Why Surgery?

One in ten people need surgery each year, but waiting times are at an all-time high with 7.2 million people awaiting routine treatment.  This means people are living with prolonged symptoms, added anxiety and employment issues, in addition to paying for additional care.  This affects the quality of life for patients, carers, and their families.

Demand for hospital care is limited by the availability of acute care beds with over 13,000 patients occupying beds (one seventh of total NHS bed capacity) who are medically fit but do not have access to suitable community and social care support.  Technology can help to address these problems by making surgical care pathways more efficient.  But uptake of technologies into routine care is slow with only a small number making it and benefitting patients.

We are based in an area of the country with a strong regional HealthTech cluster linked to the West Yorkshire HealthTech strategy.  This will allow fast access to knowledge and expertise to overcome barriers that slow uptake of new technologies and ideas into the NHS.  We will provide a supportive and inclusive environment with opportunities for multidisciplinary teams to work together.

Patient and public involvement and engagement will be part of all our activities to make sure our research is relevant to all patients. 

We will make sure equality, diversity and inclusion are the at the centre of our strategy so that the use of technology works for every patient.

Our Themes

Our HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care will drive HealthTech innovation for patients and healthcare systems to deliver socioeconomic benefit through quicker diagnosis and treatment of surgical conditions with safe, early recovery in the community. 

We will create a national HealthTech research and innovation hub, bringing together stakeholders at the intersection of innovation and clinical translation to tackle urgent pressures on the NHS.

Early Diagnosis and Personalised Care

Early diagnosis of complications from surgery will improve patient outcomes, minimising expensive remedial treatments and increasing quality of life and survival.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/early-diagnosis-and-personalised-care/

Minimally Invasive Therapies and Digital Technologies

This theme will bring together clinicians, academics, industry, professional bodies, and the public and patients to harness the power of digital, data, and surgical devices and accelerate innovation uptake into the NHS based on robust evidence of safety and cost effectiveness. It will seamlessly bridge the two other technology themes, allowing more patients with early-stage disease to benefit from minimally invasive treatments, spend less time in hospital, and recover safely in the community.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/minimally-evasive-therapies-and-extended-realities/

Assisted Healing and Rehabilitation

Up to 13,000 patients a day fail to leave NHS hospitals because suitable care and access to short term bedded support is lacking. Effective technologies that augment social care’s workforce skills, add value to the sectors, and increase capacity, have a valuable role to play in reducing these numbers, equitably.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/assisted-healing-and-rehabilitation-2/

Surgical Care Observatory

Our focus within the HRC is on the socio-technical implications of new technologies and how we can better prioritize new technological solutions with these in mind. The work is structured around how we can support and understand these aspects and jointly optimise them to facilitate successful implementation.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/accelerated-nhs-translation-observatory/

Clinical and Economic Evaluation

We have extensive experience in securing funding to apply early economic modelling across diagnostics, surgical devices, and digital and AI technologies. Early economic modelling allows identification of drivers of value and estimation of break-even thresholds such as maximum viable cost (headroom analysis) and minimum performance/efficacy parameters required to achieve savings/cost-effectiveness. Early modelling can inform pricing strategies, help identify the target population and inform product development, for example via target product profiles.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/timely-clinical-evaluation/

Sustainability and NHS Net Carbon Zero

This theme will focus on the methods and technologies needed to reduce waste and promote sustainability, drawing on established partnerships and networks to help the NHS realise its ambition of reducing its carbon footprint to zero by 2040.

https://hrc-surgical.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/sustainability-and-nhs-net-carbon-zero/