A former Vice President of AstraZeneca has been appointed to a key national health role - less than a year after joining the NHS.

Professor Mike Hannay is to take up the position of Vice Chair of the national AHSN Network, a collaborative of England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).

Mike’s new role will operate alongside his current position as Managing Director of the East Midlands AHSN, a post he took up in July 2016.

AHSNs were established by the NHS in 2013 with a remit to work across health, social care, academia and industry to speed up the adoption and spread of innovation. Since 2013 more than 200 innovations have been introduced through AHSN influence benefiting over 6 million patients and leveraging £330 million investment.

The NHS recently announced that AHSNs will be relicensed for a further period from April 2018, and will continue to operate as a key innovation delivery arm for the NHS.

As Vice Chair of the AHSN Network, Mike will play a central role in supporting the AHSNs through the current relicensing process, and an important focus will be to continue to develop national collaboration between health and industry bodies.

Mike has over 25 years’ national and international experience within the pharmaceutical industry, with a track record of building collaboration with healthcare and academia. Previous roles include ThermoFisher Scientific (Vice President for the UK BioPharma Services Division) and AstraZeneca (Vice President of Medicines Development).

“I’m honoured to take up the position of vice-chair of the AHSN Network,” said Mike. “Our next licence present new and exciting opportunities to expand our national collaboration with industry as we collectively deliver NHS programmes and contribute to the adoption of spread of products and services developed by commercial innovators.”

Mike added: “The NHS is facing enormous challenges and Academic Health Science Networks have important roles to play in supporting our health and industry partners to transform services for patients throughout England. During our first licence we have delivered improved clinical outcomes and better patient experiences, reducing the cost of care and stimulating wealth creation.

“This is clearly evidenced by our track record; over the past 4 years our work with industry and health innovators has driven the adoption of hundreds of products and services, leveraging over £330M investment and helping create more than 500 jobs.”

Chair of the AHSN Network, Dr Liz Mear, said Mike’s industry experience will be hugely valuable: “We are at a key point in our relicensing journey and Mike’s extensive industry experience - and reputation for developing positive partnerships between the health and commercial sectors - will help us plan to take on board fresh challenges, such as the Accelerated Access Review and development of the next wave of test beds.”

Mike lives in Derby and is married with two grown-up children.

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About the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs):

The NHS has huge potential to be creative but the system is slow to adopt innovation: AHSNs exist to speed up this process. Set up by the NHS in 2013 with an initial 5 year licence, England’s 15 AHSNs build collaboration across sectors, acting as ‘honest brokers’ to drive the adoption and spread of innovation at pace and scale; and in so doing to stimulate economic growth.

Based on their significant positive impacts, NHS England has published its intention to relicense the AHSNs for a further period starting from April 2018. For example, during their first licence period, the combined impacts achieved by the AHSNs include:

- Introducing more than 200 innovations across 11,000 sites, which have benefited an estimated over 6 million patients

- Leveraging £330 million investment for the nation

- Supporting the creation of over 500 jobs.

For more about the AHSNs visit www.ahsnnetwork.com and for a selection of AHSN-supported projects visit the Atlas of Innovations at http://atlas.ahsnnetwork.com

Media enquiries: for further background to Mike’s career – along with a photo – contact Chris Taylor on 0115 748 4242 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Lucy Hose on 0115 748 4243 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.| www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk| @EM_AHSN