Alder Hey Launches First Startup Collaboration Programme

Today, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is launching our first start-up accelerator programme: Alder Hey Innovation Lab, run in partnership with corporate innovation specialists, L Marks. The Innovation Lab’s first sprint has been sponsored by DPD and Regatta, who will be supporting start-ups along the journey.

Since opening our new Alder Hey in the Park hospital and healthcare campus in 2015, we have prided ourselves on providing the best possible healing environment for children and their families. Through the opening of our new state-of-the-art hospital, alongside a brand-new research, innovation and education centre, Alder Hey is one of the largest children’s hospitals in Europe and is recognised as a world leader in children’s healthcare and research. Our ambition is to create a world leading centre of excellence offering outstanding care, developing leading-edge research, providing the highest standards of paediatric training and accelerating the impact of game changing innovation for children and young people.

To further enhance this work, during the 14-week Innovation Lab, we will give successful startups access to stakeholders within the Trust, gaining insights from their expertise and the opportunity to test and validate their solutions. The lab is made up of two sprints; the first 10-week sprint will focus on clinical validation followed by a 4-week commercial validation sprint, where sponsor companies will provide hands on support to plan expansion of solutions across Alder Hey and beyond to maximise the impact of the programme.

The programme is designed to discover innovative solutions which can support us in providing exceptional support to our children and young people, and their families. Applications for the first sprint of the programme are now open for start-ups that are leading the way within two key innovation opportunities:

• Bringing UX to the patient experience; Gamification & the child WOW factor. Run in partnership with DPD.

In today’s day and age kids expect to be wow’d through gamification and fun, which have also been proven to reduce anxiety and promote healing. We are on a mission to leverage the technology of today to engage children throughout their journey at Alder Hey. Within this category we are also on the hunt for solutions that WOW children and young people by being inclusive and supporting the patient/ family experience as a whole. Simple and streamlined solutions are welcome in this category.

• Hospital Optimisation; Rethinking the end-to-end journey. Run in partnership with Regatta.

It is no secret that the behind the scenes running of a hospital is a very complex process. However, so is running an airport, hotel or university. We want to reimagine the entire end-to-end operational journey with a patient, clinician and staff-centric approach. Themes within this category could include solutions to support patient management, workflow management and clinician support. Therefore, meeting a number of stakeholders needs is a crucial aspect to this category. Solutions offered need to be simple and easy to implement within the wider hospital team.

• Further categories (January 2022 onwards). Partners to be confirmed.

As part of the Alder Hey Innovation Lab, we will be running future categories within 2 more sprints. These categories include;

• Future of training; Haptics and simulation to create clinicians of the future
• Non-invasive Diagnostics; Sensors and wearables to test and monitor
• Surgical Safety; Eliminating human error and never events
• Wildcard

Further information on Alder Hey Innovation Lab and how to apply can be found on the website: alderheylab.com. Applications close at 23:59 GMT on Friday, 25th September 2021.