Cari-Anne Quinn: Turning possibility into progress – health innovation in Wales

MHRA foreword

The UK has world-class strengths in life sciences, but healthcare innovation only delivers its full value when it reaches patients. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is working to ensure regulation acts as  a catalyst, not a barrier, to innovation – protecting patient safety while supporting access and growth.

As Cari-Anne Quinn highlights in this blog, Wales has particular strengths: a connected health and care system, a thriving life sciences sector and strong partnerships between government, healthcare, academia and industry.

As the UK-wide regulator, the MHRA is strengthening engagement with innovators across all four nations. More direct engagement in Wales, including the new programme of MHRA Liaison Days, is helping bring regulatory expertise closer to innovators and strengthen collaboration across the Welsh life sciences ecosystem.

Thank you to Cari-Anne for sharing her perspectives on how stronger collaboration can help turn innovation into better outcomes for patients and support growth across the UK.

Guest blog: Cari-Anne Quinn, Chief Executive Officer, Life Sciences Hub Wales

Health and care systems across the UK are under pressure, and Wales is no exception. Demand is rising, patients are waiting longer for diagnosis, treatment and support, pathways are becoming more complex, and teams are being asked to deliver more in a system that’s already stretched.

Innovation is often talked about as part of the answer, but it needs to be understood properly. It’s not about adding more technology into an already pressured system for the sake of it. It’s about identifying where systems are stuck, where delays are happening, and where proven solutions can help people move through care more safely and efficiently. Creating more capacity is important, but it is only part of the answer. We need to ask not only how we do more, but how we do things differently. Innovation only changes lives when it reaches patients. 

Wales as a connected environment for adoption

This is where Life Sciences Hub Wales has a practical role to play. Our work is focussed on connecting the challenges recognised across health and social care with the people and organisations developing possible solutions. We bring partners together and help good ideas move beyond individual pilots and into wider use. For example, through our clinical engagement work, we’re working with clinical cancer teams and partners to connect frontline insight with evidence, so that innovation is focussed on the areas where it can make the greatest impact.

Wales has a strong story to tell here. Our health and social care system faces many of the same pressures seen across the UK, but our size and connectedness also create opportunities. We have a nationally connected health and care system, close working relationships between government, NHS organisations, academia, industry and the third sector, and a growing life sciences sector with strong foundations. That gives Wales the potential to be an agile environment for testing how innovation can be evaluated, adopted and scaled – bringing the right people together around shared challenges and moving more quickly from identifying a need to implementing a solution.

Innovation and adoption impact

One example is our partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support. Through this work, we’re bringing together people with lived experience of cancer, NHS organisations, Welsh Government, academia, and the third sector to better understand where variation exists across cancer care in Wales, and how proven innovation could support earlier diagnosis, more equitable access and better outcomes. This is about looking carefully at where people experience delays or differences in care and asking what could help.

There are also practical examples across Wales which show what can happen when innovation is focussed on a clear challenge and making a practical difference. Cardiff and Vale’s Rapid Diagnosis Clinic reduced average referral-to-diagnosis times from 84.2 days to 6.2 days in its first year, showing how pathway redesign can make a tangible difference when focussed on patient need. In north Wales, an AI-driven waiting list validation tool co-developed by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and digital health company EBO has used SMS and chatbot technology to help confirm whether patients still need treatment. During pilot phases, the tool removed 6-7% of patients from waiting lists.

Connecting innovators with regulation earlier

For innovators, moving from idea to adoption can be difficult. The route through evidence, regulation, evaluation, procurement and implementation is not always easy to navigate, particularly for companies developing solutions for complex health and social care challenges.

This is particularly important in Wales, where many companies are developing solutions with clear potential to support health and social care, but may not always have a structured route to the right regulatory advice at the right time.

Our engagement with the MHRA creates an opportunity to show how Wales can provide a connected environment in which regulation, evidence generation, adoption and implementation are considered together earlier. By bringing regulatory thinking into the innovation journey sooner, more regular dialogue between regulators, innovators and the wider Welsh health and care system could help companies understand requirements, identify common barriers and generate the evidence needed for safe and effective adoption. Just as importantly, it can give MHRA greater insight into the practical challenges innovators and services encounter as they move towards implementation.

The wider life sciences opportunity for Wales and the UK

Wales has a life sciences sector employing more than 13,000 people across approximately 300 companies and generating around £3.6 billion in annual turnover.

The opportunity therefore extends beyond individual projects and companies. If Wales can make it easier for promising innovations to navigate the journey from evidence and regulation through to adoption, the benefits are twofold: better outcomes and more sustainable services for patients, alongside growth in high-value sector that supports jobs, investment and economic prosperity.

Wales has a valuable role to play in the wider UK conversation about how we support safe, effective and timely adoption. Innovation alone will not solve the challenges facing health and care. However, when rooted in real need, supported by evidence and developed through partnership, it can help services work differently, improve outcomes for patients and turn possibility into progress.