AIMday: Grow MedTech Diagnostics – a review
This event was coordinated by Joe Drake, Technology Innovation Officer for Grow MedTech, and Mohua Siddique, Innovation Development Officer for Translate MedTech. In this blog, Mohua recaps on the outcomes of the day:
On 10 December 2020, Grow MedTech and Translate MedTech, in partnership with NIHR Leeds Diagnostics Co-operative ran AIMday: Grow MedTech Diagnostics, a day to discuss pressing diagnostic research and development needs, create or strengthen collaborations, and develop new diagnostic technology projects that can be further supported by Grow MedTech and funding bodies.
We had a fantastic response from our community of companies from within the region and internationally, submitting 23 questions in total. Seven questions were then selected to be answered by our engaged network of academics and clinicians across the Grow MedTech and Translate partnership. Selected questions ranged from how to use AI technologies to determine immunotherapy treatment responses, to developing cost effective methods to detect drug levels in serum.
On the day we had 58 participants take part in seven question sessions, including company representatives, academics, clinicians and knowledge exchange professionals. We adapted the AIMday format so we could hold the event virtually and we are the first to do this.
The selected questions ran as one-hour workshop sessions using a video conferencing platform, with facilitation from Grow MedTech Technology Innovation Managers. Company representatives introduced their question and set the scene, allowing for academics to propose innovative solutions and explore industry needs in detail. As the sessions came to a close, Technology Innovation Managers identified a number of next steps to continue progressing the conversations towards a solution, including identifying funding streams and strengthening the newly formed collaborations.
Feedback for the event was resoundingly positive, with an emphasis on the importance of events like AIMDay to strengthen links between academia and industry. ”[It’s] rare for industry to have a platform to present novel concepts to academics. The meeting also provided the academics with access to something they really need.”
About AIMday
AIMday is an opportunity for academics and organisations to make contacts and exchange knowledge. It is simply the idea that a broad mix of academics can provide different perspectives and surprising new avenues to solving real-world problems – and to create favourable conditions for continued cooperation between academia and non-academic organisations. Developed by Uppsala University in 2008, the AIMday concept has been embraced by several leading universities in Sweden and other parts of the world.
