Cerner established a partnership with the Health Social Innovators programme to help healthcare start-ups develop their products and solutions into viable businesses. Health Social Innovators, a partnership between Healthbox, Numbers4Good, UCL Business, Trafford Housing Trust, Janssen Healthcare Innovation and established with support from the Cabinet Office under the Social Incubator Fund, launched its first accelerator programme for healthcare ventures with a social impact last week. Cerner is providing these early-stage companies with an opportunity to work in its Collaboration Centre in London, as well as sharing its healthcare IT market knowledge and experience.
The development of digital technologies for the healthcare sector is growing rapidly in the UK. Healthbox estimates that there are currently about 400 healthcare technology start-ups in Europe, with roughly half based in the UK.
The 4-month Health Social Innovators accelerator programme is structured around a collaborative approach. In the healthcare sector, it is essential for companies to work closely with their stakeholders to succeed. Healthcare is a challenging industry with long sales cycles, stringent regulatory processes and multiple stakeholders who each have different and complex requirements. Only through side-by-side collaboration can start-up companies best understand the nuances of their market, demonstrate value for their customer and users, integrate their solutions into the patient journeys, and build sustainable businesses.
With this accelerator programme, Cerner has the fantastic opportunity to support passionate young companies with revolutionary ideas and inventive solutions. This collaboration will help to develop an open-architecture between different healthcare organisations, invest in the future of Healthcare IT, and ultimately improve the patient experience.
Commenting on the Health Social Innovators programme, Emil Peters, Vice President and Managing Director, Cerner Limited said: "Cerner is very much looking forward to help and support the Health Social Innovators accelerator programme. We at Cerner just celebrated the 35th anniversary of our beginning as a digital health start-up, so we trace our roots back to these fantastic opportunities. Our collaboration with Health Social Innovators will not only help young companies to achieve their grand ambitions but will also transform healthcare by making it better and safer for patients and clinicians alike."
About Cerner
Cerner's health information technologies connect people, information, and systems, at approximately 14,000 facilities worldwide. Recognised for innovation, Cerner solutions assist NHS Trusts and clinicians in making and documenting care decisions and enable organisations to manage the health of populations. The company provides clients with a wide range of in-house services, as well as an integrated clinical system to help organisations manage quality, outcomes and revenue.
Cerner's mission is to contribute to the systemic improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. Nasdaq: CERN.
About Health Social Innovators
The Health Social Innovators Programme aims to support the development and growth of early-stage health tech ventures that offer potential to deliver tangible and significant social and healthcare benefits to the public. The programme is a collaboration between Healthbox, the global healthcare accelerator, UCL Business, UCL's technology transfer organisation, and Numbers4Good, a financial intermediary focused on social enterprises, together with strategic investors Trafford Housing Trust and Janssen Healthcare Innovation, with backing from the Cabinet Office's Social Incubator Fund. Seven companies have been carefully selected for the programme by this group of social and healthcare sector organisations, based not only on the entrepreneurs’ experience in building innovative healthcare solutions but also their ability to create significant and long-term social impact at the community level across the UK.