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Martin Thomas, head of strategy at Orthopaedic Research UK and co-founder of the joint venture MSK Innovation Network, says that Britain needs to strengthen the route from research to real-world use.
The UK has no shortage of ideas in musculoskeletal health. Across our universities, hospitals and research centres, clinicians, engineers and scientists are working on technologies that could improve how MSK (musculoskeletal) conditions are prevented, treated and managed.
The need is equally clear. More than 20 million people in the UK experience poor MSK health and, earlier this year, the government expanded an NHS programme designed to get people seen faster and help them remain in or return to work. As the population ages, that need will only grow.
We need to help researchers recognise where their work could solve a real healthcare problem, encourage more of them to become entrepreneurs and then help founders translate technical promise into a credible case for patients, clinicians, partners and investors. A brilliant idea is important, but it will not reach people unless the wider story around it makes sense.
Storytelling is really about understanding the business
Investors are attracted to founders who can tell a compelling story. I do not mean slick presentations or polished language. Experienced investors and clinicians can see through both. A strong story is evidence that a founder understands the whole business: the problem being solved, who benefits, the market opportunity, the regulatory hurdles, the team they need and how they plan to navigate the inevitable challenges.
We see this at the end of the MSK Innovation Accelerator, when founders pitch to our research and investment committees. The most persuasive pitches are not necessarily attached to the most sophisticated technology. They are the ones that make the opportunity understandable and show how the clinical, regulatory and commercial pieces fit together.
That matters even more when founders are talking to investors who are not specialists in the underlying science. A clinician may quickly recognise the technical significance of a new device or its potential patient benefit. A generalist investor may not. The founder has to make the connection between technical merit and commercial potential without overselling either.
Storytelling is not something to bolt on at the end when a business is ready to raise money. It is a useful test of the thinking throughout the commercialisation process. If a founder cannot explain clearly how the clinical need, evidence, regulation, market and business model connect, there may still be a gap that needs addressing.
Some of the best ideas may be hiding in plain sight
There is another side to this translation challenge. Some of the people capable of creating the next important MSK innovation may not currently think of themselves as working in healthcare at all.
Someone working in sports science might be developing technology for elite athletes that could help a person in a physically demanding job avoid injury. An engineer may be working on a wearable with applications in rehabilitation. Materials scientists and computer scientists could be solving problems with applications to mobility, prosthetics or clinical decision-making without initially thinking of MSK as the market.
This is one of the most exciting things about MSK innovation. It reaches well beyond surgery and orthopaedic devices into prevention, rehabilitation, workplace health, mobility and healthy ageing. Many of the founders and Accelerator participants we encounter come from non-clinical backgrounds, often bringing ideas and perspectives developed elsewhere.
The challenge is making that potential visible. We have identified around 1,500 people working in MSK research and related disciplines such as materials science, sports science and biomechanical engineering. There will be others whose work could have an MSK application but who have never considered commercialising it, or even recognised the connection.
Once that connection is made, technical expertise still needs to be supported by commercial understanding, networks and confidence. This is where programmes such as the MSK Innovation Accelerator can help. Participants work through the practical realities of launching and scaling a business, from finance, regulation and testing to marketing and people skills, while stress-testing their thinking with business and clinical experts. Five accelerator participants have so far gone on to receive investment from ORUK.
The point is not that every researcher should become an entrepreneur, or that every promising technology should become a start-up. It is that people with ideas that could make a genuine difference should have a realistic opportunity to understand the market, build the right team and work out whether there is a viable business around their research.
The UK already has the research talent and the clinical need. The opportunity now is to get better at making the value visible: recognising promising ideas wherever they originate, helping founders articulate why they matter and giving the strongest a credible route from research to real-world use. That is how more good ideas become investable businesses and, ultimately, reach the patients and clinicians they were created to help.
