From Manchester to the Nation
Professor Ben Bridgewater, Executive Chair, Health Innovation Network and Chief Executive, Health Innovation Manchester
| AbbVie
Why health innovation partnerships matter for growth, productivity and better health
This article has been commissioned and funded by AbbVie UK. Health Innovation Manchester had editorial control. This article is intended for UK parliamentarians, policy makers, and members of the general public with an interest in health policy
The UK faces a productivity challenge that extends far beyond health and economics. Sluggish growth affects living standards, public finances and the sustainability of essential public services. At the same time, rising demand for healthcare, workforce pressures and an ageing population are placing unprecedented strain on the NHS.
These challenges are often discussed separately, but in reality, they are deeply interconnected.
A healthier population is a more productive population. Equally, a more productive health and care system is essential to creating the capacity needed to improve patient outcomes, reduce waiting times and support a healthy workforce and economic growth. Innovation sits at the heart of both.
In our recently published national Health Innovation Network Prospectus1 we make the case that innovation is no longer a "nice to have". It is an economic and social necessity. Its analysis suggests that innovation across technology, service redesign, prevention, diagnostics and data-driven care could generate up to £278bn in value for the UK economy, while improving patient outcomes and making better use of scarce NHS resources.
The challenge is not and has never been a lack of innovation.
The NHS is home to world-leading researchers, pioneering clinicians, innovative businesses and breakthrough technologies. The challenge is ensuring that innovations which have been proven to work are adopted and implemented consistently and at scale. Too often, promising innovations remain trapped in pilots, local programmes or isolated pockets of excellence rather than reaching the millions of patients who could benefit.
This is increasingly recognised in national policy. Both the Government's Life Sciences Sector Plan and the NHS 10 Year Health Plan place innovation at the centre of their ambitions for economic growth and healthcare transformation. They recognise that faster adoption of innovation is critical not only for improving healthcare, but also for strengthening the UK's productivity and global competitiveness.
What is often less understood is that adoption does not happen by itself.
Innovation succeeds when organisations that traditionally operate separately come together around a shared purpose and goal. NHS organisations, industry, universities, local government, charities and patient groups all bring different expertise, incentives and perspectives. Connecting these partners in a way that builds trust, aligns priorities and delivers public value requires collective leadership.
This is where the Health Innovation Network plays a unique role.
As England's health innovation networks, we act as trusted, impartial convenors and honest brokers between the NHS, industry, academia and wider partners. We help identify shared challenges, evaluate solutions, generate evidence and create the conditions for innovation to be adopted and implemented responsibly and at scale.
Our role is not to promote individual products or technologies. Our role is to help health and care systems identify what works or does not work, assess the evidence and make decisions based on this evidence to support the redesign of meaningful changes to the healthcare system. But it does not stop there. We also work alongside our entire ecosystem to implement the changes and ensure that innovations are delivering meaningful benefits for patients, staff, taxpayers and the wider ecosystem.
Since 2020, health innovation networks across England have helped innovations reach more than seven million patients, released over 740,000 hours of NHS staff capacity, contributed more than £4.4bn to the UK economy and supported over 12,600 jobs.2
These outcomes illustrate what is possible when innovation is systematically supported and scaled.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Greater Manchester.
For many years, Greater Manchester has demonstrated what has become known as "Manchesterism" - a distinctive approach built on collaboration, local leadership, civic partnership and a willingness to work across organisational boundaries to solve complex challenges. Rather than waiting for solutions to be imposed from elsewhere, Greater Manchester has consistently brought together health services, local government, academia, businesses and communities to develop practical solutions to shared problems.
This collaborative culture has created one of the most advanced health innovation ecosystems in the country. Greater Manchester's integrated health and care system, strong academic base, data, rich analytical capabilities and commitment to partnership make it an ideal environment in which to test, evaluate and scale innovation at pace.
The lesson for the rest of the country is not that every place should become Manchester. Rather, it is that every region can and should benefit from adopting the same principles: shared purpose, trusted partnerships including local government, local leadership and a relentless focus on equity and delivering measurable impact for its citizens.
A good example of this approach is our collaborative working project with pharmaceutical industry partner AbbVie UK: to develop a clearer understanding of the societal, clinical and economic burden of migraine and to identify opportunities to improve care in Greater Manchester.3
Migraine is one of the most common yet misunderstood neurological conditions with 1 in 7 adults in the UK living with migraine.4 Migraine is often dismissed as “just a headache”, but it has a significant impact on the UK’s productivity. Approximately 86 million workdays are lost each year, costing approx. £8.8bn due to lost productivity via absenteeism and presenteeism (working while physically or mentally unwell), placing real pressure on people, employers and the wider economy.5
Despite affecting millions across the UK, migraine is still largely absent from national policy, leading to inconsistent diagnosis and treatment care, poor outcomes, and a strain on NHS services. Without proper recognition, millions of people continue to face barriers to appropriate care.
The collaborative programme combines real-world data analysis, health economics, patient pathway analysis and stakeholder engagement to build a clearer picture of migraine’s impact. Importantly, the project is not focused solely on healthcare utilisation. It also examines the wider effects on employment, productivity and economic participation. This reflects that health challenges cannot be viewed solely through a healthcare lens.
AbbVie contributes disease-area expertise, co-investment and engagement across a global network. Health Innovation Manchester contributes deep knowledge of the local health and care system, real-world evidence generation, trusted methodology, health economics and stakeholder engagement. As an independent, trusted intermediary, we bring together NHS leaders, local and national government, clinicians, analysts, patients and industry partners to establish a shared evidence base and identify opportunities for system improvement. Together, these capabilities enable a more comprehensive understanding of migraine's impact than either organisation could achieve independently.
This collaboration serves as a reminder that innovation is not simply about new technologies. It is about creating effective partnerships, generating actionable evidence for change and building the trust required to move from promising ideas to widespread adoption and implementation.
The stakes are high.
Poor health continues to be one of the biggest barriers to economic participation and productivity across the UK. If we can help people get and stay healthier for longer, identify conditions earlier, personalise care, reduce pressure on NHS services and keep more people economically active, the benefits will extend far beyond healthcare now and in the future.
We create a virtuous circle in which better health drives productivity, productivity supports economic growth, and economic growth provides the resources needed to invest further in innovation and public services, like the NHS.
The solutions already exist in communities across the country. The challenge now is to scale them.
This programme with AbbVie shows what can be achieved when organisations work together around a common purpose. Through the Health Innovation Network, we have an opportunity to spread those lessons nationally, ensuring that successful innovations and partnerships do not remain local success stories, but become national improvements for the benefit of patients, communities and the economy.
If we are serious about improving productivity, delivering sustainable healthcare and unlocking growth, we must do more than what we are currently doing. We need to invent the future. We must build the partnerships and the adoption frameworks that enable innovation to reach every patient who stands to benefit.
Date of Prep: July 2026 Job bag: UK-ABBV-260235
References
- https://thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/prospectus-2026/
- https://thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/news/unlocking-the-health-innovation-prize-introducing-the-health-innovation-network-prospectus/
- Collaborative working project launched by Health Innovation Manchester and AbbVie aims to transform migraine care in Greater Manchester | Health Innovation Manchester
- Stigma of migraine being ‘just a headache’ leading to thousands being dismissed and struggling without care - The Migraine Trust
- https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/work-foundation/SocietysHeadacheTheSocioeconomicimpactofmigraine.pdf
