Landscape Review and Economic Potential of the Oncology and Allied Digital Health Sector on the Island of Ireland

The island of Ireland is a premier destination for life and health science (LHS) enterprises, boasting a distinctive blend of skilled professionals, cutting-edge research facilities, and robust collaborations between industry, academia, and healthcare practitioners. The oncology community across academia and industry within Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (IE) are keen to collaborate, aspiring to elevate the entire island to global prominence in oncology and allied digital health endeavours. These are the fastest growing areas of the LHS sector, due to the increasing availability of multi-modal data, the development of genomics-driven cancer medicine and the growth in artificial intelligence (AI). However, little data are available on the number of oncology and allied digital companies operating on the island of Ireland. Data on the products/services these companies provide, numbers employed, the ecosystem they operate in, and the economic potential are also lacking. These data are necessary, along with recommendations on how the LHS sector can be enhanced, to ensure that the full health and socioeconomic benefits of the growth in oncology and allied digital health research on the island are realised . As such, Salutem Insights was commissioned by the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI; www.aicri.org), a cross-border virtual institute involving 10 universities on the island of Ireland and associated stakeholders, who have received funding under InterTradeIreland’s Synergy Programme to conduct a study to evaluate the current landscape and economic potential of oncology and allied digital health on the island of Ireland.