By Lynn Yap, board advisor, Life Sciences Week
Picture a community health centre in Birmingham. In the waiting area, a young mother scrolls through her phone, trying to navigate an NHS app that isn’t available in her first language. Two seats away, an older gentleman leans on his walking stick, joking with the receptionist about how many passwords he’s forgotten this week.
Neither of them is a ‘typical’ user – and that’s exactly the point.
When we talk about innovation in health, it’s tempting to focus on the shiny parts – the AI algorithms, wearable sensors, and precision diagnostics. But the truth is, innovation isn’t just about the tools we build. It’s about who we build them for, how we build them, and whether they work in the messy, unpredictable complexity of real life.
Birmingham is uniquely positioned to lead in this space. As one of the UK’s most ethnically diverse and demographically stable cities, it offers something many innovation hubs can’t: a living blueprint for designing products and clinical pathways that work for everyone — not just the median patient or the most digitally connected.
Why diversity is an innovation superpower
In consumer industries, this has been understood for decades. Sneaker brands found that designing for athletes at the extremes — the sprinter with an unusual stride, the trail runner tackling unpredictable terrain — led to shoes that performed better for everyone. Tech platforms discovered that optimising for slow internet speeds made their apps more reliable for all users.
Health innovation works the same way. When companies co-design with diverse communities, they create solutions that are:
Consider the difference between a diabetes app designed solely around the average user versus one that accounts for cultural dietary patterns, language differences, and varying levels of digital literacy. The first may work well in a controlled trial, but the second is far more likely to succeed in the unpredictable reality of everyday life.
And yet, too many health innovations are created in environments that don’t reflect the people they aim to serve.
Birmingham’s blueprint for inclusive innovation
The West Midlands is home to over 1,200 life sciences and health tech organisations, employing more than 23,000 people, with 10,000 more roles projected by 2030. But Birmingham’s real competitive advantage isn’t just economic – it’s human.
More than 40% of residents identify as from ethnic minority backgrounds. Over 150 languages are spoken. The city’s population is both demographically young and generationally stable – a rare combination that’s ideal for long-term research and real-world product testing.
There are already examples of this in action.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has introduced community-led recruitment models that improve participation from underrepresented groups in clinical trials. The Birmingham Health Innovation Campus is supporting start-ups and scale-ups to embed inclusivity from their earliest prototypes.
Another example is the way local universities collaborate with grassroots organisations to bridge research and lived experience. By engaging faith-based groups, youth clubs, and women’s networks, they ensure that health pilots don’t just recruit participants but genuinely resonate with them. This bottom-up model means insights flow in both directions: communities shape the science, and science adapts to communities.
These are more than local success stories – they are competitive strategies. If a product can thrive in Birmingham’s complexity, it’s more likely to thrive anywhere.
What health can learn from consumer design
From my own work with global consumer brands and digital platforms, three lessons stand out:
This isn’t just theory. Look at how ride-sharing platforms scaled. They didn’t only design for major urban centres with strong infrastructure — they tested their services in suburbs and secondary cities. By stress-testing in less predictable environments, the platforms became more adaptable, scalable, and ultimately investable. Health tech can take the same approach: test in Birmingham’s complexity before rolling out nationwide.
These principles are as relevant in health as they are in retail or tech — and they make solutions more resilient, trusted, and adoptable.
Making equity the default
If Birmingham is going to lead in inclusive innovation, it will take coordinated effort:
We also need investors who are willing to back companies that prioritise equity from day one. Too often, “inclusive design” is treated as a box to tick after commercial traction is proven. But what if inclusivity itself became the marker of investability? After all, a product that only works for a narrow population may never scale successfully, no matter how sophisticated its technology.
This isn’t about slowing down innovation. It’s about making sure what we build works in the places and for the people who need it most.
Why now?
Life Sciences Week this September will bring together leaders from industry, academia, and the NHS to explore how applied research can move faster into practice. It’s a chance to elevate inclusive innovation as not just an ethical priority but a competitive advantage.
Imagine if every health tech product piloted in Birmingham had been tested across the city’s full spectrum of languages, cultural backgrounds, and health needs. Imagine if every AI model was trained on datasets reflecting the reality of all patient populations, not just the easiest to access.
That’s not a distant aspiration. It’s achievable – if inclusion is embedded from the start.
The timing matters, too. With the NHS under pressure, the demand for innovations that work first time – without endless adjustments or retrofitting – has never been higher. Birmingham can demonstrate that designing inclusively isn’t slower or costlier, but a faster route to scalable adoption.
The competitive advantage of listening at the edges
Inclusive innovation isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s smart business. Products built for a wide range of needs perform better across markets. Solutions tested in diverse contexts are more resilient when entering new geographies.
For investors, this means reduced risk. For health systems, it means higher adoption rates. And for innovators, it means knowing their solution can survive in complexity, not just in ideal conditions.
The edges are where the friction points — and the breakthrough opportunities — live. Birmingham, with its diversity, stability, and collaborative spirit, is exactly the place to listen.
Because if we can get it right here, we can get it right anywhere.
About the Author
Lynn Yap is a board advisor to Life Sciences Week 2025 and the author of The Altruistic Capitalist. She advises startups, corporates, and founders on commercial strategy, ethical innovation, and long-term value creation.
