The UK government has updated NHS intellectual property (IP) guidance for the first time since 2002, aiming to allow innovations to be scaled faster across the health system for technologies such as AI.
“This refreshed guidance replaces the outdated 2002 framework that has left innovators and collaborators with the NHS navigating a maze of uncertainty—inconsistent IP management approaches, unclear processes, and barriers that have held back great ideas across the NHS,” it states. “Without reform, the UK risks missing significant opportunities to turn innovation into real impact for patients, staff, and the wider economy.”
The update applies to all organisations providing or commissioning NHS services across England. In accompanying guidance, the government shares objectives to empower organisations to develop effective IP policies and commercialisation innovations on “appropriate terms”, develop a culture that encourages innovation, harness NHS innovation to benefit patients and contribute to the UK economy’s growth, and position the UK as a “global leader” in healthcare research and innovation.
A total of nine steps are outlined for organisations to follow, with associated good practice principles. These cover establishing IP governance and a decision-making framework, clarifying IP ownership, raising IP awareness and offering IP training, disclosure and record keeping, commercialisation, and access to IP expertise and tech transfer capabilities.
Key principles for organisations include assigning an SIRO to oversee IP management, reviewing and updating IP policies annually, exploring technology transfer capabilities to support the skills required for the commercialisation of IP, and providing “rolling training” to staff on effective IP management.
“In due course, there will be an expectation for organisations to provide an annual return to DHSC and NHS England summarising how they have complied with the actions on good practice and explain any variation from this guidance with appropriate mitigations,” the government notes.
Also provided as an Annex is an IP policy framework to support organisations in the development of their own IP policy, and a series of considerations for organisations entering into technology transfer agreements.
Wider trend: Innovation in the NHS
HTN recently caught up with Harris Health Alliance’s Roddy McRae, Product Owner, and Katie Sutcliffe, Head of Marketing, to discuss their take on innovation in the NHS. Roddy and Katie shared insights and details of current and upcoming projects, including the ConneQt toolbar offering primary care a digital marketplace of NHS health tech providers who integrate via widgets with principal clinical systems, surfacing important child protection information (CP-IS), a prescription stock level tracker, and more, to clinicians at point of care.
£3.4 million in UKRI funding has been awarded to the University of Leeds and Aston University for a joint research network to assess AI tools and promote responsible AI innovation in research. In particular, the network looks to respond to challenges faced by doctoral researchers resulting from a lack of guidance around the responsible use of publicly-available AI tools in research. It will look to carry out extensive engagement with PhD researchers, supervisors and research staff to understand how such tools can be used to innovate, along with any identified challenges. This information will then be used to create a resource containing guidance on available AI tools, their intended uses, and best practice use cases.
