16/09/2019
When and where is it on?
Health Innovation Hub Ireland launches at NUI Galway, Monday, September 16.
Minister of Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen and Minister of State with special responsibility for Mental Health and Older People, Jim Daly TD, came to NUI Galway’s Lambe Institute for Translational Research based at Galway University Hospital to officially open the third national Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI). Both the President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh and CEO of Saolta University Healthcare Group, Tony Canavan, welcomed the arrival of the HIHI in the West.
Health Innovation Hub Ireland launches
How long has it been going?
First launched by Minister for Health Simon Harris TD at its headquarters at University College Cork in 2016, Health Innovation Hub Ireland is assisting in the establishment of Ireland as a leading location for start-ups and expanding healthcare companies. HIHI allows easy interaction with hospitals and primary care centres. Collaboration between the health service and enterprise is leading to the development of new Irish healthcare technologies, products, and services.
The continued growth of the Health Innovation Hub Ireland and expansion into the west, marks a continued pattern of growth for the HIHI nationally. This expansion follows the October 2018 launch of the second office based at Trinity College Dublin on the St. James Hospital Campus.
NUI Galway, Monday, September 16
Nationally, Health Innovation Hub Ireland plays a unique role within the Irish healthcare ecosystem working at both ends of the innovation pathway- at the very earliest stage from ideation through to concept development and at the later stage of proof of concept in a clinical environment.
In Galway, HIHI works closely with other Enterprise Ireland programmes including BioInnovate Ireland and BioExel and leverages the medtech expertise within NUI Galway including the Translational Medical Device Lab, led by Professor Martin O’Halloran, CÚRAM, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Medical Devices at NUI Galway and the HRB Clinical Research Facility led by the HIHI PI, Professor Martin O’Donnell.
HIHI Galway is at the cutting edge of excellence in healthcare, clinical & engineering research with easy access to experts & the next generation of innovators. Western based companies such as Ostoform and Feeltect are just a few of the companies benefiting from the HIHI’s unique ecosystem.
What was the inspiration to start it?
HIHI – is a national central hub to the health and innovation ecosystem.
HIHI was established by Department of Business, Enterprise, Innovation, and the Department of Health, supported by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Health Service Executive (HSE). As a unique joint government initiative, HIHI offers companies the opportunity for pilot and clinical validation studies and provides the health service with access to innovative products, services, devices. HIHI works to impact Irish business and Irish healthcare in three key areas.
1. Industry: HIHI matches companies with relevant clinical teams, overseeing a study of each product in an Irish clinical setting.
2. Healthcare: HIHI is an open door to all healthcare staff to assess ideas to solutions they have encountered in their work. HIHI acts as mentors and advises on taking an idea and developing it into a service or product.
3. Education: Delivering a series of five HIHI workshops and a diploma in healthcare innovation, HIHI is embedding an innovation culture in Irish healthcare.
Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) works across the health sector with Irish businesses to creatively solve problems and improve patient care. Harnessing this innovation, through development of new healthcare technologies, products, and services, will help to create Irish jobs and exports. Operationally HIHI is a partnership of clinical and academic centres from across the country. HIHI works directly with three hospital groups (South/South West, Dublin Midlands and Saolta in the West/North West), but the HIHI network can also access all acute and community hospitals, pharmacies, primary care centres and healthcare centres. Academic partners are UCC and CIT, TCD and NUI Galway respectively. HIHI operates an open-door policy, across its national network, to both industry and healthcare.
Who will be speaking?
Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen, TD Speaking in advance of the launch Minister Breen said: “As Minister for State in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I very much welcome the launch of the third national HIHI here in NUI, Galway. HIHI is a wonderful means of facilitating collaboration between the all the various players involved in the health, enterprise and research sectors for the ultimate benefit of Ireland’s citizens. Galway, in particular, is a city that has both a thriving academic centre and a rapidly expanding MedTech sector. I wish HIHI well in its endeavours and look forward to seeing the benefits of its work in the future.”
Minister of State with special responsibility for Mental Health and Older People, Jim Daly TD,
“I am delighted to see the expansion of Health Innovation Hub Ireland here in Galway building on the Hubs in Dublin and Cork. This ground-breaking initiative between the Dept of Business, Enterprise & Innovation and the Dept of Health is supporting companies access healthcare experts and bringing new technologies to market as well as improving patient outcomes. Enterprise Ireland is supporting a vision of innovation in healthcare and supporting companies and innovators in healthcare to reach their potential.”
CEO of Saolta University Healthcare Group, Tony Canavan,
Commenting Tony Canavan, CEO Saolta University Health Care Group added, “The HIHI facilitates a unique partnership between the health service and the enterprise sector to enable healthcare research and innovation will over time improve outcomes for patients. Critically, it gives staff working on the front line of the health service an opportunity to bring their ideas and proposals to the Hub that will ultimately improve outcomes for our patients. We are delighted that the Saolta Group and in particular University Hospital Galway is part of this initiative and I would encourage staff to share their knowledge and make proposals.”
Prof Martin O’Donnell – Professor of Translational Medicine NUI Galway and HIHI Principal Investigator, Galway
“Based at NUI Galway we have multi-disciplinary award-winning teams in healthcare, clinical and engineering research at the Lambe Institute for Translational Research. Health Innovation Hub Ireland combines expertise from NUI Galway and the HSE to deliver projects in healthcare and industry. With a strategic location, embedded in the heart of the hospital, research and teaching, the Hub is a welcome resource to clinicians, researchers and companies.”
More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase
FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!
Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.
Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully we can share your story too and reach our global audience.
Source: Irish Tech News