How we work
Before we talk about how engagements are structured, here is what we actually bring to the table. The value of working with us is not just the methodology — it is the four things we have spent years building that you would otherwise need to build yourselves, and the partnership model that lets us deploy them at a price point an early-stage company can fund.
What we bring
We understand NHS structures — which are complex
Trusts, ICBs, ICSs, regional networks, AAC programmes, HINs, Royal Colleges, the National Clinical Audits, the NHS Payment Scheme, specialised commissioning, the Innovation Technology Payment, the HSE National Clinical Programmes. We know how each of these works, who sits inside them, how decisions actually get made, and how the structure has changed (and is changing) — so the work you commission is built on a current map, not last decade's.
We have built proprietary databases and analytical tools
The Trust Database (271 NHS Trusts scored across 13 fields). A reusable evidence corpus of NICE guidance, AAC pathways, National Clinical Audits, the NHS Payment Scheme and ICB Joint Forward Plans. A pathway-fit scorer. A reimbursement route router. A year-2 cliff predictor. These are firm assets, deployed on every engagement, that mean you pay for application rather than reassembly.
We have clinical, Trust and commissioning networks — and we keep building them
Direct relationships into Trust executive teams, ICB clinical leads, AAC programme directors, Royal College research arms, the disease-area transformation programmes and the Health Innovation Networks. These are warm, current and growing — and every engagement extends them further into the disease area you operate in.
A career-built international healthcare ecosystem
Across 40 years of practice we have built relationships across policy makers, academic researchers, health economists, clinicians and innovation stakeholders, in the UK, Europe, the Nordics, the Middle East, Asia and North America. Where an engagement needs an academic co-signatory, an economist, a named clinician or a policy interlocutor, we can usually find the right person inside our own bench rather than having to recruit.
How engagements run — the partnership model
Our price point is only possible because engagements are a partnership, not an outsource. We bring methodology, evidence, AI-augmented analysis, partner judgement and named relationships. You bring product knowledge, regulatory documentation, and senior introductions at the right moments. The boundary is explicit at the start, and is part of what keeps the work affordable.
The methodology and the evidence
The 12-step process. The Trust Database and the evidence corpus. AI-augmented analysis across every research-heavy stage. All deliverables signed off by a named senior partner. A final presentation to your Board or investor audience.
Product knowledge and senior availability
Existing technical, clinical, regulatory and commercial documentation in week one of each phase. A named senior counterpart available for weekly 30-minute check-ins. Higher-level introductions when Stage 10 requires a Trust CEO or ICB chief conversation.
Why this division of labour works
Three reasons. Each one is structural, not optional.
You hold the product truth
The product knowledge, the clinical claim, the technical reality — these live with you. Trying to extract every detail through advisor hours is exactly what makes bespoke consulting too expensive: it duplicates work you could do faster from your own desk. We translate, we position, we challenge — but the claim is yours and you stand behind it.
Founder-to-counterpart conversations land better
When Stage 10 needs a conversation with a Trust CEO, an ICB chief or an AAC programme lead, the right voice is yours — a funded founder pitching a real product. We provide the briefing pack and the value translation; you make the call. The named clinical advisor backs you up. The relationship belongs to you, not to a consulting firm that disappears after the engagement.
The boundary protects the price point
Without the boundary, scope drifts and a £15k phase becomes a £40k engagement. The boundary is not a refusal to help — it is how the whole proposition stays affordable for a pre-Series A company. Where you genuinely cannot provide what is needed, we fill the gap on time-and-materials terms, priced separately so it does not distort the headline.
This is not a hypothesis. The 12-step process was delivered through Stage 10 on a live engagement with Phyxiom (asthma) between February and May 2026 at approximately £30,000. The engagement produced seventeen named deliverables, integrated five client-side source documents, and ended with a first NHS Trust conversation underway at Barts and a Top 5 Pilot Shortlist named. Phase 2 work — the year-2 cliff and the scaling pathway — is in progress. The customer's investor and Board reception of the Phase 1 output was positive.
That delivery sets the price point for everything that follows. We are not selling a model — we are selling a process we have just used.
What we use AI for, and what we don't
Claude, instrumented over our evidence base, drafts pathway analyses, summarises National Audit reports, generates first drafts of stakeholder value translations, assembles benchmark tables and proposes pilot site shortlists. Senior partners refine, correct and sign off. This is what lets us deliver at the price points we do, with the depth we do.
We do not use AI to make the judgement calls that matter. The clinical interpretation, the commissioner reading, the relationship navigation, the final recommendation — these are human work signed by a named partner, and you can see who that is on every deliverable.