Health Tech Conference 2025 – From Vision to Impact: Making Health Tech work in Practice

As Chief Scientific Officer of Bruntwood SciTech, Kath is a member of the Executive Management Team and brings science and tech insights and expertise to developments, overseeing a number of clusters Kath leads science and tech partnerships with universities, hospital trusts, corporate occupiers, investors and innovation providers. She also leads the Innovation and Growth Team who curate and develop the ecosystem, investment, and scientific support for over 1100 science, technology, and digital businesses across Bruntwood SciTech’s innovation districts and clusters. Kath was formerly Managing Director of Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park campus.

Kath joined Bruntwood SciTech from the Executive Board of the Government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, where she led the team responsible for growing businesses working in the biomedical, health, agriculture and food sectors, creating and delivering a £800m portfolio of infrastructure, grant and loan investments and creating strategic partnerships with pharma, investors, and global charities. Kath is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.

Andrea Winders is the Head of Inward Investment for Life Sciences and Healthcare at MIDAS, Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency. In her role, she focuses on promoting Greater Manchester as a leading location for life sciences and healthcare investments. She works closely with international partners, businesses, and governments to understand the drivers to attract and retain growing life science organisations, then pairs with UK research and regulatory bodies to provide the necessary information, connections, space, and opportunities to design, test, and commercialise innovative products.

A creative Manchester-based entrepreneur and expert in tech, infrastructure, and smart cities, Andrea has a diverse background that led her to this position. She started her career in sales, holding many executive and managerial positions in companies like Spicers, Lyreco, and Office Depot.

In 2005, Andrea founded Pink Ladies, a no-cash, innovative digital female-led taxi service to provide a solution with reduced risks for passengers and drivers, resulting in several national awards, including 42-under-42 for Innovation, Woman of the Year finalist, Start-up of the Year finalist, Big Difference Award, and culminating in a meeting with HRH Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of services to women’s safety.

With much experience in bringing innovative technological solutions and having made a community network of government and public departments, she joined Sunderland City Council as the Executive Director of Enterprise Investment to ignite the city’s smart agenda.

This role led her to pursue her passion to work with organisations and technologies that empower cities and citizens. She then joined the Smart Cities Council in Nov 2022. Andrea held the title of Executive Director of Smart Cities Council and managed the organisation’s growth and drove objectives for the expansion of the smart agenda throughout the country.

Mark Duman MRPharmS brings over 30 years of clinician, management consultant and patient perspectives to the healthcare, life sciences and digital health sectors.  Working in the NHS, The King’s Fund, the BBC, and as a Founder of the Patient Information Forum, Mark endeavours to make healthcare more person-centric.

As the Chief Patient Officer for MD Healthcare, he works with organisations such as AstraZeneca, Diabetes UK, Google Health, Innovate UK, JnJ, Macmillan Cancer Support, Microsoft, Pfizer, Novartis & Siemens Healthineers to harness digital health, develop markets and improve patient engagement.

Gareth is Clinical Director for Digital and Data Products at Health Innovation Manchester. He joined the Greater Manchester health and care system early in 2023, and within his portfolio has delivery responsibility for the Greater Manchester Shared Care Record and the Secure Data Environment for Research and Innovation.

Gareth’s previous role was Deputy National Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) within the Transformation Directorate at NHS England, where he brought clinical leadership to national policy, strategy, systems liaison, and workforce development initiatives.

Gareth continues to practice clinical medicine, with over 20 years’ experience as an active frontline NHS consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Salford Royal, where he was also previously Clinical Director. Prior to his national role he was the Group Chief Clinical Information Officer at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

Dan Taylor is a Public Partnerships Manager at Vocal, who create opportunities for people to have a voice in health research. Based in Greater Manchester, Vocal works locally, nationally, and internationally to help shape the future of health and research.

His area of focus is involving patients and the public in the development and evaluation of health technologies at the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care. He also leads public involvement for an evaluation of the MyWay Diabetes digital platform at the University of Manchester and across the Better Sleep research theme at the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.

With over 11 years’ experience, Dan has built inclusive strategies and spaces that bring patients and the public together with researchers, staff and industry across roles in universities, research centres, and national charities.

Russ is 60 years old and a long term patient at SRFT, he has psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and epilepsy. He has been in hospital 29 times spending over 3 years of his life on the Dermatology ward. He has spoken at various conferences, to pharmaceutical companies, made films, written poetry and blogs about his experiences. He is a member of the Patient panels at Health Innovation Manchester, GM-ARC and vocal as well as being a co founder of PRP-NETT which is a think tank that is looking to improve patient representation in research. He is currently a co-applicant on three research projects working with the Universities of Manchester, Bath, Oxford and Newcastle.

Sally joined PKB in 2016, a move driven by her passionate belief in the value of patient-centric healthcare. Before PKB, she worked for an EPR provider, where she managed customer transitions at the end of the National Programme for IT, an experience that reinforced her commitment to empowering patients. Since joining the company, Sally has been instrumental in its growth, most notably by leading its integration with England’s NHS App. She is currently serving her fourth year on the techUK Health and Social Care Council, has sat on the NHS England SME Advisory Group since 2023.

Dr Katherine Boylan is Deputy Managing Director for Research and Innovation (Innovation) at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). This role involves overseeing innovation activities within MFT – supporting the full innovation pathway (from ideation to implementation) and strategic commercial partnerships, as well as contributing to leadership of the wider R&I function. Katherine is a standing member of the NICE Medical Technologies Advisory Committee.

Bill is a Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University of Manchester and a Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, Manchester UK. He leads a multidisciplinary research program in the implementation of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice and is the director of the NHS England Network of Excellence in Pharmacogenomics and Medicines Optimisation. He is the immediate past President of the European Society of Human Genetics.

Sim leads the GMC Life Sciences Fund at Praetura Ventures, which is merging with Par Equity to form PXN Group. Her role involves investing in life sciences businesses across Greater Manchester and Cheshire, including SiSU Health, CareLoop and Re:course AI. With more than 17 years of experience in financial services across banking, funds and real estate, she works closely with founders and research institutions to back innovation with strong commercial potential. Sim’s leadership has helped establish Praetura Ventures (and soon-to-be PXN) as a leading investor in northern health innovation.

Nabeel Arshad is a GP Partner at The Brooke Surgery and a leading voice in primary care transformation and the ethical adoption of technology. He is recognised for pioneering scalable growth by shifting the focus from personal productivity to practice capacity, enabling The Brooke Surgery to successfully double its patient list while maintaining quick patient access. Nabeel champions digital implementation, operating on the insight that healthcare transformation is 80% people management and 20% technology. He embodies the abundance mindset, viewing obstacles as opportunities, and advises leaders on balancing clinical safety with the calculated risk-taking necessary for genuine innovation. His approach has demonstrably improved patient experience, contributing to the practice’s Google rating changing from 2.6 to 4.6.

Dr Taz Aldawoud is a GP, NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow and founding CEO of Doc Abode (https://docabode.com), a nationally recognised digital health company enabling the NHS to deliver faster, safer care closer to home. With over 20 years’ clinical experience and an MBA specialising in Strategic Healthcare Management, he combines frontline insight with a strong record in digital transformation.

He spent more than a decade as Director of Clinical Innovation at West Yorkshire’s urgent care provider, where he pioneered one of the NHS’s first award-winning telehealth services. Taz is currently Chief Clinical Information Officer for the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and previously served as a Digital Clinical Adviser for NHS England, contributing to national digital policy and innovation.

Through Doc Abode, he works with Integrated Care Systems and provider Trusts across the UK to increase workforce capacity, improve responsiveness and enhance patient outcomes through dynamic care coordination and real-time visibility of clinical resources.

James Burch is Co-founder of Decently, a Manchester-based healthtech start-up who have developed their complex behavioural insights platform, Melo™. This award-winning solution revolutionises neurological behavioural assessment & understanding for clinical NHS and private healthcare teams managing Traumatic Brain Injury and other neurological conditions. With recent experience navigating the NHS as a start-up, James is passionate about getting innovative digital health solutions adopted for real-world impact.

Melo is now live across a growing number of complex care settings across the patient pathway with users capturing over 30,000 assessments from 600+ patients providing real-time and actionable insights for care teams, transfer of care planning, commissioners and families.

Decently is backed by a number of investors including local NW Praetura Ventures who manage the GMC Life Sciences Fund.

Nick has over 30 years Procurement experience in both private and public sectors. Originally a Mechanical Engineer in Wirral, then a Process Engineer in South Africa, he brings a wealth of knowledge around procurement. Buying Copper on the London metal Exchange (LME), electronic components from the Far East, Plastics from various types and array of suppliers. Cradle to grave understanding and also visionary with regards future procurement processes. Nick has been Head of Procurement in several NHS Trusts and has sold to the NHS (Procurement Software) thus being on the opposite side of the negotiation table.

Nick is currently Industry Procurement Adviser for Health Innovation Manchester (part of the national Health Innovation Network) , he is passionate about helping SME’s break into the NHS and supporting health and wealth in local economies.

Now a Fellow of the Institute of Procurement & Supply, he is keen to explore how procurement is going to shape in its outlook and embrace new changes, which he says, he wants to be very much a part of.

Dr Zied Tayeb is the Co-founder and CEO of MyelinZ, where he is building the world’s first AI-powered Brain Gym for Earth and Space. Alongside leading MyelinZ, he has held academic roles at top UK institutions and became one of the youngest professors of Neurotechnology in the country. With a PhD in neuroscience from TUM and a background in computer science, his work pushes the boundaries of brain–machine interfaces and AI-driven cognitive enhancement. He has authored more than 10 peer-reviewed publications, holds over 5 patents, and his contributions have been recognised globally — from being named a NASA iTech Top 10 Innovator, nominated for the International BCI Award, and awarded MedTech Rising Star of the Year (2024), to recognition by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering.

Rebecca is a corporate commercial lawyer specialising in the health sector.  Her clients include NHS organisations and other health and social care providers in the North West and nationally. Rebecca has been the operational lead lawyer on several major NHS transformation projects including mergers between NHS trusts / foundation trusts and the establishment of integrated care systems. Rebecca joined Browne Jacobson in 2019 and has previously worked in-house at NHS Improvement / Monitor, the Care Quality Commission and the Government Legal Department.  Rebecca was named “Lawyer of the Year” at the Made in Manchester Awards 2023.

Saif is the Clinical Digital Transformation Lead for Health Innovation Manchester and also works as Associate Medical Director at Tameside and Glossop ICFT. As a GP by trade, he has a particular interest in digital and sees it as a huge enabler to the future success of the NHS.

In recent years, Saif has worked on the roll-out of the Safe Steps app across care homes in Greater Manchester (GM) to track deterioration and continues to have a strong interest in improving lives for people with frailty through improved use of data and digital.

Through his role in Tameside, he has been involved in the development of the ground-breaking Digital Health Service and the introduction of virtual wards – providing hospital level of care for people from the comfort of home.

He also has a key role in the future development of the GM Care Record, building on improved data sharing to digitally shape and transform services. Saif has had significant clinical input to the recently launched dementia wellbeing and heart failure care plans that enable standardised, high-quality care for vulnerable patients wherever they are seen in Greater Manchester. In addition, the development of the My GM Care app under his clinical leadership has given patients the power to contribute directly to their own care and share this with health professionals via the GM Care Record including voluntary organisations such as the Alzheimer’s society – a first in the UK.

Saif’s key expertise is linking the clinical problems with the technical solutions, with a strong emphasis on clinical leadership and patient-centred design.

Dr. Markella Mikkelsen is the Founder and CEO of MolMart, a company championing innovation in reproductive genomics. An accredited Clinical Geneticist with over 20 years of clinical experience at institutions such as Great Ormond Street Hospital and The Christie, she also brings a decade of commercial expertise from Abbott Laboratories.

Guided by a vision to personalise preconception and prenatal healthcare, Dr. Mikkelsen founded MolMart to harness genomics and AI innovation, giving individuals and couples the tools to make earlier, better-informed decisions about their family’s health. Since its launch, MolMart has received multiple awards for its pioneering technology and is partnering with leading UK institutions to expand access to reproductive genomic solutions.

Following a decade at the biotech–nanotech frontier in academia and a lustrum in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry across Manchester, Oxford, and Cambridge, Dr. Alfredo Maria Gravagnuolo established “The NanoBioTechnology Hub” in 2025 at Alderley Park to advance the decentralisation of medical diagnostics.

With support from the Bruntwood “Life Sciences” Accelerator and the GC Angels “Venture Forward” Accelerator, his mission in health-tech is to equip paramedics with next generation portable diagnostics that reduce triage times for cardiovascular emergencies.

As a Data Scientist at the UK National Testing Programme for COVID 19, he tracked the spread of the Alpha (Kent) variant.

Terry Reed is Director of Business Development in the Innovation group within Pharmaceutical Technology & Development (PTD) at AstraZeneca, with over 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry and more than 25 years’ commercial experience across life sciences. He leads the enhancement of PTD capabilities, systematically unlocking value by enabling access to the best external science, technology, and innovation to accelerate delivery, reduce risk, and improve patient impact. Within AstraZeneca, Terry has been instrumental in introducing transformative technologies and building cross‑disciplinary capabilities, translating innovation into operational advantage across multiple domains.

A seasoned dealmaker, he has negotiated and executed 300+ major transactions, spanning in‑licensing and out‑licensing of technology platforms and intellectual property, as well as strategic collaborations and consortia with industry, biotech, and academic partners – consistently aligning science, strategy, and measurable value.

Prior to AstraZeneca, Terry served as Director of Global Commercial Development at Pharmagene. Earlier roles include business development and management positions at Oxford Gene Technology, De Novo Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Amersham, and Millipore, where he built partnerships, scaled platforms, and advanced innovation agendas across the life science ecosystem.

An award winning commercial and technology lawyer specialising in the health and care sector, Charlotte advises health and care organisations on legal, commercial and strategic issues relating to commissioning, contracting and collaborating. Having worked on a range of health and social care projects from system and place based integration and provider collaboration to electronic patient record procurements and digital health platform development, Charlotte works in partnership with clients to help them to navigate complex issues in order to deliver the desired outcome.

Charlotte is an advocate for innovation and transformation in the sector and in addition to her legal role at Mills & Reeve she proudly chairs pro-Manchester’s healthcare committee and is co-vice chair of techUK’s Health and Social Care Council.

Dr Lloyd Humphreys is the Managing Director of Cogniss and began his career in the NHS as a Clinical Psychologist before earning his MBA from the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin and founding Breaking Free Online, the world’s first digital therapeutic for addiction. An NHS Innovation Accelerator alumnus, Lloyd has helped to scale pioneering ventures spanning personal health records, digital therapeutics, and digital health infrastructure. He mentors and advises startups, international accelerators, and global organisations, including the World Health Organization. Lloyd has also held several board positions, such as European co-Chair of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, and currently serves as a trustee on the board of a national addiction charity.

Devika is the CEO of Brain+, where she leads the development of digital therapeutics transforming dementia care. Their platform, Ayla, is a UKCA-approved medical device for care homes, combining science, technology, and compassion to improve outcomes for residents and ease pressure on health systems. She is also the Co-Founder of WEALTH: Women in Health, a community connecting and celebrating women across the health ecosystem. A former young carer, she has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30, the United Nations #SheInnovates campaign, and the Mayor of London for her work advancing healthcare innovation and championing women in STEM.

Lukas is the Lead for Computational Medicine within Clinical and Scientific Services at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and he holds a Fellowship in Computer Science at the University of Manchester. A medically trained computer scientist, Lukas’ research bridges clinical and computational domains, with a particular focus on wearables and perioperative medicine.

Lukas co-leads the Manchester Wearables Research Group at MFT, collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to investigate and implement wearable-enabled care pathways to improve patient outcomes. His translational work is embedded in real-world clinical settings, supported by strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical and health tech industry partners. Lukas is an avid supporter of the open science movement, and he has a deep commitment to digital health equity to ensure innovation benefits diverse communities.