In March 2026, ProtoFlex Managing Director Marc Warburton attended two Pre-Market Engagement (PME) workshops run by Contracts for Innovation Cymru — one in Cardiff and one in Bangor — as part of an ambitious NHS Wales programme exploring how technology can transform the way healthcare is delivered across the country.
The Vision
Welsh Government's ambition is straightforward in principle, though significant in scope: to make high-quality healthcare accessible to every citizen in Wales, regardless of where they live. That means designing flexible, moveable care spaces — inspired by nature, built with and for Welsh communities — where patients can access services remotely without compromising on quality or safety.
Rural Wales presents particular challenges. For elderly patients and those living far from urban centres, geography has long been a barrier to timely care. The programme aims to address that directly: not by replacing clinicians, but by giving them better tools and giving patients better access.
Contracts for Innovation Cymru
Contracts for Innovation Cymru (formerly the Small Business Research Initiative) was established in 2018, funded by Welsh Government and hosted by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Its model is well established: public sector organisations define challenges that require new and innovative solutions, and businesses and research organisations compete for contracts to develop and test ideas in real-world settings.
In May 2025, Contracts for Innovation Cymru launched a Phase 1 'Inspired by Nature Challenge', inviting industry and academia to design flexible, moveable healthcare spaces capable of delivering consistent, high-quality care regardless of location.
The PME workshops in March were the next step in that process — an opportunity for suppliers to present their thinking, understand the full scope of the programme, and explore where their solutions might fit.
What ProtoFlex Presented
For the supplier sessions, Marc presented an overview of the ProtoFlex surveillance model and how it could be applied to this kind of initiative.
The core proposition is straightforward: ProtoFlex is built to deploy rapidly, model complex clinical pathways, and provide clinicians with the structured data and decision-support tools they need to manage patients safely — including patients they are assessing remotely. For a programme focused on enabling remote clinical contact in locations without a permanent physical presence, that capability is directly relevant.
Specifically, ProtoFlex can support:
- Remote clinical decision-making — giving clinicians reviewing patients at a distance access to structured, longitudinal data rather than fragmented records
- Patient-reported outcomes and self-monitoring — enabling patients to contribute structured information between appointments, supporting earlier intervention
- Rapid pathway deployment — piloting new care models quickly, generating real-world evidence to support programme decisions before committing to scale
- Integration with existing systems — connecting to whatever infrastructure is already in place at a health board level, rather than requiring a clean-slate implementation
Why This Matters
Pre-Market Engagement programmes like this one are valuable precisely because they are not procurements. There is no specification to respond to, no tender to win. The purpose is genuine dialogue — understanding what is technically feasible, testing assumptions, and refining the question before anyone writes a requirements document.
ProtoFlex is well suited to innovation programmes of this kind. Our ability to rapidly deploy pilot pathways and digital solutions means we can develop real-world evidence in support of a new model of care — not theoretical projections, but data from actual deployments — which is exactly what a programme moving toward a future commissioning phase needs to see.
The conversations in Cardiff and Bangor were a useful starting point. Wales has a clear ambition and a structured process to pursue it. We look forward to seeing how this programme develops.
For more information about how ProtoFlex could support your health board or innovation programme, contact us.