The new way health tech firms are engaging the NHS, and why it's working

Guest blog by Mark Venables, CEO at Highland

Five hundred NHS staff at every level, engaging directly with the technology that could change how they work and how they care for patients.

On an otherwise cloudy autumnal day last October, that’s what happened at the Royal Derby Hospital, when the most senior executives, through to people on the ground, engaged with big tech and niche innovators in their own workplace.

It is what NHS-supplier engagement is starting to look like, a new model that is creating energy, enthusiasm, and new opportunities for technology.

Why tech companies are engaging NHS trusts differently

Pressures facing the NHS have grown, but the ways tech suppliers engage NHS have remained largely consistent. ‘Digital people attend digital conferences’, as one NHS digital leader put it.

For digital technologies to really become a priority for trust spend, early engagement is needed at all levels. Frontline teams, clinicians, ward leaders, procurement, estates, and finance, and senior executives, who can be too busy to leave their workplaces, are becoming drivers of digital priorities.

More and more trusts that I engage have started to flip the model. Instead of asking staff to travel out, they bring suppliers in. A single day, hosted on-site, curated around the trust's own priorities, open to everyone from the chief executive to the frontline.

The impact has been striking. At the first of these showcases last October, more than 500 NHS staff participated – surgeons, nurses, pharmacy, infection control, estates, finance, cleaning teams, the trust chair, and the executive team all engaged with tech firms large and small. The trust's head of digital strategy called it a "first of its kind": clinical people genuinely enthusiastic at a digital event – where they can say what’s needed.

That day became the starting point for the trust's 2026–2030 digital strategy. Suppliers described it as the strongest NHS engagement they had ever had, and being able to engage all stakeholders on a single day opened doors previously closed.

The model is spreading

Word is travelling quickly in the NHS. Bristol NHS Group quickly became the second organisation to seize on the model, with around 40 tech companies selected to bring innovation and inspire the workforce across two acute hospitals and ICS partners. Countess of Chester Hospital, Mid and South Essex, and others are following through 2026. At least 10 NHS providers are now planning to host, with hospital groups and integrated care systems also coming on board.

Each time, this is curated to the host's specific priorities, with strict limits on supplier numbers per solution category. That protects the quality of conversation and ensures variety to inspire staff in the art of the possible.

The opportunity for techUK members

In a market full of complexity, the door into NHS engagement has been opened. Trusts that matter to your strategy are likely already on the list, or about to be, in a series now called Elevate. It means that reaching the people who use and see the strategic opportunity from technology, at every level, in their own environment, is possible for the health tech sector.

If a solution genuinely fits a trust's priorities, the conversation can move faster and further.

My question to fellow techUK members: the way health tech engages the NHS is changing. Will you help shape how it changes?

techUK members looking to get involved can register their interest at https://highland.health/elevate/

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