Manchester Innovation Hub Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

In Manchester, over 600,000 people are living in poverty and it ranks six out of 326 local authorities by Index of Multiple Deprivation. Manchester has been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are more premature deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease than any other local authority.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is developing an Innovation Hub, to help improve health outcomes for the populations it serves. The Hub will drive the implementation of health care innovation, through delivering activity across five inter-related work packages: people, process, culture, technology, and co-production and evaluation.

Digital will be the initial exemplar and activities run through the Hub will include: the development of an MFT Digital Academy, to instill digital awareness, understanding of digital change and to drive workforce upskilling; production of an Adaptation/Adoption Toolkit in partnership with patients/public; using case studies to build engagement with the Hub; and the development of an ‘Incoming Innovation Portal’, to allow staff, patients and industry to propose evidenced innovations that meet local needs.

The Hub will be hosted within the Citylabs development, a focal point for innovation development and deployment, in the heart of the MFT Oxford Road campus. In April 2021, MFT acquired North Manchester General Hospital and ongoing regeneration will transform the hospital into a flagship, digitally-enabled hospital. This provides an exciting opportunity for the Innovation Hub, as it will be a unique testbed for adaptation of innovation and embedding local learning in a particularly deprived area.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Katherine Boylan, Head of Innovation, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.