by MOIC | Feb 24, 2016 | News Release, Press
The MOIC is the Highly Commended winner in the Innovation Category at the Healthcare Awards 2016. The awards set out to recognise and reward best practice in the wider healthcare sector, with categories spanning medicine, nursing, community care, dentistry, research and a number of other areas.
The MOIC was the Highly Commended winner in the Innovation Category. The Innovation Award sets out to recognise innovation towards improving the quality of healthcare and the health of the region. This could be via service improvements, new ways of working, new treatments and/or technologies or effective research into service and/or products. The award is open to both individuals and teams inside and outside the NHS.
The Healthcare Awards in support of Marie Curie was launched in December 2015 and was staged at the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel in Bangor on 4 February 2016.

Healthcare Awards 2016. Application Final. 7.1.16
by MOIC | Feb 18, 2016 | News Release, Press
In the opening speech of the launch event of the Slovenian ECHAlliance Ecosystem the chairman of ECHAlliance Brian O’Connor said: ‘Please applaud the organisers of this event, you’ve prepared a great strategy and plan, and here we are witnessing a great launch event.’ In cooperation with CORAL Europe & HealthDay.si ECHAlliance launched the Slovenian ECHAlliance Ecosystem on 18 February 2016 in Ljubljana. European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) is an initiative that connects different stakeholders in health and social care in now already 30 ecosystems mainly in Europe, but also in North America and China. HealthDay.si is a community of health-tech companies, startups and other interested organisations that has been organising events and other activities since October 2014 with the aim to help innovative projects and companies in reaching out to global markets.
Integrated care
One of the key speakers was Dianne Gill, ECHAlliance Northern Ireland and Assistant Director MOIC. Dianne explained that in Northern Ireland, where integrated care was introduced to the whole country, positive results are already visible. ‘We have focused on patients not on processes when we introduced our integrated care programs. The results have been very good, the amount of medications used has decreased, hospital stays went down, we are now in better control of waiting times.’ It’s true that their work has been made easier by the support of their government. ‘The ministry for health and ministry for enterprise and trade have signed a memorandum, by which they have exhibited their support for the integrated care projects.’
http://www.healthday.si/
by MOIC | Feb 4, 2016 | News Release, Press
Health Minister Simon Hamilton visited MOIC on 4 February. From left: Tony Stevens (Chief Executive, NHSCT), Cathy Harrison (Senior Principal Pharmaceutical Officer, DHSSPS), Mike Scott (Director, MOIC), Simon Hamilton (Health Minister), Bob McCann (Chairman, NHSCT), Mark Timoney (Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, DHSSPS), Glenda Fleming (Deputy Director, MOIC).
by MOIC | Feb 3, 2016 | News Release, Press
Prof. Mike Scott and Glenda Fleming presented MOIC at the 2nd Northern Ireland Clinical Innovation Conference, 7-8 October 2015, Riddel Hall, Belfast. The collaborative conference aims to build relationships between Northern Ireland clinical researchers and the pharmaceutical industry with a view to increasing collaborative research and adoption of innovation. Using a cross-sector approach with the needs of our patients at the centre of the plans, the event is aimed at enhancing Northern Ireland’s ability to attract, foster and implement clinical innovation. The conference will build on last year’s successful Clinical Research Visit, which resulted in the initiation of over twenty potential new research collaborations. One year on, the challenge is not only to maintain this momentum, but also to explore how our health and social care system can derive maximum benefit from implementing and adopting clinical innovation at a time of great change and equally great financial pressure.
More info:
http://www.cvent.com/events/2015-clinical-innovation-conference/event-summary
by MOIC | Dec 9, 2015 | News Release, Press
Speaking at the 4th Conference of Partners of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing on 9th December 2015 Health Minister Simon Hamilton explained how the Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre will enable us to produce solutions which can be developed commercially, and marketed and shared with other countries.
‘Medicines are the most commonly used healthcare intervention in our health and social care service – and with an ageing population, and a rising number of people with long term conditions, demand for them is high’, Health Minister Simon Hamilton said at the 4th Conference of Partners of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing on 9th December 2015. ‘An area in which Northern Ireland has achieved particular recognition through the European Innovation Partnership is medicines optimisation and in recent years we have been working to address the physical, structural and behavioural barriers to medicines optimisation through the development of innovative solutions.
‘However, this is an area in which we have greater ambitions – and for that reason I am pleased to announce Northern Ireland has established a Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre which will enable us to build on our existing expertise.
‘The Centre will take a focused, systematic approach to developing and testing medicines optimisation solutions and supporting their translation into service delivery.
‘We are confident that it will bring wider benefits, enabling us to produce solutions which can be developed commercially, and marketed and shared with other countries; and increasing our capacity for collaboration with established international research networks.
‘The establishment of this Centre owes much to the EIP initiative. The international profile which our work on medicines optimisation has gained through the Partnership has brought home to us the extent of the opportunity – both for us to specialise further in this area, and for other regions to benefit from adopting our evidence-based solutions.
‘We have already seen our medicines management model being deployed in hospitals in England, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands; further work is currently in progress with a number of Baltic and Balkan countries; and we are participating in a 3rd Health Programme project involving eight member states. ‘In short, I believe this is a scaling-up success story and testimony to the value of initiatives like the EIP in supporting the international diffusion of best practice. Our work in the A1 Action Group and with other Reference Sites has served both to increase the capacity of those participating regions looking for innovative medicines optimisation solutions; and to open up avenues to allow us to share ours and to learn from others.’
by Dorothée van Hooff | Nov 25, 2015 | News Release
Dr. Samar Farid, Associate Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at Cairo University visited MOIC on 24 November 2015. Also included in the photo is Ahmed Abu-Elhana, also from Cairo, who is undertaking post graduate research study at the centre. Following the visit we are hoping to host undergraduate pharmacy students from Cairo in late summer 2016 in collaboration with the Ulster University in Coleraine.