This innovation challenge is organised by the Welsh Node of the National Virtual Incubator (NVI), based at the University’s ehealth Industries Innovation Centre (ehi²).  It offers for the first time an opportunity for delegates in Wales to network, collaborate and innovate with other healthcare professionals, SMEs and academics in Dundee and London - virtually over telepresence.

The event calls on delegates to team up and innovate with new e-Health concepts and solutions to empower patients and healthcare professionals. 

Teams will be encouraged to brainstorm ideas in categories which include: mHealth (mobile health), Wellbeing and Lifestyle, Clinical Information Systems & Data, and Telemedicine & Homecare.

Here is how the Challenge will unfold:

• Open Expressions of interest: Expressions of interest will open on Tuesday June 3 and close by July 18, 2014 at 11:59 PM.
• Idea Generation Workshop: 17th September - idea creation & team formation.  
• Project Development Day : 24th September - Teams will hone their concepts , build their implementation plans and work on their pitches.
• Pitches to the Judging panel: 8th October.  Teams will present their ideas to a judging panel made up of ehealth experts and potential investors.

The Welsh Government are sponsoring the event as part of their ongoing commitment to jobs, growth and wealth in Wales.  

Edwina Hart, Welsh Government Minister for Economy, Science and Transport, said:

“We are proud to be supporting this innovative new competition. 

The Welsh Government is a strong supporter of e-health. We are committed to encouraging new technological opportunities and innovative approaches that could help improve healthcare and healthcare delivery for both the patient and the professional in Wales and across the UK.”

Professor David Ford, Professor of Health Informatics at the College of Medicine, Swansea University, said:  

“This is an exciting time for ehealth with rapid growth in trends such as: healthcare apps, augmented nutrition, virtual house calls and wearable technologies.”  

“The main advantage of this event is having people with a wide range of skills working together.  We want anyone with an interest in healthcare technology to register an interest and take part, this could include: healthcare professionals, technology and healthcare companies, academics, researchers, patients and their relatives and representatives from charities.”

“These awards are a great way to generate collaboration and innovation across the UK and potentially create some very interesting innovative ehealth solutions.”

Hayley Crompton, Manager of the NVI node in Greenwich London, added:

“This is the first time that the Awards will be run over the NVI Network and it is a very exciting prospect that delegates from London will have an opportunity to team up and work virtually with delegates from both the Dundee and Welsh Nodes.   

I am sure that there will be a lot to be learnt from this cross UK collaboration and I am very much looking forward to seeing what ideas the teams come up with.”

Email s.toomey@swansea.ac.uk 01792 295627

The Cisco National Virtual Incubator (NVI)
This network is a flagship initiative of Cisco’s British Innovation Gateway (BIG) programme. NVI is a programme that spans across UK through a series of communication points, known as Nodes, which connect research clusters, higher education establishments and science parks over the academic JANET(UK) network.

NVI Wales
The Welsh NIV Node, in partnership with Cisco and the Welsh Government is based at ehi2, in the College of Medicine, Swansea University and has joined as a specialist communication point, supporting the Life Science/ICT sectors.