Biodesign and Needs Driven Innovation Programme

Strengthening innovation capability

Health Innovation East partnered with the Integrated Care Academy (ICA) and Sluice AI, to deliver a Biodesign and Needs-Driven Innovation programme intended to enhance innovation capability across the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (SNEE ICS).  

The programme equipped frontline teams with skills, tools and structured methods needed to help identify unmet clinical needs and design solutions that could be implemented in a real-world context.  

The workshop was delivered by expert Biodesign provider Sluice AI ensuring the training aligned with internationally recognised Biodesign principles. 

Why Biodesigns

All too often efforts to innovate begin with the introduction of a solution rather than careful consideration of needs, ‘solutioning’ may lead to misfiring implementation, poor adoption, limited impact and inefficient resource allocation. 

The Biodesign approach offers a different model for innovation, one that is: 

• Needs-led -starting with validated unmet clinical and system priorities.
• Interdisciplinary – bringing together clinicians, operational staff, academics and managers.
• User-centred – grounded in co-production and lived experience.
• Commercially informed – evaluating feasibility, constraints and adoption pathways.
• Enabled by AI – to accelerate, structure and test innovative thinking. 

The model strengthens local capability for generating solutions that are viable, scalable and aligned with need and system priorities. 

The programme

The Biodesign and Needs Driven InnovationProgramme comprises three elements or phases.  

An introduction to Biodesign (online) 

Participants were introduced to the Biodesign process and the principles of needs-driven innovation. The online session covered how to develop high-quality need statements, methods for filtering and prioritising needs, and an introduction to the AI tools used in the programme. Teams subsequently developed short presentations based on ICS priority areas to bring to the main workshop. 

Biodesign Workshop (in-person) 

Over two days, teams progressed through the ‘Identify’ and ‘Invent’ stages of the Biodesign process. Workshop activities included: 

•  Identifying multiple genuine unmet clinical needs – applying structured filtering to select the highest-impact opportunity. 
• Developing criteria for a successful solution – based on clinical, operational, patient and commercial considerations. 
• Generating and refining concepts – using design-thinking methods, with and without AI support. 
• Assessing feasibility – alongside adoption barriers and implementation pathways to ensure solutions are viable in a real NHS environment. 

By the end of the workshop, each team had selected one priority unmet need and produced early concepts for a viable, implementable solution. 

Follow-up Support 

To maximise impact beyond the Biodesign workshop all participants received access to Sluice AI to validate and expand their outputs. Each team was allocated three expert coaching sessions to embed the Biodesign process and has also been offered a tailored horizon scan for each priority need. 

A model for system-led innovation 

By embedding a structured, repeatable and needs-first method, Biodesign workshops can empower health and care teams to drive locally relevant, evidence informed innovation that can be implemented in the real-world. 

The programme is a scalable framework for systems seeking to grow their innovation capability and develop solutions that improve outcomes for patients, staff and communities.