IQVIA’s 4 Pillars of Impact: Reforming the NHS through data driven innovation and collaboration

Strategy and Business Development Director for IQVIA, Jim McArdle addressed the audience at the NHS Innovation Accelerator Midlands Conference with a strong message: life sciences are essential to innovation and adoption within the NHS.

Introducing IQVIA as the UK’s second-largest life sciences employer, McArdle emphasised the organisation’s global reach, employing 88,000 people worldwide – including 6,000 in the UK – and attracting £2.2 billion in annual inward investment.

Life sciences, he noted, represent a “jewel in the crown” of the UK economy, a sector vital not only for economic strength but for accelerating access to new medicines and healthcare innovations. However, he warned that the UK’s clinical trial landscape has steadily declined, delivering 36 per cent fewer commercial trials today than a decade ago.

IQVIA’s Four Pillars of Impact

McArdle outlined four core areas where IQVIA supports the UK healthcare ecosystem:

1. Clinical Trials: Highlighting the sharp decline in UK-based clinical research, McArdle stressed that attracting trials is critical to ensuring patients access to new treatments.
2. Real-World Evidence: He echoed the conference’s broader discussion about the need for continuous evidence generation across the adoption journey, stating that real-world data must drive decision-making.
3. Collaborative Working: With pride, McArdle shared that his UK team has spearheaded over 180 collaborative programmes, delivering over 500,000 episodes of care into the NHS last year alone.
4. Technology and Infrastructure: He revealed a lesser-known fact: over 95 per cent of NHS organisations rely on IQVIA’s platforms for functions like hospital coding, financial planning, and benchmarking.

McArdle cited the example of IQVIA’s rapid mobilisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which played a central role in tracking infection rates and informing national policy decisions.

Challenges to Innovation Adoption

Despite these strengths, McArdle acknowledged significant hurdles. The NHS, he said, is often perceived by global pharmaceutical companies as a difficult market to engage with, citing two key factors:

• Only one in three Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) meet the 90-day mandate for making NICE-approved medicines available.
• It takes, on average, four years, and two months for an ICB to provide access to 80% of the eligible patient population.

These figures, he argued, must change if the NHS is to remain globally competitive.

Reasons for Optimism – and a Challenge

While recognising the challenges, McArdle remained optimistic about the UK’s vibrant healthtech sector, with over 4,500 companies employing 157,000 people and generating £30 billion in inward revenue. However, he warned that while the UK excels at innovation and incubation, commercialisation often happens elsewhere – notably in the US, Canada, and Australia.

He challenged the audience to consider what more could be done collectively to ensure UK-born innovations are scaled successfully at home.

Moving Beyond Personality-Led Innovation

McArdle called for a shift away from innovation uptake being driven by individual clinical champions. Instead, he advocated for centralised policy that incentivises and benchmarks local adoption, ensuring consistent access to innovation across regions.

He stressed that true collaboration must involve clinicians at every stage and that trialling new technologies must be embedded within patient pathways, not bolted on as an afterthought.

Additionally, he suggested creating mechanisms like an “SME passport” to support start-ups and demystify NHS funding flows, levelling the playing field for smaller innovators[BH2] .

A Real-World Case Study: Reigniting Cancer Pathways

Concluding his talk, McArdle shared a tangible example from Manchester’s The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. In partnership with local ICBs, the AHSN[BH3] [JM4] , and a pharmaceutical company, IQVIA tackled late-stage cancer diagnosis in deprived areas.

Through data-driven insights, they:

• Identified gaps in mobile screening service coverage.
• Addressed transport barriers by offering home care.
• Reinvigorated cancer referral pathways.

This targeted intervention demonstrated how a collaborative, evidence-based approach could significantly improve patient outcomes – precisely the kind of real-world impact McArdle urged the sector to replicate.

Looking Ahead: System-Wide Commitment Needed

McArdle closed with a rallying call: to prevent widening healthcare inequalities, life sciences must focus efforts where clinical need is greatest, not merely where engagement is easiest. He also reinforced the need for a cultural mindset shift towards continuous iteration, patient-centred design, and genuine partnership.

As the Midlands conference shifted into workshops, McArdle’s message resonated clearly: collaboration, system thinking, and unwavering focus on real-world results will be the keys to transforming healthcare innovation in the UK.

IQVIA was the platinum sponsor of the Chamber UK and NHS Innovation Accelerator Midlands Conference[BH5] [JM6] .

To find out more about Curia’s conference series with NHS Innovation Accelerator, please contact Partnerships Director, Ben.McDermott@chamberuk.com.