West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin agreed a landmark partnership with her counterpart, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, as she led a regional trade mission to the US.
The partnership will boost West Yorkshire’s health technology sector, creating a ’healthtech bridge’ to deepen cooperation on trade, investment and knowledge sharing between the two regions.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said:
“This groundbreaking new partnership with Nashville will deliver real results at home – new jobs, more investment, and better care for patients.
“It’s a major vote of confidence in West Yorkshire, and a testament to the strength of our healthtech sector, the talent in our universities, and the innovation of our businesses.
“By working together, our great regions will reignite growth and transform people’s lives worldwide, as we work to build a stronger, brighter West Yorkshire that works for all.”
Freddie O’Connell, Mayor of Nashville, said:
“I am excited to collaborate with West Yorkshire in a way that will improve health outcomes for residents of both cities.
“Nashville has a strong history of work and innovation in the health care sector, and a partnership with excellent minds overseas ensures that will continue to flourish.”
The agreement, forming a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), will mean greater partnership working between the two regions’ businesses, universities, chambers of commerce and regional government authorities.
Mayor Brabin announced the new healthtech bridge to an audience of global health innovators at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Health Innovation Summit in Nashville, as part of the week-long trade mission.
At the heart of West Yorkshire, Leeds is the country’s third largest and economically fastest growing city, and a top UK health innovation hub, focusing on solving local and global health challenges.
Director of Leeds Academic Health Partnership, Kate Lodge, joined the regional delegation on behalf of Health Innovation Leeds – which represents the city’s internationally-renowned research and innovation ecosystem.
Kate said: “Connecting with other international health and care leaders as part of our recent US trade mission was an invaluable opportunity to explore together innovative solutions to our shared global challenges. Like many countries, we have a rapidly ageing population, a rise in noncommunicable diseases, and workforce pressures together with stretched healthcare services.
“Through the right partnerships we can transform health and care, helping people to live healthier lives for longer.
“The healthtech bridge is a fantastic example of the power of partnership. By working together, West Yorkshire and Nashville can harness their world-renowned strengths in healthtech to accelerate health innovation and boost economic growth across our region and beyond.”
UK and US-based firms also joining the trade mission welcomed the new partnership. Among those were Leeds-based Paxman Scalp Cooling manufactures and exports scalp cooling systems to minimise patients’ hair loss during chemotherapy and Womble Bond Dickinson, which supports healthtech firms to export and scale to international markets.
Richard Paxman OBE, CEO of Paxman Scalp Cooling, said:
“I am proud to join this US Trade Mission to shine a spotlight on the incredible strength and enormous opportunities present within the transatlantic marketplace.
“For Paxman, the US presents our biggest current opportunity and remains our primary focus, accounting for over 50% of Group revenues. Paxman US, Inc. operates from offices in Houston, Texas, with over 600 cancer centres across more than 40 states utilising Paxman Scalp Cooling Systems to help cancer patients mitigate the side effect of chemotherapy-induced hair loss.”
As well as transforming healthcare, investing in health technologies also presents a significant economic opportunity for the region. West Yorkshire’s £160 million Healthtech and Digital Tech Investment Zone will see the Mayor work collaboratively with the region’s universities in Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield, to drive investment, growth, and solutions to real world problems.
Over the next five years, the West Yorkshire Healthtech and Digital Tech Investment Zone could create more than 2,500 new jobs, and unlock over £220 million of private investment.
Lori Odom, Senior Vice President of Economic Development at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said:
“The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to facilitate international partnerships that bolster long-term regional growth. The healthtech bridge with West Yorkshire strengthens our global ties and cements Nashville’s role as a leader in innovation and international business.
“This collaboration enhances our health technology sector, creates jobs, and elevates Nashville’s standing in transatlantic business relationships.”
As the home of NHS England, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the largest teaching hospital in Europe, West Yorkshire is a global magnet for health innovation. The region is home to more than 300 healthtech companies, with Leeds ranking as the third most attractive city in the world for healthtech businesses that are ready to launch or looking to move.
Nashville, which has almost doubled its number of health and life sciences professionals since 2000, has been identified by the Mayor as a prime trading partner for West Yorkshire. Overall, the state of Tennessee ranks third in the USA for the export of medical supplies and equipment, worth over $4 billion.
John Scannapieco, Partner at Womble Bond Dickinson and Honorary Consul from Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Tennessee, said:
“The healthcare challenges we face here in Nashville are similar to the ones seen in West Yorkshire, and in many communities around the world. Healthcare providers must address such issues as caring for an aging population, allocating limited resources, and dealing with staffing shortages.
“Since these challenges are global, our approach to finding solutions needs to be global, too. Both of our communities are hubs of health technology innovation, and by working together and sharing knowledge and ideas via the healthtech bridge, the people of Nashville and West Yorkshire will both benefit.”