Making innovation happen in healthcare
Opencast HQ Hoults Yard

Overview
How can we turn promising innovation into real progress in the complex, high-stakes world of healthcare? In a sector where the ambition to innovate responsibly and improve patient outcomes is already widely shared, the real challenge lies in making it happen.
This means navigating organisational complexity, skills gaps, limited capacity, infrastructure challenges and leadership hurdles. This panel will explore how we can move beyond ideas and into delivery, connecting with the State of Digital Government report recommendations and considering the short and longer-term opportunities emerging from the NHS England abolition. We'll examine how to unlock meaningful progress on data and service innovation, AI and sustainability in health and social care. To innovate not just boldly but effectively, so we can achieve better outcomes for patients.
Speakers
Gordon Cullum, Technology Director, Axiologik and Chief Architect, NHS England Screening
Ute Schauberger, UCD Service Design Practice Lead, Opencast
Lisa Sewell, Director of Data and Informatics, North East & Yorkshire GenomicsService and Programme Director, Great North Record
Murray Ellender, GP and Head of UK Healthcare, Huma (moderator)
Opencast is registering guests for its 2025 TechNExt fringe sessions on its own Eventbrite channel via the form below. These bookings won't appear on your personal TechNExt dashboard schedule but you will receive emails from Opencast with details about the event, travel and parking arrangements and reminders before the session.
Speakers

Gordon is the Chief Architect on the Digital Transformation of Screening at NHS England, he previously served as Deputy Digital Lead at the UK Health Security Agency, playing a pivotal role in the national COVID-19 response and also, he led the client-side digital delivery partnership for NHS Test and Trace/UKHSA.

He was a co-founder of eConsult in 2013, which spun out of the NHS. eConsult’s focus is to bring NHS care into the digital age, offering patients the ability to consult with their own NHS GP online and be triaged digitally in secondary care settings. In 2024, eConsult was acquired by Huma, becoming part of a UK-founded global digital health provider. Murray now heads up the UK healthcare business.

Ute has been at Opencast since 2022, working as part of the consultancy’s user-centred design practice. She has been Service Design Practice Lead since July 2023.

She is an established digital leader with considerable experience of leading digital transformation and delivery across primary, community, diagnostics and secondary care at a system level. Improving patient care and staff experience is her principal driver ensuring that solutions are designed to enhance the user experience.
The Great North Care Record successfully supports 1 million clinical encounters every month across the North East and North Cumbria, improving experience and outcomes for front-line staff and the patients it serves across the whole health and social care system
NEY Genomics Service provides services across the region with three primary laboratory sites operating from Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds. It is one of seven regional alliances in England that delivers services supporting patients and clinicians across the North East and Yorkshire.
Registration
Registration
Use the button below to register for this event. If you login or register you can save your details, manage your registrations and keep your information updated.
How to get involved
Please read the information back below, and then fill out an expression of interest form. This will let us know you’d like to take part, what age the participating children are and whether you’d like any support from us or an ‘industry mentor.’
Plan your challenge, consider your resources and the participating students. Challenges can be completed in small or large groups. but please be aware that only 8-10 students from selected schools will be able to attend the celebration event.
Submit your challenge responses via our online form below. Your school can submit up to 10 entries. The deadline for responses is Friday 9 May, 2025. Please get in touch if you are struggling to meet the deadline.
The Schools Challenge steering committee will identify a small group of students from selected schools to be invited to a celebration event on the morning of Friday 20 June at South Shields Customs House.
If selected, you will be invited to attend by 23 May. There will also be an opportunity to display students‘ work as part of a number of public
exhibitions across local authority areas.
If you have any issues, contact us via email: getinvolved@technext.co.uk