MORNING

Session 1                                           09:00 – 09:45

Intro & Keynote                                
Introducing the programme, Harley Street Direct’s Chief Executive Tam McDonald will underline the significance of effective business practice in delivering world-class healthcare. He will introduce the day’s keynote speaker, Professor Karol Sikora of the Imperial School of Medicine, who will review the evolution of the UK healthcare sector. Professor Sikora will look at the opportunities that exist for well-organised and efficient clinical business, emphasising the need to move beyond the old distinction between good business and good medicine.

Objectives:    
Understand the profit and growth potential of effective businesses in the independent sector within the UK’s healthcare economy as it moves into the 21st century.

Session 2                                           09:45 – 10:15

Information Security – protecting your assets:                            
A coherent approach to establishing and running any business must focus first on minimising risk to your key assets: among these, one of the most significant is the information you hold on all your clinical and commercial relationships.  This panel discussion features expert contributions from a selection of legal and IT professionals.

Objectives:    
Learn how to invest against the key threats to your business; how to recover from disasters when they strike; and how to establish “security” as a cornerstone asset of your business, as it grows.

Confirmed Speakers:

Peter Carey is one of the UK’s leading specialists in data protection and is a solicitor with Charles Russell, Solicitors. Invited but not yet confirmed are an IT specialist in commercialising data, and an informatics expert.

Session 3                                           10:15 – 11:00

Patient Focus – reaching the female consumer:                
Today’s healthcare market is growing more sensitive to the power and the needs of the female consumer. Whether in paediatrics and family medicine, in cosmetic surgery and the “beauty industry, in chronic condition management or with family support and palliative care, market studies show that women do most of the research and make most of the healthcare buying decisions. Led by a marketing professional from the world of female consumer healthcare, this session will feature contributions from professionals in offline and online media.

Objectives:    
Derive insights on how this key segment of the healthcare market is defined and communicated with successfully, picking up tips on how best this market intelligence can be applied to your business.

Confirmed speakers:

Moderator Kelley Connors is an American marketing professional with a specialist interest in women’s consumer health. She is assembling a panel from across the communications spectrum who likewise specialise in this key consumer sector, both offline and online. Among these is Sue Ash, founder director of ASH Communications, a PR and marketing agency with a long-standing expertise and interest in the UK healthcare market.

Session 4                                           11:15 – 12:00

Sound Business Practice – a battery of tips from the professionals                    
Anyone building a healthcare business will be aware of the need for sound clinical audit, good management of HR and staff appraisal, and effective internal and external communications.  As these and so many other key functions are left in the day-to-day control of practice managers, we draw upon the executive skills of a panel of some of London’s best practice managers to share some of their top tips for bringing efficiency into the clinical workplace. 

Objectives:    
Find out “how it is done” by the crême of Harley Street practice management, and go away with lessons that can easily be taken up by your own business support team.

Confirmed Speakers:

This session will be moderated by Harley Street Practice Managers Forum leader, Desné Marston.

Session 5                                           12:00 – 12:30

Training:  an investment, not a cost:
Although it is important that employees are given the tools to do their jobs properly and are made to feel valued in their employment, these can too often be seen as the sum total of why it is that training happens.  Just as important is the need to provide a coherent and effective service to consumers – in healthcare, therefore, that means to patients and their families – and to lower recruitment costs and optimise business continuity.  Our panel of hand-picked training professionals will examine the growing evidence that better training makes for more productive, loyal and efficient employees.

Objectives:    
We will examine the returns to be made on any considered investment in good training; specifically, the implications for HR costs, patient outcomes, and valuations.

Confirmed speakers:

Moderator Steve Furnell is Director of Operations for Resuscitation and Medical Consultancy. He is joined by panellists Oliver Thompson, Managing Director of Transphorm, a company providing “outcomes-driven” training; and John Shanks, Programme Director in the Education department at the Institute of Healthcare Management.

LUNCH                                        12:30 – 13:30

AFTERNOON

Session 6                                    13:30 – 14:30

Healthcare: The funding debate
Any business needs to understand the environment in which it works and, so far as is possible, have a sense of control within that environment. Healthcare is a special case in that the majority of consumers of the service do not directly pay for it. This does not mean that clinicians and owners of healthcare businesses can ignore the growing disquiet over the funding of healthcare provision on the basis that their patients do not directly pay for it. Taking greater control of the business environment means understanding and influencing those who do control the pursestrings, and our panel of industry commentators will discuss the present and likely future of UK healthcare funding and the likely implications for the evolution of the independent sector.

Objectives:    
Delegates will better understand the economic environment within which independent healthcare is evolving, and thus have a better feel for what they can do in building effective clinical businesses within that environment.

Confirmed speakers:

Speakers from the worlds of politics, journalism, academia and healthcare are being lined up to set the scene for an afternoon’s deliberations on the emerging market for healthcare in the UK. Confirmed speakers to date include Kevin Harrington, consultant gynaecologist and chairman of The Independent Doctors forum; and Alex Baylis, Independent Healthcare Strategy Lead at The Healthcare Commission.

Session 7                                    14:30 – 15:15

Raising Finance: the investing climate for healthcare  
People and organisations who provide loan or equity financing for healthcare start-ups and for existing businesses (i.e. bankers and investors) will be very much aware of the changing dynamics of the healthcare market as reviewed in the previous session. This session will focus on the investment growth potential for businesses within this sector, featuring contributions from those who lend and invest in clinical businesses, whether they be clinics or partnership enterprises, healthcare brands or new clinical products and treatments.

Objectives:    
Knowing who the people are who will lend or invest in healthcare, how to attract their interest, and how to work with them to develop successful healthcare businesses will be the key aims of this session.

Confirmed speakers:

Moderator Clare Thompson is a London Business School MBA with a special interest in technology transfer and investment fundraising. Her panel will include a senior executive from Silver Fox Venture Partners, a funding and entrepreneurial specialist company with a particular interest in incubating healthcare start-up companies.

Session 8                                    15:30 – 16:15

Practice Valuation:  securing a return on a lifetime’s investment  
Already dying are the days of valuing clinical business on their profit history and the meagre asset value in a lease and a few sticks of furniture.  Today’s forward-thinking healthcare business owner will be considering their businesses less in terms of what they think they are selling and more in anticipation of what their buyer believes they are buying: continuity of care, sound operational systems & clinical audit and, most of all, business continuity and growth potential.  The panel considering these issues will include a clinician, an accountant, a banker and a venture capitalist.

Objectives:    
We will look at healthcare businesses in a new light focussing on their enduring potential to remain profitable, grow, and optimise clinical outcomes for the greatest number of patients.

Confirmed speakers:

Moderator Tam McDonald, as CEO of Harley Street Direct, will be facilitating a discussion on one of his favourite topics, given the company’s founding belief that more efficient clinical enterprises will command higher valuations. Joining his panel will be Richard Limburg, partner at accountants Vantis Plc, Dr Arvinder Kurbaan, a practising Harley Street cardiologist, and a senior healthcare specialist from one of the major UK clearing banks.

Session 9                                     16:15 – 17:00

Spotlight on Achievement: case study review
Our day concludes with on examination of how the principles of good business have been applied – or not – in practice.  We will hear from a selection of independent healthcare practices and clinics about their own business journeys; the highs and lows, the lessons learned, and their hopes for the future.  Opening out into an audience Q&A, this session will conclude with lessons and tips taken from this conference.

Objectives:    
Translate theory into practice with the help of a representative selection of healthcare enterprises that have addressed the challenges of integrating best business practice with the finest clinical traditions of Harley Street.

Confirmed speakers:

Moderator Irena Goldman is CEO of the London Oncology Centre, which opened in Harley Street early last year. Joining her on her panel are medical director Dr Paul Jenkins of the European Scanning Centre in Harley Street; paediatric dentist Dr Cheryl Lee Butz who aims to replicate her success in Germany by opening a network of similar clinics in the UK, and a senior research representative from the Healthcare Commission, who will be sharing some of the Commission’s (anonymised) findings on best practice arising from their inspections in independent healthcare over the past few years.

Session 10                                     17:00 – 18:00

Networking: wine & Cheese Reception

This networking hour, sponsored by the network of Harley Street Direct affiliate suppliers of products and services to independent healthcare, gives delegates a chance to mingle and share their reflections on what promises to be a dynamic and inspiring day.

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