What are some of the challenges in healthcare innovation that need to be addressed? The healthcare sector presents a unique set of challenges for innovation. These include a requirement for prolonged validation trials, complex regulation, ethical considerations, and a highly trained workforce to tackle the issues we face. The challenge is in aligning incentives so… Read more
Charco Neurotech is a medical technology startup dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with long term health conditions. In 2013 we met a gentleman who said “I am very happy now but I look angry because Parkinson’s disease took away my smile”. Since then, our aim has been to bring smiles back… Read more
The world is complex and mental models help us simplify information, focus on the most important things and make better decisions. Examples include the Pareto Principle which teaches us that in most situations, 20% of inputs lead to 80% of outcomes, so the goal should always be to find and focus on the 20%. Or… Read more
Connect4 is an online meetings platform that helps businesses have smarter meetings. At the end of March our working lives changed overnight, and we’re all still learning to adapt. Not only have we moved from office to home, we’re also trying to renegotiate client and team relationships online – as well as, in some cases,… Read more
What am I doing here? That was my first thought as I looked round a lecture theatre packed with incredibly smart science and business brains. But I had an idea, I wanted to test it and the entry fee was just £60, so here I was on my first Venture Creation Weekend without a clue… Read more
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, a so-called “to-do list” for people and the planet, presents 17 objectives of which “Zero Hunger” (number 2) is inextricably linked with many others. Without food security we cannot aspire to address climate action, achieve social equality, deliver clean affordable energy, or realise gender equality. Yet it is a… Read more
I never thought I’d start a business. From the age of seven, my passion and focus was music: first as a chorister in King’s College Choir; through classical piano, jazz flute, a cappella groups and songwriting; returning to King’s to study Music as an undergrad, where I had my first choral compositions published. But, on… Read more
NHS clinicians have access to many different investigations and treatments for patients. Through years of work in different clinical specialties, we become aware that both investigations and treatments carry inherent deficiencies. They may be expensive, uncomfortable for the patient, time-consuming or ineffective. Most of the clinicians I have worked with, in my capacity as a… Read more
By Tracey Smith, FinTech and InsureTech Lead at Direct Line Group (DLG) InsureTech has been the buzzword of 2017, with almost weekly conferences on digital innovation attended by 100s of insurers trying to understand how to be more innovative and move their businesses into the next digital age, whilst still wearing their suits! The time… Read more
By Kieran Garvey, Head of Regulation & Policy at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance RegTech (Regulatory Technology) is a rapidly developing area of market activity encompassing a wide array of firms adopting and applying innovative technologies to facilitate the delivery of regulatory requirements and services to individual consumers, businesses as well as governments, regulators… Read more