Healthcare Innovation -some exciting invitations

This first quarter of the year is proving very Scottish. Scottish Government agency HIENT have rather kindly invited me up to their table at the Scottish Annual Life Science Awards next week in Edinburgh. With over 800 people at this black tie event, it will be interesting to see how the impetus of P4 Digital - preventative, predictive, personalised and participatory healthcare - features at this more over-archingly themed event.

The following guests are on the same table as me, and I can't wait to ask them about their thoughts on mobile healthcare as a factor of health provisioning....

Prof. Irene McAra-McWilliam - Glasgow School of Art – Head of School of Design
Mike Biddle - Technology Strategy Board – Innovation Platform Leader – Assisted Living
Tim Wing - GE - Clinical Information Systems - Manager Northern Europe
John MacKenzie - GE - Country Manager
Sarah Sanders - Vodafone – Global Commercial Manager
Nicola McLaughlin - Vodafone – Category Marketing Manager – Public Sector
George Crooks - NHS 24 - Chief Operating Officer
Lindsey Moodie - Centre for Health Science – Business Development Manager
Campbell Grant - Sitekit – Managing Director
Elaine Mead - NHS Highland – Chief Operating Officer
Moira Mackenzie - Joint Improvement Team, Scottish Government - Telecare Programme Manager
David Kelly - Albasoft - CEO
Selly Saini - LifeScan - Early Phase Development
Alex Paterson - HIE - Chief Executive Andrew Fowlie - NHS Grampian, Moray Community Health & Social Care Partnership - General Manager Steven Dodsworth - HIE - Head of Life Sciences
Dyan Berry - HIE - Marketing and Comms Coordinator

I'll be back up to Edinburgh for a hen do in early March, and then back up to Fort William in the 'longest-ever-Easter-holidays-plus-THE-WEDDING-bankholiday' in April when I do a Hebridean island hop on the tandem. That, married with all the haggis which has been going around lately has set the 1Q11 up nicely with a Scottish feel.

On the 1st March I am heading to Manchester for the launch of the Innovation and Research Workstreams of the European mHealth Alliance (EuMHA). The members of EuMHA include healthcare providers, research institutes, industry and alliances whose aim is to support and promote the wider adoption of healthcare and wellbeing (including sports and fitness) products, services, applications and innovation across Europe

The event will be chaired jointly by Professor Chris Taylor, University of Manchester (leading the Research Workstream) and David McCarron, Intel Corporation (leading the Innovation workstream) and is invite only.

Guests from key industry, academic,healthcare providers,and policy-making organisations in the mobile eco-system in Europe are invited to join the event which will provide an opportunity to help shape the mHealth agenda for Europe, to meet some of the key actors in mHealth in Europe and to work together with EuMHA members on developing plans for research and innovation activity. I'm looking forward to working with the attendees and hearing ideas on how to move mobile healthcare forward...