World leading scientist explores the future of healthcare at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

We were delighted to welcome Professor Mauro Ferrari, President of the European Research Council (ERC) and one of the world’s greatest scientists, to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital last night as the keynote speaker at our CW Innovation: The Future of Healthcare event. Our unique CW Innovation programme, run in partnership with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, tests and scales new innovations and approaches that improve patient care, patient experience and the way we run our hospitals today and in the future.

Professor Ferrari spoke about the rapidly changing landscape and the need for everyone to be involved in the evolution of healthcare, particularly the patient. In his exploration of what the future of healthcare will look like in 10, 20 and 30 years, Professor Ferrari focused on big changes in digital and AI, quantum computing, neuro-technologies, regenerative medicine and TransTherapeutics.

Digital access to healthcare is expected to ramp up even more in the next few years with telemedicine and virtual visits becoming more widely available, affordable and acceptable to the patient. We’re already seeing empowered patients taking control of their own healthcare outside of the four walls of the hospital, which Professor Ferrari explained will lead to improved patient quality of life, improved healthcare access regardless of location and wealth, reduced emergency room visits and optimised operational efficiency.

For Professor Ferrari, one of the greatest advances in medicine is quantum computing, which, in his opinion provides us with the best tool to take huge amounts of data being collected and process it in a format for real-world clinical use.

He outlined its central role as we enter an age of personalised healthcare where pharmacogenomics is enabling individualised treatment and the possibility to predict the clinical outcome of different treatments in different patients.

TransTherapeutics was also an area of focus in last night’s keynote speech. Professor Ferrari is one of the leading scientists pioneering nanoparticle-based drug delivery, creating new ways of ‘transporting’ nanoparticle-based drugs to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Professor Ferrari spoke passionately about how quickly these advancements are progressing and how delighted he was to speak at our CW Innovation: Exploring the Future of Healthcare event. He said, “I’m delighted to be here to support the notion of innovation. Transformative innovation is what improves healthcare on a daily basis on the wards and in prevention strategies, but also in the generation of new ideas. New ideas that can ultimately conquer the diseases which right now are intractable and are deadly  but where the future is coming, they will no longer be a death sentence for anyone.”

Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett, Chairman of the Trust, closed the evening thanking Professor Ferrari for his fascinating speech and the team here at the Trust; “As an organisation, we are committed to being innovative and human-centered when providing excellent care and experience for our patients, their families and our staff. The enthusiasm and determination for innovation that I see is genuinely inspiring. It’s exciting to work with such a forward-thinking team here and be at the forefront of healthcare innovation, constantly striving to improve patient care and experience.”