AI and Healthcare: The Next Frontier
AI has been promised as the next great transformation in healthcare.
Every week brings another headline: AI reading scans, accelerating diagnosis, easing pressure on clinicians, transforming drug discovery and helping the NHS do more with less.
But on the ward, in the clinic and across the system, the reality is more complicated.
Too many pilots never scale. Too many tools never reach the people who need them. Too much innovation gets trapped between the pitch deck, the procurement process and the frontline.
This event is about closing that gap.
On Thursday 9 July, we are bringing together the people actually deploying AI across the NHS, health innovation, life sciences and medtech. Not to sell the dream, but to discuss what is working, what is not and what it will take to turn promise into patient impact.
This is the right conversation for Sheffield.
The city forged the surgical steel that equipped operating theatres around the world. Today, South Yorkshire is home to a growing cluster of life sciences, medtech and digital health capability, from Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park to university spinouts, research assets and health innovation networks.
The question is simple.
Does this region help lead the next frontier of healthcare, or watch someone else build it?
Expect sharp discussion, real deployment stories and an honest reckoning with what AI can and cannot do for patients.
No hype. No silver bullets. Just the work.
Registration is now open and places are limited.
Confirmed keynote speakers
Richard Stubbs
Chief Executive of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber and a member of the MHRA's National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare.
Richard is one of the clearest voices on how AI is already reshaping the NHS, and what it takes to move from promising pilots to adoption that sticks.
Dr Sherry Kothari
Chair of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, home to the National Centre for Child Health Technology and the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub.
Sherry is a life sciences leader with a career spanning the UK and Australia, focused on building the places, partnerships and infrastructure where health innovation can move from idea to impact.
Sherry will close the evening with her keynote:
Dear 2102, Meet AI
Featured panel
Hosted by David Richards, our panel discussion will bring together Professor Paul Dimitri, Director of the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Paediatrics and Child Health, and Professor Chris Toseland, Head of Assay Development at Exciting Instruments and Professor of Cancer Biophysics at the University of Sheffield.
Together, they will explore how research, technology and collaboration are helping translate innovation into better patient care.
The Foundry
Alongside our speakers, the evening will feature The Foundry, hosted by Andy Hanselman, a showcase of emerging companies developing the next generation of healthcare technologies.
Selected founders will pitch innovations spanning AI, deep tech, digital health and life sciences, sharing how they are moving breakthrough ideas from research to real-world impact.
Confirmed pitchers include:
Dr Agnethe Seim Olsen, Co-Founder and Managing Director of RobQuant, developing solid-state quantum sensors for functional brain scanning.
Saffron Howdle, CEO and Co-Founder of Bobbi, a Sheffield-based femtech startup helping women align exercise with their menstrual cycle to support performance, recovery and long-term wellbeing.
More founders will be announced soon.
Who should attend
This event is for NHS leaders, clinicians, health innovators, medtech and life sciences founders, researchers, investors, policymakers, academics and anyone working at the intersection of AI, healthcare and real-world adoption.
The event is now only weeks away.
Register now to secure your place.
Parking
Parking is available at Pennine Five: