The future of innovation in the NHS  - Guardian podcast

It employs 1.6 million people, spends more than £4,000 a second, and performed 10m operations last year in England alone. Millions more visit emergency units, have outpatient care, and receive help for mental health problems. This week we’re focusing on the NHS and how science and technology underpin the care doctors can give to patients.

Ian Sample talks to Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director and professional lead for NHS doctors. Bruce is responsible for promoting clinical leadership, quality and innovation, having previously been a surgeon and physician who specialised in cardiac surgery. 

And we hear from three specialists from very different parts of the NHS: 

Sian Harding, Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at the National Heart & Lung Institute at Imperial College London, and also a theme leader at Imperial’s Biomedical Research Centre, or BRC.

Professor Andrew Dick, Director of Joint Research for University College London and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Lorna Marson, an academic transplant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, with a specific interest in kidney transplants. Lorna’s also President Elect of the British Transplantation Society.