheem, along with fellow directors King’s alumnus Dr Na’eem Ahmed and Sam Atwell, recognised that frontline staff should play a greater role in the digital transformation within the health system which is urgently needed to boost efficiency and improve patient care.

Faced with the need to reward clinicians for innovation activities and to focus efforts on addressing what they call the ‘healthtech paradox’ – where there are over 165,000 healthcare apps, yet relatively few are successfully used in everyday practice – the team were driven to create HMS.

Since establishing HMS, the team have secured a commercial contract with a major London Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and have been nominated for several awards, including the Healthcare Startup Awards and Digital Health London Pioneers.

Team leader and former President of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Medical Students Association, Faheem, is the first foundation doctor to be appointed by NHS England as a National Clinical Entrepreneur Fellow. He said: ‘The need for innovation to address health system challenges is not unique to the UK. As a King’s alumnus, the University’s ethos focusess on generating social impact both locally and internationally, which aligns with my personal aspirations as a global surgeon and entrepreneur or ‘surgepreneur’.

‘Our vision for HMS is that of a global marketplace – the first point of call for clinical innovators worldwide to identify, create and test technologies at scale and pace.’

Health Make Space will be showcasing their work at ‘Advancing innovation in health’, taking place in Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus on 28 February 2016. The event is organised by the Entrepreneurship Institute and King’s student health societies. To register to attend, visit  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/advancing-innovation-in-health-tickets-30844983175 

 

Top photo: ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY