Meet the Innovator

In this series, we’ll get up close and personal with an innovator asking them to share their thoughts and experience from their journey into the world of health and care innovation. In our latest edition, we caught up with Christian Moroy, Co-founder & CTO of Edge Health; supporting NHS organisations use data more effectively to increase theatre utilisation and reduce cancellations.

Pictured above: Christian Moroy, Co-founder & CTO of Edge Health.

Tell us about your innovation in a sentence

SpaceFinder is a booking support software that enables hospitals to accurately predict how long surgical operations will take and then support staff in optimally scheduling them using available theatre space.

What was the ‘lightbulb’ moment?

We were working with an NHS Trust that struggled with underused operating theatres. We noticed that some theatres were empty while staff struggled to schedule life changing operations. This made us realise that scheduling was a truly difficult problem that required a solution.

What three bits of advice would you give budding innovators?

1. Don’t make presumptions – spend time ‘on the ground’ or at the front line of the services you want to help. You can only really learn about problems that exist from experiencing them or being with the people who experience them every day;
2. Create space and time to be creative – it is important to learn new things and attempt new approaches to problems you see but you need to prioritise that or you’ll never be able to fit it into your day to day; and
3. Be strategic – once you have a great idea you might be impatient to get it out there. Implementing innovations, particularly in health care can be a long journey and there is a real skill in being prepared and equipped for that.

What’s been your toughest obstacle?

NHS IT is inconsistent between hospitals and often local teams are really stretched. Trying to get the information needed can be slow at times.

What’s been your innovator journey highlight?

Joining the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator! We were really proud to have been successful in getting on the programme and we are really making the most of the support, guidance and connections.

Best part of your job now?

Working with great people across all parts of the health system and keeping up to date with the latest technology at a time of great flux in the area.

If you were in charge of the NHS and care system, what’s the one thing you’d do to speed up health innovation?

Make processes and standards simpler. I’d support healthcare providers in creating standardised systems for key services into which third party suppliers can easily plug into. This would enable an “App Store” like situation that innovators could offer their services quicker and more effectively across different Trusts.

A typical day for you would include..

We usually start the day with a team meeting in the Edge office discussing ongoing projects. As a team we work across several projects so it is important to regularly catch up with each other. Then I would visit a Hospital Trust to take part in a workshop on how to implement SpaceFinder!

For more information, visit their website at edgehealth.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @edge_health_