The creation of a health innovation hub, designed to promote research and technological innovation within the healthcare sector, has been proposed in the Government’s new Action Plan for Jobs.
Officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation, the Department of Health, the HSE, Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) have already been working for a number of months on developing proposals to establish a more formal link between the health system and enterprise.
“The health innovation hub aims to achieve this by providing a mechanism for collaboration, leading to the development and commercialisation of new healthcare technologies, products, services and start-ups – and ultimately the creation of jobs,” a spokesperson for the Department of Jobs and Enterprise told IMN.
The spokesperson added that the hub will create a unifying approach to attract activity and funding into new research and development, and will build on the existing strong pharmaceutical and medical device industry presence in the country, which accounts for a significant portion of the 85,000 in Ireland working in the healthcare industries.
“Go-to” persons will be designated within the Department of Jobs and Enterprise, and the Department of Health, to provide healthcare professionals and companies with points of contact, and a project team will be created.A business unit will also be established to operationalise the process.
“The implementation steps reflect the fact that this is a new initiative and issues concerning governance arrangements, requirements to operationalise the initiative, pilot the initiative, etc. need to be examined and progressed,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health told IMN.
The Action Plan also proposes the development of a national biobank, which would facilitate the creation of indigenous companies in the healthcare sector.
A subgroup was appointed by the Department’s Health Research Group (HRG) in July 2010 to develop a national biobanking initiative. The subgroup, which is chaired by
Dr Enda Connolly, CEO of the Health Research Board, has built on the 2008 Expert Group Report recommendations for the establishment of a national cancer biobank.
The subgroup will shortly submit its report and recommendations to the HRG.
The development of a global centre of excellence for the medical device industry, and the importance of the Health Information Bill in facilitating research are also contained in the plan.
