Having dedicated his last twenty years to the healthcare sector, Chairman of Medilink Midlands, Professor Martin Levermore, MBE DL, shares his thoughts and experiences of the industry and what benefits the Medilink Midlands can deliver.
What is your current role at Medilink Midlands?
Currently I’m the chair. I say ‘currently’ as even the chair needs a transition period. I took up the position in 2017, however, I’ve been connected to Medilink West Midlands since its inception in 2004.
Prior to that, in October 2003, I set up my own company, Medical Devices Technology International Limited.
What was the reason for creating an organisation like Medilink?
Before the 2007 crash, there had been a steady decline in manufacturing and commercial activity across the West Midlands. What we needed was to generate new and creative ways of retaining the skills, knowledge and quality operations that existed in the area but diversify into a more commercial market, such as the healthcare sector. Through regeneration work that was being undertaken and a project that a number of us, (the Knowledge Factory), as founders, were looking at, we believed we could turbo charge the use of those valuable assets that would help regenerate a very deprived area, namely Birmingham through to the Sandwell border. We looked into how we could collaborate, maximise knowledge sharing between the public and private sectors to fill any voids, and look beyond the present needs. We considered how you could diversify the assets of the manufacturing industry to be more resilient and relevant and how we could marry those needs with an ever-growing healthcare and life sciences sector.
At the same time, we were aware of healthcare workers, clinicians and innovators becoming more disenfranchised in trying to commercialise their ideas and innovations and that their route to testing and, ultimately, market, was immensely difficult and therefore, off-putting.
With the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2003, it was the ideal time to realise this intellectual property better.
With my own company, I had first-hand knowledge of the needs of the sector such as bringing innovative ideas to market, creating a supply chain, diversifying the capacity of local manufacturing and considering how we could turn things around to become exporters of products rather than importers.
The will was there from both the public and private sectors.
Medilink West Midlands was created in tandem with the Regional Development Agency so that we could articulate the value and return on investment by creating a network that aggregated academia, health care providers and the community, because if you could get the patient population recognising the value of new developments then industry would definitely engage.
The Midlands life sciences and med tech ecosystem
There’s always been a lack of recognition for the life sciences and med tech sectors outside of the golden triangle… all very frustrating when the Midlands has so much to offer. Producing things, at high quality with exceptional precision, whilst ensuring that the innovation itself can be made more convenient and accessible and allow the patient to take more control of managing it themselves. Better knowledge takes place, better management, better concordance that can be extended beyond the Golden Triangle.
Do you believe that the Midlands’ life sciences and med tech sectors are getting the recognition they deserve?
We’re getting there. I feel we need stronger marketing messaging. We have innovative organisations and entrepreneurs, and whilst we need to evaluate these in terms of value and commercial ROI, we all need to pull together and be proactive.
As a chair, having a clear vision is key. The Health Tech Innovation Accelerator has been successfully launched in the West Midlands now and we need to use that programme to ensure that we bring our innovations to the forefront from right across the region – innovations that can be adopted and brought forward at pace.
Why was Medilink UK created?
Over time, Medilink UK was created in order to draw together the regional Medilink organisations. Combining them under one brand to be a national voice for the UK life sciences and the med tech sectors is powerful.
What did you do before Medical Devices Technology and Medilink?
Academically I started out as a Political Economist, hence the reason I will always look at the overall gross value of any process and how a system works, evaluating its efficiency and productivity.
After a break, I took up the position of a Bomb Disposal Officer. I feel this taught me the nuances of understanding risk, gave me the ability to bring teams together, be focused, and understand the rigours of discipline. Because, to a certain extent, even in the innovation cycle, we have great ideas, but sometimes we haven’t necessarily got the discipline to see things through to the end.
I left the military to join the world of international banking. I ran the South American desk and the North African desk for the 52nd largest bank in the world. I then returned to the UK when banking was going through crisis, and created the first ever financial aggregator which was sold. That led me into regeneration, and from there into the health and life sciences sector, which I have dedicated myself to for the last twenty years.
What community roles are you involved with?
I have a visiting professorship at Birmingham City University in Education, Health and Life Sciences. I’m also one of the Lord Lieutenant’s Deputies which gives me a wonderful opportunity to meet with, and more importantly, listen to, different communities to find out what’s happening. I also currently report to the Home Secretary as independent person for the Windrush compensation scheme.
What is your career highlight?
My biggest career highlight is having a company that delivered the first clinical innovation onto the healthcare market that was prescribable, and that has now served 4 million women worldwide.
I do think that if you get it right in this sector, you can actually see the benefit of your work, a very rewarding aspect.
What’s next for you?
For me, it’s supporting the next crop of individuals coming through hence the reason for my genuine interest in academia. I would also like to see health inequalities reduced as best we can by having a logical and structured approach. All too often we over intellectualise things that could be simplified to improve our society. And there always needs to be a good advocacy for that.
What’s next for you and Medilink Midlands?
Supported by my co-directors, I’ve helped unite East and West Midlands, which I feel is an achievement. Looking ahead, the next stage is to bring on a new chair, but there’s no timetable for that.
As a trusted brand which I believe Medilink Midlands is, there’s an opportunity to ensure that it is promoted overseas. We must be bold and spread our wings; we need to network overseas and bring the opportunities home to the UK.
Medilink Midlands knows the sector well and should look at bringing in direct foreign investment and equity pools to support the sector and to support new innovators. Theres an opportunity in the private equipment market to add even greater value to what it’s doing today.