Health Tech Conference 2024 – The Tilt Towards Technology: Transforming Greater Manchester Healthcare

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.

Professor Alejandro Frangi works at the University of Manchester, UK, where he holds the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine. His research focuses on using advanced computer models to improve healthcare and medical device testing. Prof Frangi leads the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, which develops new health technologies. He also directs the InSilicoUK Network, which promotes the use of computer simulations in medical research and regulation. His work spans computer science and health science, aiming to make medical innovations safer and more effective.

Dr Katherine Boylan is Head of Innovation for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), a position she has held since April 2020. This role involves overseeing innovation activities within MFT, part of the wider Research & Innovation function. The Innovation Team supports: Intellectual Property and Commercialisation management; adoption of novel technologies within the Trust; strategic partnerships (with commercial organisations and other leading clinical/ academic centres); a portfolio of strategic programmes (including the Diagnostic and Technology Accelerator and Clinical Data Science Unit): and the interaction with the co-located companies across the Citylabs Innovation District. Katherine is a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Medical Technologies Advisory Committee, a group responsible for making recommendations to NICE on medical devices with the potential to make improvements in patient outcomes; patient experience of treatment and recovery; and efficient use of resources.

Prior to her current position, Katherine worked in The University of Manchester for a number of years, most recently as Operations Director for the MRC-funded Molecular Pathology Node, and the Trust-funded Diagnostics and Technology Accelerator. Katherine’s academic background is cancer genetics (PhD, University of Dundee) and molecular biology (BSc, University of Sheffield).

Ralph is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist, with special interest in Technology Enhanced Learning, and the Resuscitation & Paediatric Major Trauma Service lead at  Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

He has a Manchester Academic Health Science Network honorary clinical chair. He founded the Health Education England NW Simulation Education Network & co-founded the INSPIRE global simulation-based research network.

An author of 50+ peer-reviewed manuscripts, Ralph has a PhD in Technology Enhanced Leaning from the Karolinska Institutet Stockholm.
Ralph joined Health On Cloud in 2021 leveraging technology to improve disparities in global medical education, creating a UK company to create interactive content.

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.

Andy is Life Science Innovation Manager for Bruntwood SciTech. Having worked for over 20 years in early stage translation of science, from Big Pharma to start-up medtech, Andy now works with a variety of companies at various stages of their development. Specialising in start-up and early stage ventures, Andy runs a range of programmes and has worked with over 200 companies in the past 5 years, helping many to achieve early stage funding and commercial success.