The Power of Partnerships

At this time of year, Expo Season gives way to holidays. In the madness of following up all the exciting innovators and new strategic partners I met on my recent travels, all bursting with the potential of better patient care and commercial success, at least my aching feet get a well-earned break!

MedTech: People first

We are so lucky to be involved in MedTech – a world where academia meets the market, where innovators are celebrated, patients are the benefactors and supporting businesses like IMed get to influence the manufacturer journey for the better.

But it’s the people that really stand out for me. So much collaboration and signposting to like-minded and effective partners, who share IMed’s desire to see good innovations in hospitals and in patients’ homes or in pharmacies. The sheer will of people in Med Tech, working all hours and deeply committed to push devices and IVDs over the line and helping patients is exceptional.

Spurring us on to keep innovating

No one put this more passionately that JJ Chalmers, who hosted the proceedings and the Medilink UK and Med Tech Innovation Awards at the NCC on 7^th June. The event straddled 2 amazing days at Med Tech Innovation Expo (MTI) at the NEC, where IMed shared a stand with Health Tech Enterprise and met up with numerous partners and manufacturers. JJ, having himself benefitted from the best medical care, was keen to remind those assembled, what a real difference all the people in the room were making every day, with their tenacity and hard work and he thanked the audience on behalf of patients and spurred us on to keep innovating. Humbling.

Then it struck me, how much of my own day I spend leveraging my network of amazing individuals and businesses in our sector, to help people with great ideas and who need the expertise and guidance of the cleverest and kindest industry partners, who I have the privilege to be able to introduce them to. And I meet many of them by attending events, talking to strangers and simply asking them what they do.

MTI Expo and network building

In June 2023 alone, I spent 3 days in Birmingham setting up and attending MTI Expo and The Awards dinner and bumped into a number of our current clients and new potential customers, but I also spent quality time with Max Bardwell from Health Tech Enterprise as we shared a stand and helped each other’s stand visitors and set them on the right road. I caught up with 5 different Product Design partners, who all specialise in different areas and who we work with on projects. I even introduced a competitor regs consultant to our great Toxicologist friends at Chorley Consulting!

FemTech Labs ‘Decoding the future of women’

I spent an inspiring day in London at FemTech Labs ‘Decoding the future of women’ event, where I met my pal Ollie Croft from eg technology and many other of my fellow FemTech Labs Mentors, who all give their time to support budding FemTech businesses and giving free advice. Not to mention the 150 plus young innovators thirsty to learn as much as they could.

And I attended my fist live Health Tech Integrates Conference in London! At their first virtual event during the pandemic, I met six of IMed’s major strategic partnerships for the first time, from the comfort of my home shoffice!

I won’t deny that I had and gave a fair few hugs this month, greeting colleagues and connections, who I now know as friends, in person. I can count the cases we’ve worked on together and know every device we’ve been part of. It really does show the power of partnerships. Here’s a picture of me and 2 of my closest IMed friends – in our finery – taking a few hours away from the working at the sharp end for IMed and having a bit of fun too.