WIREDGOV

LCR Health Matters, a Liverpool-based health-tech business support programme, has helped to raise more than £21 million for life sciences businesses across Liverpool City Region.

The programme is a partnership that includes the Innovation Agency, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool City Region Growth Platform, and supports start-up and scale-up businesses by offering customised one-to-one advice and practical help.

The programme helps companies to perfect their products and services through real-world validation, allowing business leaders to see the practical and commercial benefits of products.

Since October 2019, the programme has worked with 50 companies across the region, providing support to companies making innovative and pioneering moves in the health sector.

One of the businesses supported by LCR Health Matters was AIMES, a bespoke cloud-solution provider to the NHS. The programme helped AIMES in its bid preparation, evaluation, and commercialisation, as well as with regulatory approval and patient and public engagement. LCR Health Matters helped AIMES acquire over £660,000 in funding. This enabled the company to develop its work in delivering AI into routine clinical care and identifying other use cases that its cloud solution OpenCARE could address in the LCR research community.

Senior business development manager at AIMES, Anthony Shimmin, recently said:

“The support from LCR Health Matters provided increased confidence in our decision-making and highlighted areas of concern that we needed to address.”

Another business supported by LCR Health Matters was Kids’ Health Matters (KHM), a community interest company that supports additional education and training for those working in advanced clinical practice in women and children’s healthcare, including paediatrics, neonates, and midwifery.

With its main focus on the delivery of products and services, KHM lacked the knowledge and industry connections required to scale its business. With the support of LCR Health Matters, KHM has been able to evidence the success and positive impact of its work. It is still working closely with the programme to produce its real-world validation report, which will allow the company to have key conversations with NHS decision-makers to drive sales and scale the business.

Innovation Agency programme manager at LCR Health Matters, Andy Cairns, recently said:

“It has been a pleasure working with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking start-up and scale-up businesses across the city region.

“Life sciences is one of the strongest performing sectors in the Liverpool City Region and with all the uncertainty over the last 18 months, we’re pleased to be in a position to continue to contribute to such a valued industry during one of the market’s toughest times.

“We aim to future-proof the sector and continue to create a space where businesses can bring their initiatives and technologies to market and improve health outcomes on a national and global level.”

Find out more about the Health Matters programme here.