Digital Health: Excellence in Technology Innovation for the West Midlands

As Executive Chair of the West Midlands Health Technologies Cluster, David is responsible for its operation as a membership organisation for health technologies businesses in the region. He steers the Cluster as a co-operator, an advocate and a promoter of economic and jobs growth in the sector.

Previously, David was for seven years the Chief Executive of the UK’s Public Health Register, regulating public health professionals. David has also had careers in law and politics. 

David was a solicitor in private practice and one-time President of his local Law Society. 

David was elected to Parliament in 1997, where he was a DECC Minister, contributing to the UK’s preparations for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, delivering the 2 millionth home energy improvement and having responsibility for resilience and skills in the energy sector. David helped establish smoke-free public places and passing into law of the Climate Change Act 2008. He resigning an unpaid Ministerial aide position when he voted against the Iraq War in 2003.

Professor Paul Johnson is Head of University Centre Shrewsbury and Deputy Provost at the University of Chester. 

He was previously Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Chester, has worked at a number of other universities in leadership, teaching and research roles, and has led work with academic partners in Malaysia, Ireland, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. He is Chair of the Cultural Compact for Shropshire and as a researcher has explored the intersections of art and science, including how performing arts can engage young people in issues around biomedical science (funded by the Wellcome Trust). He is currently co-editing the Routledge Companion to Performance and Science and is convenor of the Performance and Science working group for the Theatre and Performance Research Association.  

Clark Crawford

Innovation & Commercial Services Lead , WM Academic Health Science Network

Clark has worked in Research and Innovation within higher education and health and social care since 2010, leading teams creating the evidence base for changes to clinical service and underpinning laboratory research. 

He is a passionate advocate for education of individuals to navigate a complex arrangement of legislation and standards that ensure that research in the UK is globally leading. 

He currently supports the brokering of relationships between Health and Social Care bodies and innovators from all sectors.

Acting VP of Accreditations and Supplier Partnerships 

Having worked in a commercial role with several world leading digital health suppliers in the NHS , Ryan now supports innovators at every stage of their journey understand and adopt digital health accreditations such as the NHS DTAC. His role spans a global portfolio of assessment schemes and is underpinned by a growing knowledge of start-up challenges in the health tech sector and specifically the NHS. 

Emma is the Cluster Manager at West Midlands Health Technologies Cluster, established in 2020 to grow and maximize the potential of the health technologies sector in the region and help to connect dots between academia, NHS, industry. Emma is the Innovation Lead for Health at the West Midlands Innovation Alliance a cross-sector network whose membership consists of practitioners from universities, local authorities, businesses, voluntary organisations and SMEs from across the West Midlands.  Prior to this Emma worked in a range of operational senior roles at The University of Warwick Medical School, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the NHS.