Boost for UK’s health technology sector as West Yorkshire signs historic trade and investment pact with Nashville

The city regions of West Yorkshire and Nashville, Tennessee, will work together to turbocharge their health technology sectors, it has been announced.

The landmark agreement, signed this week [Monday 7 October] by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin and Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell, will help encourage the flow of trade, investment and knowledge sharing between the two regions.

The announcement came on the eve of the first meeting of the Council of the Nations and Regions [Friday 11 October], which will see the Prime Minister Keir Starmer convene the UK's leaders to discuss growth and investment, and kickstart a new era of “genuine, meaningful, and focused partnership to change the way we do business, redefine our position on the world's stage, and unlock the whole of the UK's untapped potential to make everyone, everywhere better off.”

Mayor Brabin will miss the meeting in Scotland to carry out the final days of her US trade mission in Boston, Massachusetts, before returning on Monday 14 October for the Government's inaugural International Investment Summit in London, where boosting trade and investment with the USA will be a key focus.

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 the lives of patients 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."

According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Mayors plan to establish a “Healthtech Bridge” connecting both sides of the Atlantic. In practice, this would mean greater partnership working between the two regions' businesses, universities, chambers of commerce and regional government authorities.

It will see the UK and USA working together to overcome shared healthcare challenges through the use of technology. In West Yorkshire, healthtech firms have pioneered new products to support cancer patients during chemotherapy [Paxman Scalp Cooling], new software to speed up response times for paramedics [Dedalus], and new blood tests that use AI to predict the likelihood of a patient having cancer as a percentage [PinPoint Data Science].

In addition to supporting patients in the NHS and worldwide, investing in healthtech also presents a significant economic opportunity for the region. West Yorkshire's 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.

The transatlantic Healthtech Bridge, which the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce helped to broker following multiple trips to West Yorkshire, will help to turbocharge this regional growth through a brand new exchange programme. The scheme will support knowledge sharing between the two regions' businesses and universities, including the world-leading Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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 which 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.

The historic Healthtech Bridge was announced by Mayor Brabin to an audience of global health innovators at the NCQA Health Innovation Summit in Nashville, as part of a week-long trade mission to create opportunities for West Yorkshire businesses in the USA. The partnership was welcomed by UK and US-based firms, including Paxman Scalp Cooling, which 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.

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 Health Tech Bridge, the people of Nashville and West Yorkshire will both benefit.”

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.

“Alongside the further advancement of scalp cooling, since early 2019 Paxman has been developing a portable compression and cooling product. The product aims to prevent chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), which causes chronic, permanent nerve damage in hands and feet. A multi-centre, randomised efficacy study across 25 sites in the United States, using this device, is ongoing.”

Notes to editors

See here for more details about the Mayor's US Trade Mission.

See here for more details about the Council of the Nations and Regions, including statements from the Prime Minister and the Mayor.

See here for an independent analysis of Leeds' healthtech sector, which ranks 3^rd internationally as a leading location for healthtech companies.

See here for more details about the West Yorkshire Healthtech and Digital Tech Investment Zone.