Give your teams a shared, repeatable approach to NHS adoption
Tailored support for pharmaceutical, medtech, device, diagnostic and digital health teams. Understand where your innovation fits, strengthen your NHS conversations and work through the practical barriers to getting it adopted.
Understand the NHS problem
See where services are under pressure and what needs to change for your innovation to make a useful difference.
Align your team
Give leadership, marketing, medical, market access and field teams a shared approach they can apply to real opportunities.
Build a practical route forward
Address the people, processes, funding and responsibilities needed to move from interest to implementation.
You have strong evidence and the meetings have been positive. So why is your work still not getting traction?
You know you have a fantastic product. Your team members know the highlight points inside out. The clinical evidence is sound and NHS customers have spotted the potential. Yet the next step keeps slipping and no-one is really sure why. The blockers are proving tricky to manoeuvre – unresolved funding issues, no clear ownership of change or maybe team members are approaching this from different angles. So close, yet still so far. You need to regroup, get a shared understanding of what is holding progress back and then get the skills and practical support to address it. That’s exactly where I can help.
Start with how the NHS works and where it needs to improve
My Pathway over Product approach to working with the NHS starts by understanding the care journey – where patients encounter delays, where staff carry extra work and what prevents the service from operating effectively. It can help your team easily identify whether and how your innovation could help. This gives everyone a more useful starting point for NHS engagement and connects the evidence with the practical questions a service needs answered before it will buy in to making a change.
One corporate programme, shaped around what you need to achieve
You may need to develop your team’s capability, align senior colleagues around a strategy, support a launch or move a particular NHS project forward. I can help you build the appropriate combination of learning, advice and hands-on support around that objective. The services below can be combined to create your bespoke programme of support, according to your specific need. You agree the scope, delivery schedule, resources and investment before work begins with your team.
Workshops and practical team learning
- Live NHS update workshops.
- Recordings for on-demand learning.
- Skills clinics to build understanding and apply it.
Sessions can be used to bring functions together or focus on a specific team, therapy area or challenge. Practical exercises can use your own accounts, customer scenarios and materials, helping field teams improve their conversations and marketing teams connect brand messages with NHS needs.
Coaching, leadership alignment and ongoing advice
The level and frequency of access are agreed within your programme.
- Individual and team coaching to work through challenges and identify the next step.
- Executive strategy sessions to help senior colleagues agree priorities and give teams a consistent direction.
- Bespoke email Q&As and a dedicated communication channel, including an optional private WhatsApp channel, can provide support between sessions.
Insight fully tailored to your business
Therapy area briefing documents and senior team strategy and policy briefings to explain what NHS developments mean for your organisation. I will help you consider the implications for your plans, customers and opportunities so your team can make informed decisions about where to focus.
Hands-on project and implementation support
I will work alongside your team to develop your market access strategy, co-design an NHS ready business case and shape a pilot around the service’s priorities. We’ll address pathway ownership, workload, governance, funding and delivery requirements as part of the work.
Your team will have access to proven evaluation frameworks and outcome measures to establish what your project can achieve, resources needed to sustain it and how it could be extended to other settings. Where appropriate, I can facilitate introductions to NHS leaders, commissioners and other relevant contacts.
Tools and resources for your team to apply again and again
Advanced planning templates, checklists and practical frameworks can be adapted to help your team apply the Pathway over Product approach consistently. Depending on your priorities, these can support areas including:
- Pathway and stakeholder mapping.
- Readiness assessments.
- Customer questions.
- Project reviews.
- Implementation planning.
Align your teams before you engage the NHS
Many NHS adoption challenges are not just external. They sit inside the company too. Marketing may be talking about brand value, market access may be focused on formulary or funding, field teams may be hearing operational objections, and senior leaders may want a clearer route to adoption. A corporate Pathway over Product programme helps bring those perspectives together around one shared NHS facing approach.
Tailored workshops to support your objectives
I can advise you on the most relevant topics to support your team in the areas they most need to progress. The workshop range typically covers:
NHS structures, people and decisions
- Integrated care: ICSs, ICBs, ICPs and the links between system, place and neighbourhood.
- Primary Care Networks and their priorities.
- GP federations and super practices.
- Provider Collaboratives and partnership opportunities.
- Strategic commissioning and outcomes-based planning.
- Stakeholder mapping and influence.
- Engaging hospital finance, operational and contracting teams alongside clinicians.
Better conversations and workable pathways
- Questioning skills for more relevant NHS discussions.
- Prevention and the four tests for a credible project.
- Population health and inequalities.
- Mapping, costing and improving care pathways.
- The five step approach to out of hospital implementation.
- Moving beyond the product through phased demonstrators and quality assurance.
- Differentiation, incentives and the development of reference sites.
Funding and the case for change
- How money moves through the NHS.
- Revenue finance, payment arrangements and contracting.
- Developing gain sharing and risk sharing proposals.
- Using existing budgets to support service change.
Policy and strategic context
- The IPPR health and prosperity commission and its implications for industry.
- The Darzi review and the service challenges it identifies.
- NHS operational and financial planning priorities and guidance.
- The NHS’s 10-year plan direction and what it means for your approach.
The proven methodology built from both sides of NHS adoption
I know how frustrating it is to have a strong innovation and still struggle to get it adopted. I spent 10 years selling transformative products into the NHS for two major pharmaceutical companies. For more than 20 years since, I have worked directly with NHS leaders and frontline teams to redesign pathways, solve delivery problems and put change into practice.
Across more than 80 NHS projects in two years, the same pattern kept appearing: strong products stall when the pathway around them has not been built. I have brought that hard-won experience together in Pathway over Product, a practical, repeatable NHS adoption methodology that helps teams diagnose the real pathway, build the implementation model and create a route to adoption that can be sustained and scaled.
I do not sit outside the NHS commenting on it. I works inside the system, helping NHS teams redesign pathways, build services and implement change. That is why my advice is always practical, not theoretical.
What the Pathway over Product looks like in practice
These examples show how the approach supports corporate adoption and NHS service delivery. (Company names, organisations and identifying project details have been omitted to protect client confidentiality.)
Exploring how an innovation could work within NHS services
An organisation wanted to understand what would need to be in place for its innovation to work safely, practically and sustainably within an existing NHS service.
I helped the team examine the surrounding pathway, including roles and responsibilities, monitoring, escalation, funding and evaluation.
The work produced a clearer implementation framework and a structured set of questions to explore with NHS stakeholders before determining the next steps.
Helping a marketing team make its NHS messaging more relevant
A corporate marketing team needed its materials to connect more closely with the pressures shaping NHS decisions.
I proposed a practical session built around real customer situations. The team would assess how clearly its materials explained the pathway problem its product could help solve, then explore how to strengthen that message.
The aim was to bring marketing, market access and field teams together around a shared understanding of NHS needs, giving them a more relevant and consistent story to use in their materials and customer conversations.
Three steps to the right support
1. Share what you need to achieve
Discuss your organisation, the people involved and where you feel your NHS work is getting stuck.
2. Tailor a programme around your priorities
I’ll tailor the programme around the right support, deliverables, format and timing for your priorities.
3. Apply the approach to the work in front of you
Your team applies the learning and support to real challenges to build a clear route forward and a repeatable approach.
Free NHS insight and resources for everyone – explore Embedded Edge
Understand what is changing inside the NHS, what it means for your work and how to use that insight in your customer conversations.
Embedded Edge is Scott’s free resource hub, available to everyone. It brings together NHS explainer videos, rapid-response briefings, podcast extras, live group Q&As, practical learning, tools and checklists in one online space. You can also explore the Embedded Bulletin and wider podcast, webinar and free guide content, including Building Your Case for Change. Access to Embedded Edge is available for individuals at any time.
Make your next NHS conversation easier to act on
Your team should be able to explain the problem it can help solve, understand what a service needs to change and identify the next practical step to ensure adoption.
If that is where you need support, talk to Scott about a corporate programme built around your people, your priorities and the work you want to progress.
Frequently asked questions about Scott McKenzie’s corporate programmes
1. Who should be involved from our organisation?
That depends on the challenge we are working on. A programme might focus on one team or bring together colleagues from marketing, sales, market access and leadership. We’ll identify who shapes the strategy, who has the NHS conversations and who needs to help put the next steps into practice.
2. Will we work directly with you?
Yes. I work directly with your team through the workshops, coaching, strategic advice and practical support we agree. We’ll establish how we stay in touch between sessions and the level of ongoing support your programme needs.
3. Can you work alongside our existing training and frameworks?
Yes. We can start with your existing approach, approved materials and internal processes. I can help your team apply them to real NHS situations, strengthening their understanding of local pressures, stakeholders, funding and implementation. The programme builds on the work you have already done.
4. Can you help with a specific NHS project that has stalled?
Yes. We can focus on a particular project, account or adoption challenge. We’ll examine what is holding it back, such as unclear ownership, competing priorities, workload, funding or gaps in the case for change, and identify a practical next step with the relevant stakeholders.
5. What will our team have to use after the programme?
We agree the practical outputs at the outset. Depending on your priorities, these could include stakeholder maps, conversation guides, pathway mapping tools, account plans, a business case, demonstrator documentation or an evaluation framework. The aim is to give your team resources they can use, adapt and return to as their work develops.
6. Can you introduce us to relevant NHS contacts?
Where there is an appropriate fit, I can make introductions through my NHS network. We’ll first clarify the problem your organisation can help address, who needs to be involved and what would make the conversation useful to both parties.
7. How is the programme delivered, and how much time will we need?
Delivery can combine online sessions, face to face workshops and support between meetings. We’ll agree the format, participants, preparation and schedule around your objectives and your team’s availability. You’ll know the expected commitment before we begin.
8. How much does a corporate programme cost?
The investment reflects the scope and level of support we agree. After discussing your priorities, I’ll set out the recommended activities, deliverables, timing and cost so you can assess the proposal and secure internal agreement before work starts.
9. Can we discuss confidential projects and commercial plans?
Yes. We can agree confidentiality requirements, including an NDA where needed, before you share sensitive information. We’ll also establish what information and materials can be used during the programme, taking account of your organisation’s internal processes.
10. How does corporate support relate to the free Embedded Edge resources?
Embedded Edge is free and available to everyone. You can use its insights and resources whether or not your organisation works with me. Corporate support gives your team dedicated time, tailored advice and practical help applying the approach to your own objectives, accounts and projects.