MedTech
MedTech is vital to the UK Life Science environment, and the West Midlands continues to offer support to companies looking to establish themselves in this market.
The West Midlands can help a MedTech or biotech start up succeed, offering a rigorous academic network and digital infrastructure built to let innovation reach new strides. Choosing to develop tech for life sciences in the West Midlands means choosing to operate among diverse peers in a growing sector.
Our university ecosystem supports start-ups set out and scale with research, expertise, and vast clinical experience. Our hospitals provide a rich environment to test new products, whilst digital infrastructure in the region helps accelerate them to market fast.
Collaborative hospitals, universities and industry partners
In any medical sector, collaboration is the key to success. Companies in the West Midlands can expedite their processes creating, testing, and bringing products to market by utilising the academic-industry partnerships available here in the West Midlands.
The University of Warwick Life Sciences Research contributes to the sector on a global scale. The University’s Institute of Digital Health aims to improve healthcare by supporting digital solutions that can improve the quality-of-care patients receive, alongside patient safety. These departments earn their esteem partly through work with industry partners and employ experts across biomedical and informational engineering to develop and deploy their innovative digital solutions
MedTech centres of excellence
The West Midlands is home to some of the most forward-thinking universities and life science centres in the world.
The Healthcare Technologies Institute at the University of Birmingham is working to advance technologies and treatments that can improve patients’ lives. They work through programmes like their Med-Tech Connect group to further the local MedTech economy. Projections estimate Connect will generate an additional £78.5 million GVA. A key component is leveraging industry, academics and policy leaders to create future products.
The Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre (MD-TEC) works with companies to accelerate products to market, giving them access to facilities and expertise from local universities and clinics to assist in development and reduce R&D leads.
Alongside these centres, the West Midlands is also home to:
- DEMAND – (Data-Enabled Medical technologies ANd Devices Hub) is an ERDF-supported programme for the Black Country, Greater Birmingham and Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire, and Stoke-On-Trent & Staffordshire LEP regions
- The NIHR Trauma Management Medtech Co-operative which builds expertise in the NHS to support the development of new medical technologies
- The Centre for Custom Medical Devices, which works with experts from across disciplines to realise the full potential of manufacturing in the Medtech sector
- The Institute of Translational Medicine, where industry partners work together to accelerate the development of medical science into healthcare system applications
Patient and Medtech data
The 4.4 million people of the West Midlands are young, talented, and diverse, as people from 190 countries live and work here. It comes to no surprise then, that there are large, curated patient data sets across the NHS and institutions that tap into this diversity.
The Genomics Networked Information Exchange (GeNIE) integrates genomic data across 17 hospital trusts. The University Hospitals Birmingham global digital exemplar is one of the most advanced electronic patient record systems in the world. The region is home to Pioneer and Insight, two of the country’s Health Data Research Centres. Accessing this wealth of information unlocks a huge potential for the discovery and refinement of digital solutions and technical products.
UK 5G testbed and 5PRING
Life Sciences has been entering a global, digital transformation, and the West Midlands is helping MedTech companies lead the way right here. The Region is a hotspot for innovation, always looking to reach new heights with new technology.
The West Midlands has been the site of the first multi-city 5G testbed. 5G will be the crux to deliver the next decades worth of remote health services, as delivering real-time information at increased capacity, with increased security, is fundamental in scaling MedTech solutions. This technology already has proven applications in healthcare, including allowing specialists to give advice on video calls to ambulance paramedics on the move.
The 5G testbed is supported by 5PRING, a program supporting firms looking to trial 5G and how 5G can enhance their products, meaning they aren’t left to work it out for themselves. 5PRING also offers co-working spaces, mentoring, training and access to a partner network to help companies reach their digital potential in the West Midlands.
Succeeding in the Medtech sector
Our region is home to a network of UK Medtech companies working on technologies to improve the lives of patients, including:
- Alliance Medical – a large UK business based in Warwick that provides a range of imaging services for the healthcare sector. They deliver high-quality diagnostic solutions in partnership with public and private healthcare organisations
- Amplivox – a leading UK manufacturer of audiological equipment based in Birmingham that creates products for hearing tests
- Wave Life Sciences – a US life science company with a base in Birmingham working on precision medicine with the capability to design and manufacture stereopure oligonucleotides, developing potential medicines to modulate proteins responsible for genetic diseases
- Synexus – a large UK clinical trial business that has been testing the effectiveness of new medicines and treatments for more than 25 years
Free support services
We bring together a project team from relevant organisations across the region. This team includes property agents, recruitment consultants, public sector departments and universities. It delivers a comprehensive support package to quickly and easily help you establish and scale your business in the UK.
