Great technologies can be hard to sell, as often companies don’t look through their customers’ eyes.  Well prepared and articulated value propositions can make the difference.

What is Innovate UK?

• Innovate UK funds innovative companies using a range of tools, such as collaborative R&D competitions.
• We also look to connect companies to success as well as fund them directly.
• We also run workshops on particular topics which are focused at supporting companies  

What is Precision Medicine?

• The term precision medicine can cover quite a large area, but Innovate UK is looking at tools which select the most appropriate treatments for a patient, rather that the treatments themselves – e.g. companion diagnostics, Point of Care diagnostics, In-vitro diagnostics or using artificial intelligence for digital pathology

What’s the challenge?

• A review of the medical device and diagnostic technology projects we’ve funded over the last ten years shows a lower than expected uptake of final products, in particular by UK Healthcare providers such as the NHS and General Practices. 
• We have found that companies are very good at focusing on areas that they understand and can control, such as technology development.  They find it more difficult to address areas that are harder for them to understand and may have very little control over. This can include areas such as understanding the real adoption drivers for uptake by healthcare providers, which are very often opaque from the outside. The processes around commissioning, procurement and tariffs are also very complex to understand.   
• When trying to address the issues around adoption drivers is important that companies have a clear ‘value proposition’. A value proposition identifies why purchasers want to buy a product or service, this is different to how good the technology is or the size of the market.
• A value proposition is a well understood business concept but it does needs to be developed for specific areas, such as for Precision Medicine technology and NHS healthcare providers.

What do we want to offer?

• Innovate UK would like to help companies to understand the need to have clear value propositions when commercialising precision medicine technologies, and help guide them to develop their own value propositions. In particular we are looking to help start-up and spin-out companies, as well as SMEs, that intend to sell to the NHS and GPs as initial customers.
• In order to provide this assistance to companies Innovate UK would like to collate the perspectives of all the stakeholders involved in development, commissioning and use of precision medicine technologies, giving a group review on the subject.

Why run a workshop?

• Innovate UK intends to run a workshop inviting these stakeholders to present their perspectives on value propositions, with particular regard to precision medicine technologies
• The workshop will cover why having a value proposition is important, review the different aspects of value propositions, review those organisations that can help companies develop their own value propositions, and how companies can use their value proposition to develop products or services.
• The workshop will be free to attend and will allow companies, organisations and end users to discuss these issues in a manner that will look at solutions as well as the problems. This will allow companies to understand what the real issues are directly from the relevant organisations, and will allow organisations to link to companies that may wish to use their services in the future
• The workshop may also take a broad look at issues such as market access and health economics and how they relate to commissioning, procurement and tariffs. This will be mainly to highlight those barriers to adoption which can be addressed by a clear value proposition and those systemic issues that companies have less control over.
• The workshop will also review issue of minimal viable product/value propositions.

How will it work?

• The workshop will be held at thestudios, Leeds on 13th March 2018
• The format of the workshop will be for invited speakers to give short presentations on their perspective on value proposition for precision medicine during the morning. In the afternoon we will break in to three groups to discuss specific case studies, before tying these discussions together as a group
• In order to help disseminate information and provide a focus for this activity the final outcome of the workshop will be a video scribe whiteboard animation covering the topics discussed, which will be made freely available. This animation will also list all the participants that help before, during and after the workshop.
• We will need to have a basic ‘script’ framework mapped out beforehand, which we can then add to at the workshop. Professional designers will help facilitate the process, then create and animate the final video.  

What are we asking for?

• Therefore we’re looking for companies, organisations and individuals willing to give their time and energy to help put the workshop together
• For the pre-workshop activity, we are looking for the following:
  • o   Thoughts on the concept and value of using animated video as an output for the workshop
  • o   Suggestions on key inputs for value propositions for PM technology in the NHS.  These could be your own thoughts or links to other material, such as papers or presentation videos
  • o   Case studies where clear value propositions have led to PM technology being successfully adopted, and also cases where an absence of a value proposition has hindered adoption of PM technology. 

If you or your organisation are willing to input into the pre-workshop activity and/or the workshop on the day please contact Chris Rowe, Precision Medicine Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, at christopher.rowe@innovate uk.gov.uk

We are looking for stakeholders from SMEs, start-ups, spin-outs, CCG, DECs (MICS), AHSNs, clinicians, GP, Medical Directors, VCs, Angels, Research Councils, Commissioners, NISE, MHRA, Market access companies as well as charities and patient groups

Please feel free to alert and brief other groups that may be interested in this workshop.