WIREDGOV

Health education leaders in England are calling for the country’s most innovative and forward-thinking junior doctors to apply for a unique national training programme.

Integrated Clinical Entrepreneur Training, developed and managed by NHS England and Health Education England, is designed to keep the most forward-thinking, entrepreneurial clinicians within this country, bringing the benefit of cutting-edge new treatments and care pathways to the patients who need it – and keeping the money generated within the British economy.

The very first Clinical Entrepreneur trainees’ courses began just a few weeks ago, but already all clinical entrepreneurs have been matched to at least one mentor each, with industry partners, including Microsoft, McLaren, Johnson & Johnson Accenture, AstraZeneca, Tutella,  Medtronic and  AHSNs. Many of the entrepreneurs have negotiated successfully with their Training Programme Director and Postgraduate Dean for either an Out Of Programme Experience (OOPE) or Less Than Full Time Training (LTFTT) and plans are advancing for industry internships.

All doctors in training who are developing clinical innovations or enterprises can bid to become participants in this “limited places only” prestigious scheme. Applications to join the second cohort of trainees will open on 7 November 2016, with the course set to begin in September 2017. Doctors need to show that they have a clinical innovation or enterprise currently under development, and that there is clear scope for this work to be taken to a wider market with the support of the programme’s registered mentors.

Professor Tony Young, National Clinical Lead for Innovation at NHS England, said: “The programme was developed because traditional clinical practice and training was not keeping pace with the huge technological, economic and social changes of recent years.

“We could clearly see a worrying brain drain of the best clinical entrepreneurial talent out of the NHS and into private industry, often outside the UK. Integrated Clinical Entrepreneur Training is specifically designed to help and support these people to stay in the NHS, and over the longer term to make the best clinical entrepreneurial talent into self-sustaining brain gain for England.”

The programme is already making a huge difference to its first cohort of 104 trainees. Dr Harry Tustin, Core Surgical Trainee in Otolaryngology and a Clinical Entrepreneur, who has recently completed a surgical mission in Ethiopia, said: “’As someone fascinated by developing new devices for surgery, I often feel isolated working in the NHS where, in my experience, very little emphasis is placed on driving forward new ideas to see them applied in practice. On joining the programme, I felt for the first time that I was not alone in my desire to see new ideas driven through the development stage into real world application.

“My overwhelming impression is of a new sense of optimism, both as the result of the support promised and because of the exciting new network of likeminded individuals that will surely grow as innovators who share the same interests and grapple with the same problems are brought together.”

The scheme is backed by the medical training deaneries in all areas of England, who work in partnership with training universities and with NHS England to develop tailored packages for each trainee ahead of their course commencement.

The programme is set to open up to other clinical professionals in the NHS. Plans are being developed with support from NHS England’s Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Suzanne Rastrick, Chief Scientific Officer Prof Sue Hill and Chief Pharmacist Dr Keith Ridge to ensure all NHS clinical professionals in England will be able to apply for similar training programmes linked to their own professional development pathways.  A call for expressions of interest will open in 2017.