Innovation in Dundee and Angus is in rude health

Innovation in Dundee and Angus is in rude health

Karen Tocher, business events manager at Dundee & Angus Convention Bureau, takes a look at the region’s health industry and how discoveries originating in the region have impacted on the health industry around the world…

They say a healthy mind is a happy mind. And with the incredible levels of innovation spilling out of the brains of Dundee and Angus’s vibrant health sector, we’re absolutely delighted.

Bringing together academia and the public and private sectors, the region’s single-minded focus on improving healthcare techniques and developing new technologies is truly inspiring.

From the University of Dundee’s development of new medicines and investigation of tropical diseases at the Drug Discovery Unit to Abertay University’s advances in therapy – pioneering the pluralistic approach, which recognises that every patient requires different outcomes from treatment – the city and wider region is alive with exciting research.

The two universities have also recently collaborated on the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences’ 2019 Student Conference – allowing innovators of the future to discuss, debate and learn from some of the field’s leading experts.

And sometimes research comes from the most surprising of places. The James Hutton Institute, famed for its knowledge of growing the best fruit for eating, is also investigating properties in those same fruits that may be able to treat a wide range of conditions – from reducing the effects of Alzheimer’s to tackling obesity.

The Institute’s interests don’t only lie in fruit, though. Researchers are also investigating the foliage and stems of potato plants, which are thought may contain anti-bacterial, anti-inflammation and anti-ulcer properties.

Elsewhere, NHS Tayside and Ninewells Hospital are blazing a trail in the development of new medical techniques, and are embarking upon partnerships with industry, academia and the local authority to implement new initiatives to progress the region’s health. For example, the Academic Health Science Partnership – the first of its kind in Scotland – leads on healthcare innovation and its adoption into clinical care, allowing new treatments to be assimilated into the mainstream.

Healthcare takes many forms – and so does the research into its unlimited benefits. Across Dundee and Angus, ground-breaking research is conducted each and every day in order to improve quality of life and the health of the world’s population in general. And before long, what once were ideas become legend in the eyes of the global healthcare community.