Professor Paul White is a consultant clinical scientist and head of clinical engineering at Cambridge University Hospitals, and a visiting professor of Anglia Ruskin University. He is one of just five clinical scientists accepted nationwide on to the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneurs’ Programme.
The programme, launched in 2016, provides a mixed package of education and mentoring support from medical technology experts to give budding entrepreneurs the business skills and industry “knowhow” needed to make novel ideas a clinical reality.
The position is the latest in a series of accolades for Prof White, who in 2017 was awarded The Chief Scientific Officer’s Healthcare Scientist of the Year Award for leadership, innovation and research.
He is a former Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine Spiers award winner; a Founders’ prize winner for contributions to medical, physics and clinical engineering; and a Royal College of Physicians award winner for work on innovative measures of heart function.
In the last few months Professor White’s department has been in the news for helping clinicians develop everything from a device to take prostate biopsies to headphones that will help children with glue ear.
It comes in addition to the support his team gives maintaining and repairing all kinds of hospital equipment, from live-saving monitoring machines to specialist mobility aids.
Prof White said: “Being selected on to the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur Programme will provide me with further skills to adopt and spread the innovative ideas and prototypes developed by my team.
“This will contribute to improving the efficiency and productivity of the NHS as well as allowing patient access to innovative products across the wider NHS. I am very pleased that the hard work we do here at CUH has been recognised in this way.”
Under the same programme, NHS England has selected a further 130 doctors and dentists to train as entrepreneurs nationwide to design and deliver technological solutions in healthcare to tackle unmet clinical needs. This year the programme has been opened up to dentists and clinical scientists, rather than just doctors as in the first cohort.
NHS England national clinical lead for innovation, Professor Tony Young, said: “Helping NHS professionals create new and innovative treatments is good for patients and good for our talented staff. Frontline workers have a unique insight into patients’ experiences and supporting all our staff to develop and deliver their ideas for better care will mean better outcomes for patients.”