"Calling drepreneurs everywhere - Healthbox are in town" by John Lee, Head of Operations for Clinical and Investigative Sciences at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

I got a tip off about an interesting company, Healthbox, who are moving into the European Healthcare space. They have had a lot of success supporting small startups across the pond. I was intrigued so called up a couple of entrepreneurs, from podmetrics and destinationdoc, and wandered in to the dragons’ den in the city on Tuesday evening.

Boom - started with intense networking where ideas were flying all over the place; I heard about remote control elderly care, innovative rehab, find a doctor app, junior doctor handover apps to name but a few. There were a bunch of suits, trainer-wearing Mark Zuckerberg wanabees, techies, docs, academics and healthcare innovators. We had a quick drink before a brief informal, presentation about what Healthbox want to do in Europe.

Healthbox, along with its principal UK partners Serco and Bupa, intends to unleash innovation to make material improvements for patients, as quickly as possible. They will do so by helping enthusiasts translate our transformational ideas from the garage in their 2-up 2-down to the patient bedside. They will help us take ideas to marke and scale ideas much quicker than if we are left alone to make it work by ourselves. They do this by injecting cash, expert coaching from business gurus and through a strong tech network of potential customers.

Sounds good? Well this is not a charity exercise. There are some big names behind it who are interested in seeing a return on their investment. But I don't think that is something to be worried about - profit is not the reason d'être here. The market will speak for itself. If the idea solves an important healthcare issue it will sell and scale. So if the ideas are successful, investors will get their return, entrepreneurs get their lucky break, and ultimately, and most importantly, patients will get better care.

I think Healthbox are on to something here. In my experience, the majority of the best ideas in healthcare come from our clinicians and people working on the frontline. However these enthusiasts have to wade through ten tonnes of treacle to get anywhere and often lack the networks and know-how to spread ideas quickly. Unfortunately in the NHS, the door is so often closed before the idea can even be tested effectively. I hope that Healthbox, and other similar initiatives, will help our amazing individuals, and their ideas, thrive.

Healthbox's arrival in the UK is timely. It is clear that we are going to have an unprecedented time of austerity with four years of flat cash. With this in mind, the NHS needs some help - a message that came through again and again today at the inspirational Darzi fellows' 'Beyond the Bill' conference. Nick Seddon's outstanding contribution to a panel debate hailed the need for an entrepreneurial revolution. He recognised that 'necessity is the mother of invention', as such Nicholson's £20 billion challenge is opening the door for entrepreneurs to thrive.

Good luck to all those drpreneurs out there who are trying to break through. 2nd September is the deadline for this round of Healthbox: www.healthboxaccelerator.com