About the course
The Health Innovation Expedition
The Health Innovation Expedition is a practical programme focused on how new products, services and ways of working are developed in UK health and social care.
Rather than teaching generic innovation or business models, the programme looks at how innovation actually works in practice - including the constraints, evidence requirements and organisational realities of the NHS and related systems.
Right from the start, participants work with real case studies, structured team projects and peer learning. They draw on the experience of the tutor and the wider group to explore how ideas are identified, shaped and taken forward in health and social care settings.
The programme is delivered through a series of practical workshops, typically over three or four days, with teams developing a project as they progress. Further detail on the structure and format is outlined in the How it works section below.
Structure
The Health Innovation Expedition helps people understand how innovation works in health and social care through a structured sequence of workshops, supported by case studies and practical examples drawn from real settings.
At the start of the programme, participants are given a shared grounding that includes an introduction to what innovation is (and isn't), and what it takes to innovate in complex systems - particularly the NHS.
Later in the course, we examine how the NHS and the wider health and social care landscape operates in practice, including the drivers, constraints and pressures that shape decision-making.
This context ensures that participants are starting from the same place, regardless of background, and helps them make sense of the decisions and trade-offs explored later in the programme.
Participants then work in teams throughout the course, applying what they learn to a shared project. As the programme progresses, teams take an idea from an early concept through to a more developed proposition, building understanding of both the problem and what would be required to take a solution forward.
The Health Innovation Expedition is built around four core elements:
Prepare, Create, Test and Opportunity.
These elements provide a consistent structure, while allowing delivery to be adapted around timetabling, staff availability and organisational constraints. Further detail on each element is provided in the boxes below.
The Finale
The programme concludes with a final session designed to help participants understand what happens after the course, and how ideas might be taken forward in practice. This typically includes three elements:
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Local Support - The host organisation (and, where relevant, regional partners) outlines the innovation support available internally and beyond, helping participants understand realistic next steps.
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Keynote Contribution - An academic, clinical entrepreneur or industry partner shares their experience of developing an innovation, providing a grounded perspective on the challenges and decisions involved.
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Team Pitches - Participant teams present their work to a panel, receiving feedback on both the problem they have identified and their proposed approach.
1. Prepare
Focuses on understanding the problem before developing a solution. Participants start by exploring the problem they want to address — who is affected, why it matters, and what evidence supports it — helping teams avoid developing solutions to poorly defined or unproven problems.
2. Create
Explores how possible solutions can be shaped and developed. Building on a clear understanding of the problem, participants use co-design and structured creativity tools to explore different ways it might be addressed. These approaches are applied to health and social care scenarios to test ideas from multiple perspectives.
3. Test
Examines whether a proposed solution is plausible and appropriate within health and social care. Participants begin by articulating their idea clearly, before exploring the NHS innovation landscape and how the system is structured. This helps teams understand why context matters when developing or introducing a new product or service. This stage introduces key considerations such as intellectual property, concept design and regulatory requirements, giving participants a realistic sense of what would need to be addressed to take an idea further.
4. Opportunity
Considers whether a developed idea is viable and where it might fit within a health and social care setting. At this stage, teams explore questions such as who would use or adopt a solution, what it might cost, what value it could offer, and how it could fit within existing care pathways. Teams use their project work to develop a simple business model, with opportunities to present, discuss and refine their thinking through structured feedback and group discussion.
Interdisciplinary, Team-based, Project-led
The Health Innovation Expedition is designed around interdisciplinary team working, recognising that innovation in health and social care rarely happens within a single profession, department or organisation.
Participants work in mixed teams on a shared project, applying what they learn during and between sessions. This approach helps break down professional silos, builds confidence working across boundaries, and reflects how innovation actually happens in practice.
Alongside the specific innovation topics covered, participants develop skills that are transferable to other roles and settings, including collaborative working, problem exploration, project development and communication.
What participants gain from the programme
Through the team-based, project-led format, participants develop:
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Experience of working with people from different disciplines, specialties and organisations
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Practical project working and group coordination skills
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Confidence in pitching ideas and communicating with different audiences
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A better understanding of how health, social care and related industries operate
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Approaches to identifying, exploring and evidencing problems
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Methods for shaping and testing ideas collaboratively
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An understanding of where to go for support and how to progress an idea
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Exposure to key concepts such as intellectual property, regulation and adoption, without specialist depth
For organisations, this approach supports the development of a more connected, confident and innovation-ready workforce through experience in a safe learning environment, rather than isolated pockets of expertise.