On 13 May 2025, the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA), in coordination with AXREM, hosted a conference about the future of medtech, offering valuable and informative talks for attendees.

‘The Future of MedTech: Innovating for Tomorrow’ brought together BHTA and AXREM members to hear from senior leaders and experts from across the NHS, DHSC, MHRA, and more to explore the latest advancements and strategies in medtech.

Taking place at the Mercure Northampton, delegates had the chance to network with industry peers, get involved in engaging panel discussions, and learn about some of the most important topics in the medtech sector today.

Engaging presentations throughout the day included topics on sustainable procurement, how suppliers can meet the NHS’ net zero targets, the economic outlook for UK manufacturers, the future regulatory framework for the UK medtech sector, the DHSC’s upcoming work on building a MedTech Compass, and more.

Speakers throughout the day were:

• David Lawson, Director of Medical technology & Innovation at DHSC
• Alexandra Hammond, Associate Director, Net Zero & Sustainable Procurement for NHS England
• Dr Rob Reid, Deputy Director, Innovative Devices at the MHRA
• Josh Crosley, Design for Life Co-Lead from DHSC
• Anastasia Chalkidou, Programme Director for Healthtech Guidance Delivery at NICE
• Heather Hobson from the Office for Life Sciences
• Nata Zaman, Deputy Director of Equipping New Hospital Programme at NHS England
• Paul Gaffney, Director of Tendo
• Daniel Laing, Senior Account Director for Tendo
• Chris Corkan, Region Director & Affiliate Partnerships at MakeUK
• Chris Taylor, Sustainability & Social Value Focus Group Convenor at AXREM
• Matthew D’Arcy from Highland Marketing

The Future of MedTech conference has received positive feedback from attendees.

Shona Macdonald, Director of Market Access & Reimbursement, UKI, at Convatec, commented: “The BHTA and AXREM conference proved to be a highly relevant and extremely interesting agenda. It provided me with an invaluable opportunity for networking and engagement with stakeholders and peers.

“I was particularly encouraged to hear that collaboration with industry through the NHS transformative changes is both invited and welcomed by the system.”

David Dawson, Market Access Director, UK/Ireland for BD, said: “I found the BHTA conference both interesting and informative. The varied subject matter and speakers provided a good mix of important issues. I especially enjoyed the afternoon presentations and panel discussion.”

Diane Hargrove, Sales Director at BES Healthcare, stated: “I thought the quality of the speakers was excellent, and it was refreshing to hear that there seemed to be an understanding of some of the real challenges that face industry in bringing new innovative technologies through to the healthcare market.”

Richard Holland-Oakes, Co-Founder and CEO of Recare, noted: “Certain parts of the day were very interesting with the NHS and social services and the government finally trying to work together. 

“I must say it appeared the presentation to be more hospital-related savings with the AXREM companies rather than the companies of BHTA and the products of which you support, NHS/community and the private sector and of which our products are bespoke to the individuals requirements, and of these products that are prescribed from the hospital environment for home use is a hard to manage and deliver a better service and savings without changing this structure that is in place at present. But it can be done!”

The British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) recently hosted another successful conference that brought together healthcare leaders and suppliers to discuss how the changes made today will impact the future of the health service.

The sellout BHTA Conference 2024, ‘Health Tech in the UK: The next 5 years’, took place at the Northampton Town Centre Hotel on 21 May and was sponsored by Verlingue.

Boasting an impressive roster of key government and NHS speakers, engaging presentations throughout the day included topics on the MedTech Strategy one year on, the Procurement Act 2023, late-stage medical device assessments, practical export support for UK SMEs, UK medical device regulation changes, and much more.

Attendees had the chance to ask the speakers important questions during two Q&A panel discussions throughout the day.

The conference kicked off with a welcome from BHTA CEO David Stockdale, who highlighted some of the BHTA’s successful campaigns, how the BHTA lobbies to government to ensure its members’ voices are heard, and an overview of the BHTA Conference 2024.

Next, Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), shared his opening remarks. Lord Markham outlined that the UK has massive potential to transform the medtech landscape over the next five years and highlighted relevant and successful government initiatives like Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP), the MedTech Strategy, and late-stage medtech assessments.

David Lawson, Director of MedTech for DHSC, delivered a presentation titled ‘Value Not Cost’. He discussed the ‘The medical technology strategy: one year on’ report, the issues DHSC is trying to solve when it comes to the medtech sector, and value-based procurement.  

Fiona Hilton, Director of Commercial Best Practice & Engagement for NHS England, discussed the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial. Her presentation delved into how the Procurement Act 2023 will significantly change how the NHS works with suppliers and the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial.

Andrew New, CEO of NHS Supply Chain, presented ‘One Year On – More to Come’. He talked about how NHS Supply Chain will change over the next five years to make it better to work with, and how it aims to enable an optimised, resilient, and sustainable supply chain.

Mark Chapman, Interim Director Medical Technology Digital & Diagnostics at NICE, commenced the afternoon presentations. His presentation was titled ‘NICE HealthTech Assessment: Focus on What Matters Most’. Mark explained the NICE HealthTech Assessment lifecycle approach and late-stage medical device assessments.  

Barney Willis, Deputy Head of Life Sciences for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), explained how DBT provides practical support to UK medtech SMEs with exporting. Barney provided an insight into how DBT promotes innovative UK medtech companies in key global export markets.

Before the closing remarks, Laura Squire, Chief Healthcare Quality & Access Officer at Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), delivered the final BHTA Conference 2024 presentation. Her talk, ‘How Regulation of Medical Devices in the UK is Changing’ explored where UK medical device regulation is at now and what the future looks like, alongside international recognition of medical devices.

Positive feedback from the day included:

“An excellent set of speakers and some thought-provoking questions. Given the make-up of BHTA membership, it was good to see several references to the importance of SME business from the speakers.”

“A very good event with really good Q&A sessions. The speakers and the topics they covered should have been of real value to members. I always go looking for 3 or 4 golden nuggets at a day like this, and there were several.”

“It was a really informative day, great speakers, content, location, room, and lunch.”

“It was obvious from how well it went that a lot of work has gone into it, so I hope all the team involved are justifiably proud of the day.”