Engineering better health

Healthcare doesn't just happen; it needs people and technologies. Everyone knows about the pharmaceutical industry: in this presentation, the focus is on the engineering-based health technologies and the businesses that invent, develop and supply them. There are over 4,000 businesses in health technologies in the UK; the majority of these are SMEs. They supply a wide diversity of products from hospital piping systems to the most sophisticated imaging technologies. Many products are single use; others last for many years. They can be found on wards in hospitals, in operating theatres and in laboratories. They are used by community nurses in people’s homes. They include devices we buy ourselves - from bandages to pregnancy tests. Many involve exploitation of highly complex science, brought together by an ingenious combination of other technologies: the health technology industry exists to turn this into safe and reliable everyday reality. Research and development can bring both incremental improvements and disruptive innovations to our healthcare systems. The speaker spotlights a number of the technologies and processes involved, in order to provide the backdrop for a discussion on this complex and worthwhile area of the economy.