Business Insight

Tuesday September 25 2012

Doctors onlineSteven Dodsworth and HIE’s digital health revolution

The law winsThis year’s Legal 500 puts

Scotland’s top firms in focus

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight2

Welcome

To read some economic reports on Glasgow, you might think it was some sort of Singapore. Here’s one: “Glasgow already has a great ‘asset base’ of great companies (many doing business right

across the globe), great universities and colleges (producing highly-skilled people and knowledge that underpin businesses competitiveness) and great people (with more graduates in the workforce than our main UK competitors).”

This isn’t some advertising copywriter’s guff. It comes from the final report of the

Glasgow Economic Commission, pub-lished last year. Yet if you read through some of the smaller print and research documents of the Commission’s work, you discover another story which makes it sound more like Calcutta.

A fifth of the city’s workforce has no qualifications at all, one of the poorest basic skills levels of Britain’s cities. The number of businesses in the city per head of population is well below Scottish and UK levels. And recently, The Economist mulled over the fact that Glaswegians, measured by mortality rates and discounting relative poverty rates, have, on average, the poorest life expectancies of all British city-dwellers.

No, these are not contradictions. They are the statistical exposition of the fact that Glasgow’s social and economic fabric has become stretched between two extremes. It is a city of great riches and appalling poverty, of high achievement and zero ambition, of bright dawns and dreadful nights.

It is a disturbing condition for a city which gave birth to the Labour party, whose century-old political aim has been to lift the working class out of poverty and oppres-sion and to create a more equal society. For idealists, the horrid fact is that Glasgow epitomises some of the worst inequality that you can find cheek by jowl in Britain.

The celebration of Glasgow’s renaissance should be tempered with a realisation that the contradictions in its performance must be confronted

Healthy outlook for forward-looking northWelcome to the September issue of Business Insight, which highlights the extraor-dinary achievements in medicine taking place in the Highlands and Islands, where some of our most remote rural communities are at the leading edge of a digital healthcare revolution in which diagnosis and advice are delivered via medical devices, mobile phones and the internet.On this page Peter Jones

examines Glasgow’s claims for economic excellence and concludes that there is much work still to be done before the facts catch up with the encouraging headlines, while this year’s Legal 500 review provides an encouraging snapshot of how our law firms, operating across the spectrum of business, are at the forefront of national and international success while remaining distinctively Scottish.

Welcome

Peter Jonesat large

City turns its back on harsh reality

COVER IMAGE BY TIM WINTERBURN/HIE

IT’S not a business that would have made much sense 20 years ago, but in today’s relentless charge towards all things digital, Glasgow’s Peach Digital has struck absolutely the right note – and the right generation.

In other words, it creates great websites – particularly for cinema operators – that not only make a visual impact with trailer clips and colourful graphics but also facilitate people’s online ticket-buying.

Serious business boosts are the result. Apollo Cinemas, now owned by Vue, noted a rise of 90 per cent in online ticket sales after taking on Peach.

“The demography of cinema-going is changing,” says co-owner and business development director Malcolm MacMillan. “It’s naturally skewed towards the younger end of the market, the 15- to 34-year-olds, and they are all very computer-savvy. They’re already well used to buying online.”

But although Peach is pleased to help such end-consumers by making life more convenient for them, its proposition is primarily to exhibitors and cinema-owners. “And the core needs of cinema owners all over the world are very similar. Specifically, the more money they can make online, the more they can save costs offline. So they can expect a higher return on investment from ticket sales, ancillary goods, advertis-ing and booking fees.”

The 12-year-old firm with its pleasantly fruity name may operate from two floors in Glasgow’s West Regent Street, but it sees the bigger picture in more ways than one,

with tendrils stretching across the world – from the UK and US through Canada and Ireland to Portugal and Romania – deliver-ing measurable results from its expertise in digital design, marketing, systems integra-tion and website development.

“What we’ve developed is an online system that allows us to distill all our knowledge and understanding of online cinema websites into a platform cinemas can use to sell more tickets online,” says Mr MacMillan. “Having worked with operators throughout seven countries for over 12 years, we have acquired a unique under-standing of how to make clients money from their websites, social and mobile chan-nels. We’ve channelled this into establish-ing a unique relationship with the cinema sector that is becoming recognised across the world.”

All that said, Mr MacMillan stresses that “the cinema thing” represents less than half of Peach’s business. “We are by no means confined by our enthusiasm for that sector,” he says. “We design, develop and market digital solutions for all kinds of other enter-prises – hotels, restaurants, housebuilders, and even St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

“Our focus is simple: we combine online strategy with exceptional creative ideas and innovative technology to deliver measur-able results for clients across multiple sectors. Our portfolio includes big interna-tional clients who have benefited from our expertise.”

In his office are more than 30 heads representing “front-end and server side development”, a mix of marketing, design-ers (five) and client services. From project

commission to final deployment, everyone is involved in ensuring that a website is designed and developed with the client’s wider business objectives in mind.

Drawing business as it does from far and wide, Peach is quick to acknowledge the pivotal role played in its success by Scot-tish Development International (SDI), the job-stimulating joint venture between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

“One of the key challenges of do-ing business abroad is to be able to meet clients and potential clients face to face,” says Mr MacMillan. “Even though what we do is accessible from anywhere, at the end of the day you can’t develop a

relationship with a company without some direct contact.

“The SDI has helped us get our proposi-tion in front of a wide range of potential clients by part-funding our travel. It also helped us attend cinema conferences in the US and Europe. Not to mention providing us with an international strategy workshop that was very useful in defining our objectives.

“I have to say its support has been in-valuable, and without it we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done.”

For more information about export opportunities visit http://www.sdi.co.uk/export-from-scotland.aspx or call 0800 917 9534.

How Peach adds ‘world wide’ to its web commercial rePort: PeacH DiGital

macolm macmillan

FROM RICK WILSON

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday September 25 2012 3

£170 million on a research centre, the need to spend an estimated £200 billion on upgrading just Britain’s energy generat-ing and distribution system over the next 20 years should ensure that Glasgow earns a big slice of that action.

Though this sector is the starriest of the five main hopes, there is reason to think that the others can also play a big role in re-energising Glasgow. If so, the prize is big, not just for the city, but for Scotland.

The rest of Scotland tends to regard Glasgow as an unfortunate poor relation. But if the Clyde Valley is included, the city region accounts for about a third of Scotland’s population, jobs, and wealth-creation. If its below-par performance can be raised, its weight means the whole of Scotland will be lifted.

But that 20 per cent of the working age population with no qualifications remains a huge problem. Such are the skill demands of modern industry that unless ways can be found to instill the necessary skills, these people will remain on the edge of the economy dependent on welfare.

Glasgow’s biggest challenge is that it has to overcome the most serious extreme of all. As noted by Prof. Findlay, many people, and certainly those in the Commission, have a “can do” self-belief that sometimes verges on arrogance. But at the other end, there is a “mentality of defeatism and decline” that holds too many people, the city, and ultimately Scotland, back.

The fact that 20 per cent of Glasgow’s working age population have no qualifications remains a huge problem

Some 25 years of de-industrialisation from the 1970s onwards, driven mainly by low-wage competition from East Asia, saw the ship, locomotive, and other heavy engi-neering industries that made Glasgow “the workshop of the world” disappear, leaving Glaswegians in the unenviable position of having the lowest household incomes of Scotland’s major cities (see chart below).

The oddity, as Richard Findlay, profes-sor of history at Strathclyde University notes in an annex to the Economic Commission’s report, is that unlike other previous periods when major industries such as the tobacco trade and textiles vanished, no immediate renewal occurred.

So what is to be done now? The Commission, chaired by Jim McDonald, principal of Strathclyde University, came up with a plan. The Commission comprised pretty much all the city’s key players from business, the universities, the trade unions, the council, and the relevant public agencies, so its authority can hardly be doubted.

Neither, really, can its main conclusions. Charged with identifying opportunities for economic and employment growth, it decided that Glasgow’s best chances lay with five sectors — low carbon industries, life sciences, financial and business services, tourism and events, and engineering, design and manufacturing.

In all these areas, the city has strengths. Some are historic and continuing, such as engineering and financial services, others are relatively new, such as life sciences and low carbon industries. Outsiders agree. In June, global banking giant HSBC identified Glasgow as a “leading inter-national force in the renewable energy sector”, based on the impressive electrical engineering research base in its universi-ties and the presence of major utilities ScottishPower, owned by Iberdrola of Spain, and Scotland-based SSE in the city.

Though ambitions to build a major industrial cluster looked to be knocked when Doosan Power Systems of South Korea last year suspended plans to spend

City turns its back on harsh realitySTUART WALLACE

IT’S not a business that would have made much sense 20 years ago, but in today’s relentless charge towards all things digital, Glasgow’s Peach Digital has struck absolutely the right note – and the right generation.

In other words, it creates great websites – particularly for cinema operators – that not only make a visual impact with trailer clips and colourful graphics but also facilitate people’s online ticket-buying.

Serious business boosts are the result. Apollo Cinemas, now owned by Vue, noted a rise of 90 per cent in online ticket sales after taking on Peach.

“The demography of cinema-going is changing,” says co-owner and business development director Malcolm MacMillan. “It’s naturally skewed towards the younger end of the market, the 15- to 34-year-olds, and they are all very computer-savvy. They’re already well used to buying online.”

But although Peach is pleased to help such end-consumers by making life more convenient for them, its proposition is primarily to exhibitors and cinema-owners. “And the core needs of cinema owners all over the world are very similar. Specifically, the more money they can make online, the more they can save costs offline. So they can expect a higher return on investment from ticket sales, ancillary goods, advertis-ing and booking fees.”

The 12-year-old firm with its pleasantly fruity name may operate from two floors in Glasgow’s West Regent Street, but it sees the bigger picture in more ways than one,

with tendrils stretching across the world – from the UK and US through Canada and Ireland to Portugal and Romania – deliver-ing measurable results from its expertise in digital design, marketing, systems integra-tion and website development.

“What we’ve developed is an online system that allows us to distill all our knowledge and understanding of online cinema websites into a platform cinemas can use to sell more tickets online,” says Mr MacMillan. “Having worked with operators throughout seven countries for over 12 years, we have acquired a unique under-standing of how to make clients money from their websites, social and mobile chan-nels. We’ve channelled this into establish-ing a unique relationship with the cinema sector that is becoming recognised across the world.”

All that said, Mr MacMillan stresses that “the cinema thing” represents less than half of Peach’s business. “We are by no means confined by our enthusiasm for that sector,” he says. “We design, develop and market digital solutions for all kinds of other enter-prises – hotels, restaurants, housebuilders, and even St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

“Our focus is simple: we combine online strategy with exceptional creative ideas and innovative technology to deliver measur-able results for clients across multiple sectors. Our portfolio includes big interna-tional clients who have benefited from our expertise.”

In his office are more than 30 heads representing “front-end and server side development”, a mix of marketing, design-ers (five) and client services. From project

commission to final deployment, everyone is involved in ensuring that a website is designed and developed with the client’s wider business objectives in mind.

Drawing business as it does from far and wide, Peach is quick to acknowledge the pivotal role played in its success by Scot-tish Development International (SDI), the job-stimulating joint venture between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

“One of the key challenges of do-ing business abroad is to be able to meet clients and potential clients face to face,” says Mr MacMillan. “Even though what we do is accessible from anywhere, at the end of the day you can’t develop a

relationship with a company without some direct contact.

“The SDI has helped us get our proposi-tion in front of a wide range of potential clients by part-funding our travel. It also helped us attend cinema conferences in the US and Europe. Not to mention providing us with an international strategy workshop that was very useful in defining our objectives.

“I have to say its support has been in-valuable, and without it we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done.”

For more information about export opportunities visit http://www.sdi.co.uk/export-from-scotland.aspx or call 0800 917 9534.

How Peach adds ‘world wide’ to its web commercial rePort: PeacH DiGital

macolm macmillan

FROM RICK WILSON

2010 FIGURES; SOURCE: NATIONAL STATISTICS, REGIONAL TRENDS

On September 27th, we will see the end of the 2012 Converge Chal-lenge. As I refl ect over the last few months, it has been a long road

for those who submitted their initial applications back in March. Since then, we have received business ideas ranging from space burials to biodegradable inks. Ideas from every stage of development were assessed, utilising one panel of judges to select the top ten, and a fi nal panel to select the fi nalists and winners.

We now have a fi nal shortlist of seven, who will pitch to the judges again on the day of the awards ceremony, and fi nd out who will take away the £25,000 cash and £20,000 worth of business support awarded to the top idea. This is a phenomenal amount of funding for a start-up company, and emphasizes the high quality of business plans we have received, as well as the commitment we expect the winners to make to their new company.

Converge Challenge 2012 � nalistsOur seven fi nalists this year are:

created a fully-automated intelligent statistical analysis system, which will be a huge benefi t to scientists and other users without prior statistical knowledge.

University of the West of Scotland. Tig Tag is a multi-layer advertising and entry control tag which can be used in conjunction with an existing ticketing system, or a direct replace-ment to issuing tickets for an event.

terina proposes to develop a new bio-nanotechnology company in Scotland, providing products, IP, consultancy and services for the world-wide micro-and nano-array technology market.

Napier University. Today’s complex organisations are exposed to risks from

risk assessment and management platform which can identify and assist in the management of risks associated with online presence and e-commerce.

Watt University. The winner of this

tion is based on the discovery of the unique production process of silver nanoparticles. Resulting applications could include the production of a lightweight drinking straw to enable the safe drinking of water in third world countries.

marily at a biological imaging market, Chromacity aim to bring to market an innovative laser which will allow users

to gain a far better understanding of the conditions within cells – a vital step forward in the advancement of re-search in cell biology, genetic analysis and molecular biology.

Moredun Research Institute. This year, Converge Challenge opened up to Research Institutes, and Moredun took the challenge to their heart.

technology for the creation of new, ef-fi cacious vaccines for bacterial disease of animals and humans.

winning. I have watched them develop over the months, focusing and chan-neling their business ideas to the point where they are no longer just researchers, but true entrepreneurs.

The next stepOnce the winners are selected, the journey is only beginning. In November, they will be the Scottish representatives

the Converge Challenge Open Innova-

Scotland – will send the winner from

riot-Watt University. The Open Innova-

Incorporating a roundtable discus-sion involving judges, participants and investors on bridging the gap between universities and industry, as well as an elevator pitch from the participants, the competition will help further the busi-ness acumen of budding entrepreneurs, and help take the amazing research of our universities out into an increasingly global and competitive marketplace.

End of a road, start of a journey

COMMERCIAL REPORT: CONVERGE CHALLENGE

For more information on Converge Challenge, please visit www.hw.ac.uk/convergechallenge

Dr Olga Kozlova, Enterprise Creation Manager, Heriot-Watt University

Gross Disposable household income

per head

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight4

Digital health

INVESTORS and entrepreneurs in digital health and care are increas-ingly choosing the Highlands and Islands as a business location as awareness grows of the opportuni-ties that its strengths in the sector offer life science and IT firms.

Digital health and care — where consulting, diagnosis and advice are delivered remotely using med-

ical devices, phones, televisions and the internet — will feature in everyone’s life, according to Dr Steven Dodsworth, head of life sciences at development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

“Digital health and care is a young, but fast-growing sector in Scotland, and there’s a tremendous opportunity for the Highlands and Islands to become a pio-neer in care delivery, and a world leader in the business sector,” he says.

The growth is real. A 2009 audit found six organisations active in what was then a minor part of a life science sector en-compassing some 50 organisations. “We now have more than 40 organisations active in digital health and care as well as another 50 in life sciences,” Dodsworth says. “We’ve almost doubled the life sci-ence sector in three years.”

Many names in the cluster were exist-ing organisations that have moved into

the space. Take Skye-based Sitekit, a firm that develops websites for hospitals and primary care trusts throughout the UK but which now has its sights too on digital health technology for individuals.

Parents of each child born in the UK currently receive a flimsy, paper ‘Red Book’ that is easily lost and does little to engage users much in managing a child’s health.

Sitkeit wants to change this and is de-veloping an eRedbook, personal health-care records for infants, based around software giant Microsoft’s proven HealthVault technology, which addresses the key issue of security. With 750,000 babies born annually in the UK, and with 95 per cent of young mothers regularly using the internet or mobile phones, the sales potential is enticing.

Located in Portree, Sitekit is proof positive that being in a remoter part of Europe need not be an obstacle to devel-oping digital health businesses with po-tential for international growth.

The target customers will be people prepared to pay to manage their own personal health accounts using a Sitekit app linking their personal dossiers to statutory ones held by GPs hospitals, lo-cal authorities, schools and others.

“A bank account lets you manage fi-nances online,” says Campbell Grant,

founder and CEO. “With an online per-sonal health account, you can manage your wellness and take more control and ownership of your body and the medi-cines being prescribed to you.”

It holds out the promise of people stor-ing detailed health information in a well-structured way that can be kept for years and searched easily.

Sitekit’s app is shortly to be trialled in four UK areas including Morayshire, part of the NHS Grampian area. “We’re very keen for people to step forward to try out this eRedBook to help us develop it through the various versions that it will go through,” Grant says.

HIE’s Dodsworth says a rare combina-tion of factors has created four pillars for growth.

Pillar one: Figures confirm a genu-ine cluster of business people, health-care professionals and academics with a shared vision of how to grow the sector. Sitekit is one example. Inverness based Albasoft — a company that develops and sells health service and GP practice management software — collaborates with leading UK universities and the UK Biobank, a massive collection of individu-al health and biological data, to bring the firm’s experience in clinical informatics to support researchers.

Albasoft is the private sector partner in the Highland Research Alliance (HRA), the other members being the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), NHS Highland, and the Inverness-based Centre for Health Science. The HRA is working on a bid to attract the primary care data

Scotland is walking the talk on digital health and care as the world wakes up to what is happening here, writes Rob Stokes

repository of the Scottish Health Infor-matics Programme (SHIP) to Inverness.

SHIP will pull together a Scotland-wide informatics repository combin-ing primary (GPs etc) and secondary (hospitals etc) healthcare records as well as education, census and similar data into a system to spur R&D for applica-tions ranging from drug discovery and development to health and lifestyle stud-ies. The records will be anonymised to protect patients’ privacy.

SHIP is managed by the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews alongside the Information Services Division of NHS Scotland and is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medi-cal Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

“But we have a big skills base and primary healthcare information is not ge-ography specific — we pull information from all over Highlands and Islands and making it work is one of the advantages we have,” Albasoft’s technical director Dave Kelly said. “You can almost guaran-tee that any information gathering tech-nology we get working here — mobile for example — will work anywhere else.”

The prize will be keenly contested as the UK government is to change the NHS Constitution to allow commerciali-sation of anonymised medical records for research, for example for the big pharma-ceutical companies. The public sector in England and Wales has been preparing to address the opportunity.

Pillar two: experienced clinicians and organisations are delivering health and

Route to wireless wellbeing

You can almost guarantee that information gathering technology here will work anywhere else

Dr Steven Dodsworth at HIE says that the

size of the life science sector has almost

doubled in three years

TIM WINTERBURN/HIE

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday September 25 2012 5

Whether it is used behind the scenes by healthcare professionals, or directly by

patients, such technology, known collectively as eHealth, now pays a key role in improving our lives. Orion Health is a world-leader in the field, delivering software based solutions for healthcare facilities, organisations and regions.

The company, which has of-fices worldwide, works with clinical specialists, family doctors, and end users in community health, mental health and social care. Its cutting-edge technology includes clinical portals, automated management of best-practice pathways for long term conditions, case management and providing patient portals to enable patients to take a more active role in their wellbeing.

In the UK it has been implement-ing and supporting electronic care re-cord solutions for more than 10 years. Its wide range of clients includes

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the UK’s largest health board, where it has played a key role in the Board’s extensive modernisation plans.

An important aspect of its £750 million modernisation programme has been the implementation of the Orion Health Concerto Clinical Portal, with the aim of achieving an almost paperless environment.

The Portal provides a single and unified view of information retrieved from an existing clinical data reposi-tory, a scanned paper case notes store and an encounter repository. The technology has been well received by medical teams across the Board, and recent figures recorded 18,500 active users.

Dr Gerard McKay, Consultant Phy-sician, Emergency Care and Medical Services Directorate in Glasgow commented: “I invariably have the Clinical Portal open when working in clinic areas as it provides not only an overview of the patient’s care but pulls together information that was previously only accessible through other systems such as labs, radiol-

ogy reports and letters. Now I can view them in the one place alongside information about the patient’s past and future contacts with the hospital.

One very positive aspect about Clinical Portal is that I have had the opportunity to feedback to the devel-opment team ways that may improve its functionality for the benefit of those who use it.”

This is a view mirrored by Paul Campbell a Consultant in Anaes-thesia & Retrieval Medicine who is based in the Golden Jubilee Na-tional Hospital in Glasgow, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Orion Health’s technology has been used by the hospital to show clinical data from multiple systems in a single view via a single login.

“There are many electronic systems used in every hospital but very few of them are directly linked to each other.

“The Clinical Portal is starting to pull all these systems together, giving a single, more complete view of a pa-tient’s record.” This is effectively the start of an electronic health record for patients, comments Dr Campbell.

He continues: “Another exciting aspect of the Clinical Portal is the on-going work to link the Clinical Portals across all Scottish health boards. Working in a hospital with

national services this will vastly en-hance our ability to provide more ef-ficient, quality care for our patients.”

Colin Henderson, General Man-ager, Orion Health UK and Ireland believes that many health organisa-tions in the UK are now thinking more in terms of information sharing, at scale and across care settings. He continues: “NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is proof that the single view concept delivers benefits to a very large and diverse group of end users, who have really embraced the technology. In other similar regional deployments in the UK, the meas-ured benefits are equally compelling, with evidence of reduced test orders, improved patient outcomes and more efficient working practices – all because key information is readily accessible.”

Orion Health announced earlier this year that it had won a major con-tract with Northern Ireland’s public health service. The seven-year deal with Health and Social Care North-ern Ireland involves the implementa-tion of its Electronic Care Record (ECR) software, reducing the length of clinic times, improving quality of patient services and achieving cost and efficiency saving in staff time and resources. The company also has a fast-growing footprint in London,

with clients including NHS boards in Westminster, East London and City, and Central London Community Health, working with the emerging Commissioning Support Units. Orion Health’s technology is available for GPs and out-of-hours practitioners and is also supporting healthcare information exchange across care boundaries.

Worldwide, Orion Health has implemented health information communities involving 30 million patients with hundreds of thousands of active users.

Projects to date have included Spain’s IB Salut, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Maine’s Health-InfoNet, Lahey Clinic, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Alberta Health Services.

Modernising the medical world – Orion Health delivers hi-tech solutions

cOMMercial repOrt: OriON HealtH

colin Henderson, General Manager, Orion Health UK and ireland

communication technology has an ever-increasing impact on our world – and the medical industry is no exception discovers Heidi Soholt.

care over distance, often in innovative ways. OpenBrolly (see panel on page 7) is a good example.

Pillar three: geographical and demo-graphic challenges are a study in min-iature of those facing the wider world — many Highlanders and islanders live far from hospitals and the population is ageing. As Business Insight reported ear-lier this year, it is an open secret that a multinational consumer electronics firm based in the Indian subcontinent has been negotiating with a consortium from NHS Highland, a company in Inverness, and with UHI to develop a telehealthcare system for remote and dispersed popula-tions in Asia.

Pillar four: HIE recognises the scale of the opportunity and is helping to accelerate growth. An independent study found that most of the digital health and care develop-ment was associated more with northern and western Scottish health boards in the more rural and remoter areas.

Mindful that there are digital health and care strengths in locations such as Silicon Valley in California and in major life science regions, HIE asked consult-ants if anyone could lay claim to being ‘the world’s first digital healthcare cluster’.

“At that point — the start of 2012 — we were the only people who seemed to have enough confidence to say that we had a genuine digital health and care cluster,” says Dodsworth. Small though it may be, it is relatively perfectly formed.”

The heart of this emerging cluster in Highlands and Islands is the corridor from Inverness to Elgin, with Forres and Nairn figuring too.

HIE has contributed financially to developing the infrastructure through investments in: the Centre for Health Sci-ence, the new Inverness Campus, which is under development; and the £6.5 mil-lion Alexander Graham Bell Life Sciences Centre under construction in Elgin as Europe’s first digital healthcare centre, a partnership between HIE, the Scottish Government, NHS, Moray College, aca-demia and business.

HIE has also provided financial input for life science companies such as: For-res based AccuNostics, which designs, develops and makes advanced devices for diabetes self-monitoring and clinical use; and LifeScan, a 1,300 employee subsidiary of US healthcare giant Johnson & John-son, which has an international R&D and manufacturing base in Inverness for blood-glucose monitoring devices.

HIE has defined for itself a pivotal role as a facilitator and accelerator in bringing the cluster together and helping participants to see connections and potential for growth.

For example, it sponsored last week’s conference in Forres to discuss establish-ing digital health links between Scotland, Asia and Africa. Healthcare leaders from the UK, Africa and Asia met under the auspices of the Switzerland based United Nations Institute for Training and Re-search (UNITAR) to network, learn and innovate around the theme of improving health care locally, regionally, and world-wide through using information and communication technology.

The event, in association with NHS Grampian, showcased Moray ‘s collabo-rative approach to assisted living. It was

run locally by CIFAL Scotland, the only UNITAR affiliated training centre in northern Europe.

HIE is to hold another of its success-ful P4 digital events for the sector in late November, P4 being the umbrella term for predictive, preventative, personalised, and participatory medicine.

Developing a vision for the sector is one of the agency’s main aims. “We try to engage with those at the forefront of this field and bring the intelligence back

to the cluster,” Dodsworth says. It is one way of ensuring that location does not detract from opportunity or ambition.

“We’re living proof that the Highlands and Islands is a good place to develop a digital health business,” says Sitekit’s Campbell Grant. “We currently provide health services to 70 NHS Trusts in Eng-land, and there are advantages to being where we are. IT professionals change jobs very regularly throughout the world. It is harder to recruit here, but when we

HIE has provided financial input for companies that include international R&D facilities

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight6

commercial report: teleHealtH

IT was not so long ago that a Scarp islander in need of medi-cal attention would call on a brave volunteer to cross the winter-wild Sound to Harris for a doctor’s order to rush the

patient to hospital in Stornoway – via a rough open-boat crossing followed by a bumpy, draughty hours-long bus ride.

This did not always enhance surviv-al chances, and thankfully telephone-free Scarp has now been completely vacated. But there are still many places in Scotland that suffer from similar, if not so extreme, geographic circumstances – thankfully mitigated these days by the surge in sophisticated communications technology.

And now it seems – after being seen at its start as something of a nov-elty resisted by some clinicians – this modern phenomenon has reached a critical point of acceptance at which it can seriously begin to change the way healthcare is delivered.

Confusingly, there are no accepted standard definitions for telehealth and its close relations telecare, telemedi-cine, telemonitoring and e-health, but whatever the relevant variation on the theme, the idea of remotely transfer-ring health data from patient to doctor has become increasingly valued by health professionals. Not least the former Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon who claims Scotland is a world leader in the fast-moving development that she calls “one of the most exciting and important in health-care today”.

By simply transferring patients’ self-collected data from one location to another so that they can be monitored effectively, simply and inexpensively from afar, telehealth can help free hospital beds, taking physical and financial pressure off the NHS against a background of (on the upside) big improvements in people’s health and (the downside) less funds to build extra hospitals for the resulting ageing and growing population.

The long list of the system’s plus-points includes the reduction of visits to patients at home and of unplanned hospital admissions, quicker discharge of patients with long-term condi-tions, and allowing patients to become managers of their own health. They can take their own blood pressure, for example, and transmit readings over the telehealth hub to a monitoring centre where the data is assessed and treatment actioned if necessary.

The system’s own health depends, of course, on patients’ confidence in dealing with several levels of technology, from home and mobile phones through the computer to the condition-specific equipment supplied to them. And already many are on the same wavelength. These days 80 per cent of internet users look online for healthcare information about a disease or condition.

Pennie Taylor, a former BBC Scotland health correspondent who recently chaired a two-day summit on telehealth and telecare in Glasgow,

says: “In my view, the telehealth sys-tem is a vital ingredient in how we are going to be able to deliver healthcare into the future. It’s potentially enor-mous and very exciting.

“It’s been around for several years but I believe it has gained such mo-mentum that it has reached its accept-ance tipping point in Scotland – being now under the wing of NHS 24 which is pushing it hard. We’re learning from countries like Australia and Canada where they have real issues with ‘re-mote and rural’ – though in Scotland it’s also about urban. And generally it’s about making the most of scarce resources, because now you don’t need experts everywhere. You can be seen ‘virtually’ by leading experts very far from your home and you don’t need to leave your community. It’s very sweet.”

Ms Sturgeon was a star speaker at the Glasgow meeting, who observed that “if we don’t change the way we deliver care by the 2030s we would re-quire an additional ten new hospitals”. She was, of course, largely preaching to the converted, for also among the summit’s participants were people of long and thorough commitment to the idea – such as Saneth Wijayaratna, chief executive officer of InHealthcare, a renamed and expanded version of his self-started enterprise that was taken over by Harrogate-based InTechnology last March.

Initially undertaking research for asthma and diabetes products, he has worked in the medical device sector for 16 years and been instrumental in the development of the UK’s tel-ehealth market, delivering a range of projects into the NHS for the manage-ment of long-term conditions through telehealth solutions.

He is enthusiastic about the “excit-ing” scope offered by Scotland for his company, which he boldly calls “unique” in a UK field of about 20 firms offering sometimes limited vari-ations on the telehealth idea. Why? “Because we are the only fully-man-aged service provider in this particular industry with our accredited in-house N3 data services and connectivity capability.”

How does that actually show on the ground? “Take atrial fibrillation (AF)”, he says. “The early detection and treat-ment of AF through unique services like ours could reduce the stroke risks by up to 70 per cent, which – when you consider that the NHS treats and rehabilitates 200,000 stroke patients every year at an average cost of £22,000 each – is quite significant.

“Enabling as it is, we don’t allow ourselves to be limited by the technolo-gy. When the industry first started peo-ple just supplied boxes and the nurses didn’t know what to do with them. So we’re agnostic to the boxes, the pieces of kit. For us today, it’s actually about building care packages and applica-tions; more about giving clinicians the flexibility to create their own services, while using the concept of telehealth simply as a basic tool to take data from one place to another.

“We believe we have found the industry’s tipping point based upon how we come up with different types of managed applications and packages. So our help isn’t just about coping with long-term conditions. We’re actually supporting people with pregnancy or even obesity.”

Mr Wijayaratna explains that the ex-act equipment deployed into a patient’s home is determined by their doctor, but common options are: Blood pressure monitors, which also monitor heart rate as well as detect atrial fibrillation); pulse oximeters, which measure blood oxygen levels and heart rate; weight scales, which also measure body fat and body water percentages; and thermom-eters.

“We also offer two mechanisms of getting the readings back to the clini-cian and triage team – a home hub device which connects to the medi-cal devices (over USB or Bluetooth) then transmits the results back to InHealthcare over 3G; and the simple telephone.

“Our system calls the patient at a pre-agreed time and he or she then

enters the results over the phone. The advantages of this method are cost savings and suitability for short-term deployments – such as pre-eclampsia, a condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy.”

Bryn Sage, chief operating officer at parent company InTechnology says InHealthcare wants to break the cur-rent models for patient-led healthcare. “Many previous attempts to deliver tel-ehealth services have cost, and wasted, a lot of NHS money and not lived up to expectations, largely because they have

been product- rather than service-led. We have turned this around by devel-oping a Cloud-based solution that is device agnostic, built on open standards architecture software, verifiably cost-effective, and puts the patient first.”

Mr Sage believes that, correctly implemented, telehealth offers better patient care, drives positive behavioural change in patients with long-term ill-ness, and gives clinicians access to data directly from the patient’s own environ-ment, all of which offer the potential to change the way medicine is practised.

“Sure, the system might be about cutting costs,” he says, “but it also fundamentally improves the delivery of healthcare.”

Mr Wijayaratna is adamant that healthcare must remain a public service. “Telehealth simply makes it possible to automate and provide the infrastructure to make it work more ef-fectively,” he says, “It has the potential

to radically transform the NHS and delivery of healthcare to patients. It’s undoubtedly the future of sustainable, effective healthcare.

“After all, if you can provide a tool that both allows the patient to self-manage and clinical staff to manage a greater population of people through the one resource, you are seriously impacting on the big problems that are hitting the NHS at the moment – too few resources and increase in number of people living longer with long-term conditions.”

telehealth hits the sweet e-spot

Saneth Wijayaratna, chief executiveofficer of inHealthcare

inHealthcare’s triage is managed using a purpose-built telehealth portal designed by a leading health software specialists following substantial investment by intechnology

a patient recording their blood pressure at home

the ‘novelty’ of remote patient-doctor communication is growing up to seriously change healthcare delivery, learns rick Wilson

InHealthcare is a division of InTechnology, one of the UK’s leading service providers which delivers Cloud-based services to over 800 public and private sector businesses across the UK.

InTechnology has an unrivalled offering embracing Network, Hosting, Data, Voice and Unified Communications and is also the first UK provider to integrate hosted IP Telephony with Microsoft OCS and offer it as a fully managed, hosted service. What’s more the company have now added Hosted Exchange to provide a complete, unique and fully managed Unified Communications package.

Launched earlier this year, InHealthcare, is the UK’s first end-to-end managed telehealth service provider helping patients self-manage long-term conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure and strokes.

The launch of the new managed service comes in the wake of the cloud service provider’s recent investments in leading telehealth company United Telehealth (UTH) and Healthsolve, one of the country’s leaders in healthcare software.

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday September 25 2012 7

Scotland takes key role in e-health initiative

COMMERCIAL REPORT: UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

Professor Frank M Sullivan, Head Of Population Health Sciences, University of Dundee

Professor Andrew D Morris, Dean of Medicine, University of Dundee

WHO mostly suffers what - and where? Precise answers to that question would be hugely helpful in knowing how to target future medical

resources, and Scotland is a key player in a new £19million exercise aimed at harnessing relevant electronic data to that end.

Dundee University’s School of Medi-cine, based at Ninewells Hospital, is busily establishing one of four UK e-health research centres of excellence sharing the multi-charity investment announced early this year by the Medical Research Council.

The others are in London, Manchester and Swansea, and all four – now opening for business – will cooperate with each other to track geographically a range of conditions that afflict the UK population, such as diabetes and obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

As well as helping policymakers to aim specialist services, it is trusted that such data linkage will promote valuable progress in clini-cal research, and members of the E-Health Re-search Initiative funding the centres include the British Heart Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Cancer Research UK – whose Dr Fiona Reddington says: “This is an exciting time for e-health research as linking data be-comes an increasingly important and routine way in which science is undertaken.”

There is strong Scottish collaboration in

the exercise, bringing together scientific excel-lence and multiple researchers from the big six universities in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Strathclyde working in partnership with NHS Scotland. By linking e-health records with other forms of research and routinely collected clinical and social data, the researchers aim to identify and direct more effective treatments to lead to greater patient and public benefit and ensure the UK remains at the forefront of global medical research.

The three Scottish prime movers behind ‘Operation E-health’ are Professor Andrew Morris, Dean of Medicine at Dundee and the new Chief Scientist for Scotland, Glasgow University’s Professor Jill Pell, and Professor Frank Sullivan, of the Division of Population Health Science, who heads the day-to-day operation with its eight programmers working alongside ranks of academics in a dedicated centre at Ninewells.

“Scotland has the coordinating role for all four of the UK centres,” says Professor Sullivan, “so we have perhaps a little more money than the others; for apart from building up the resource there’s also an issue about training graduates in ways of analysing the data and making sure they are fully aware of security and confidentiality. We’re not going to release data to any researcher; they have to be approved to use the data in Scotland and part of that will involve doing a course and

assessment to see they have understood the principles.”

Within such robust, self-imposed confiden-tiality safeguards, among the Dundee team’s sources will be data sets available through the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a newly established £60million service.

Dundee has been well prepared for this, its long leading position in the field having been credited to Dr Ronnie Graham, director of public health in 1977, who introduced the unique patient identifier into NHS Tayside – a set of personal characters by which an individual can be recognised – setting it up for records linkage and e-health research.

As Professor Morris says: “This develop-ment builds on more than 40 years’ experience of using electronic patient records, not only to drive improvements in the quality of health care but also to innovate in the way we deliver clinical trials and discover the best treatment options for patients and communities.”

One of its key objects, he adds, “is to help the UK set an international standard for the safe and secure use of the electronic health information critical to the quality of care at patient and population level”.

So where is e-health taking us? “It is head-ing towards a world of personalised medicine where the right treatment is given to the right patient at the right time – to either prevent or treat the illnesses which challenge society today.”

do, they tend to stay with us through thick and thin. We have very loyal staff and that means you can form a much more per-sonal relationship with your customers.”

Innovative digital health and care com-panies throughout the UK, Sitekit among them, will receive a boost from the £10 million Delivery of Assisted Living and Lifestyles Scale (DALLAS) project co-funded in Scotland by the Scottish Gov-ernment, HIE, Scottish Enterprise and the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. Western Isles, Highland, and Moray will be test beds for healthcare services using distance

technologies such as phone and television.Grant was also positive about network-

ing. “We are also working with UHI and with Moray Health Partnership, which has a very open and innovative approach. A company needs customers who are champions willing to take a risk on in-novation, and that’s the culture that HIE and the health authorities here are try-ing to adopt. Public procurement depart-ments must be allowed to try something new. Don’t be a laggard, be a leader.”

Many legacy IT systems and databases in the health system are standalone, pos-ing problems with standards, formats, interoperability and information security for commercial sector interests develop-ing applications. DALLAS will help to identify and resolve some of these issues.

“But the move to personal health re-cords is the key to unlock this because if the individual becomes the owner of the data you don’t have the same issues of se-curity,” Grants says.

“The individual controls the data. It completely changes the paradigm. That’s why applications such as Microsoft

HealthVault and the eRedbook are so sig-nificant in unleashing digital healthcare.”

Sitekit’s story also points to strengths across Scotland. The company has a strong association with Edinburgh Napier University, which Grant rates as one of the most advanced institutions of its kind in digital health research and collaboration.

The University of Dundee was mean-while named recently as the location for one of four e-health research Centres of Excellence to be established in the UK with £19 million funding from a consor-tium of 10 UK government and char-ity funders led by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

The centre is schedules to open later this year will collaborate with others in London, Manchester, and Swansea to investigate conditions including diabe-tes and obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer and child and maternal health.

The project and the background to it are reported fully elsewhere in Busi-ness Insight. However, Professor Frank Sullivan, director of the Health Infor-matics Centre at the university, stressed that from December, the e-health centre would be contacting some 30,000 people in Dundee and Glasgow.

He is hoping that at least 10,000 who have been smoking for more than 20 years, or who have chronic bronchitis, will take part in a study drawing on their ex-isting health records in hopes of identify-ing ways to diagnose lung cancer earlier.

A breakthrough would be a potent example of the potential of the new e-health centres to improve the efficiency of research.

We’re living proof that the Highlands and Islands is a good placeto develop a digital health business

Fast app will help to manage illness‘Take a pill and download an app.’ Doctors could prescribe just that if trials using mobile phone apps to manage chronic illnesses in High-lands and Islands show economic and health benefits to patients.

An app from Forres software firm OpenBrolly will from December be trialled in studies by Profes-sor Angus Watson, a colorectal surgeon in Inverness and director of research at NHS Highland.

Frst use will be for patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — Crohn’s Disease and Ulcera-tive Colitis — to relay symptoms to a specialist nurse who will compare these with standard criteria, then will either phone with advice or arrange a quick appointment.

The pilot will involve 40 patients

for nearly a year. A plan is in place to scale up if benefits are proved: NHS Highland has 600 IBD patients. Watson said using an app for diabetes and airway diseases could follow.

“When we can scale this up, patients shouldn’t have to go for routine outpatient visits. It should free up outpatient capacity so if you really are unwell you should be able to see a specialist more quickly.”

Both diseases can progress quickly, so early intervention can improve things immeasurably for sufferers and save time and money

for patients, doctors, nurses and the NHS. Some sufferers in remote areas travel hours to see medical staff, sometimes unnecessarily.

Critically, the app integrates with core NHS hospital IT systems. “The

model is applicable to a lot of chronic health condi-tions,” says Geoff Wilcock, director, OpenBrolly. “So if we have an easy way to feed information into the NHS, it can roll out to other health boards in the UK and beyond.”

Wilcock estimates it will take at least another year before the app can move into production, and would like it tested by a variety of health authorities to be as versatile as possible by then.”

Campbell Grant of Sitekit says it is important for the individual to control their data

commercial report: teleHealtH

IT was not so long ago that a Scarp islander in need of medi-cal attention would call on a brave volunteer to cross the winter-wild Sound to Harris for a doctor’s order to rush the

patient to hospital in Stornoway – via a rough open-boat crossing followed by a bumpy, draughty hours-long bus ride.

This did not always enhance surviv-al chances, and thankfully telephone-free Scarp has now been completely vacated. But there are still many places in Scotland that suffer from similar, if not so extreme, geographic circumstances – thankfully mitigated these days by the surge in sophisticated communications technology.

And now it seems – after being seen at its start as something of a nov-elty resisted by some clinicians – this modern phenomenon has reached a critical point of acceptance at which it can seriously begin to change the way healthcare is delivered.

Confusingly, there are no accepted standard definitions for telehealth and its close relations telecare, telemedi-cine, telemonitoring and e-health, but whatever the relevant variation on the theme, the idea of remotely transfer-ring health data from patient to doctor has become increasingly valued by health professionals. Not least the former Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon who claims Scotland is a world leader in the fast-moving development that she calls “one of the most exciting and important in health-care today”.

By simply transferring patients’ self-collected data from one location to another so that they can be monitored effectively, simply and inexpensively from afar, telehealth can help free hospital beds, taking physical and financial pressure off the NHS against a background of (on the upside) big improvements in people’s health and (the downside) less funds to build extra hospitals for the resulting ageing and growing population.

The long list of the system’s plus-points includes the reduction of visits to patients at home and of unplanned hospital admissions, quicker discharge of patients with long-term condi-tions, and allowing patients to become managers of their own health. They can take their own blood pressure, for example, and transmit readings over the telehealth hub to a monitoring centre where the data is assessed and treatment actioned if necessary.

The system’s own health depends, of course, on patients’ confidence in dealing with several levels of technology, from home and mobile phones through the computer to the condition-specific equipment supplied to them. And already many are on the same wavelength. These days 80 per cent of internet users look online for healthcare information about a disease or condition.

Pennie Taylor, a former BBC Scotland health correspondent who recently chaired a two-day summit on telehealth and telecare in Glasgow,

says: “In my view, the telehealth sys-tem is a vital ingredient in how we are going to be able to deliver healthcare into the future. It’s potentially enor-mous and very exciting.

“It’s been around for several years but I believe it has gained such mo-mentum that it has reached its accept-ance tipping point in Scotland – being now under the wing of NHS 24 which is pushing it hard. We’re learning from countries like Australia and Canada where they have real issues with ‘re-mote and rural’ – though in Scotland it’s also about urban. And generally it’s about making the most of scarce resources, because now you don’t need experts everywhere. You can be seen ‘virtually’ by leading experts very far from your home and you don’t need to leave your community. It’s very sweet.”

Ms Sturgeon was a star speaker at the Glasgow meeting, who observed that “if we don’t change the way we deliver care by the 2030s we would re-quire an additional ten new hospitals”. She was, of course, largely preaching to the converted, for also among the summit’s participants were people of long and thorough commitment to the idea – such as Saneth Wijayaratna, chief executive officer of InHealthcare, a renamed and expanded version of his self-started enterprise that was taken over by Harrogate-based InTechnology last March.

Initially undertaking research for asthma and diabetes products, he has worked in the medical device sector for 16 years and been instrumental in the development of the UK’s tel-ehealth market, delivering a range of projects into the NHS for the manage-ment of long-term conditions through telehealth solutions.

He is enthusiastic about the “excit-ing” scope offered by Scotland for his company, which he boldly calls “unique” in a UK field of about 20 firms offering sometimes limited vari-ations on the telehealth idea. Why? “Because we are the only fully-man-aged service provider in this particular industry with our accredited in-house N3 data services and connectivity capability.”

How does that actually show on the ground? “Take atrial fibrillation (AF)”, he says. “The early detection and treat-ment of AF through unique services like ours could reduce the stroke risks by up to 70 per cent, which – when you consider that the NHS treats and rehabilitates 200,000 stroke patients every year at an average cost of £22,000 each – is quite significant.

“Enabling as it is, we don’t allow ourselves to be limited by the technolo-gy. When the industry first started peo-ple just supplied boxes and the nurses didn’t know what to do with them. So we’re agnostic to the boxes, the pieces of kit. For us today, it’s actually about building care packages and applica-tions; more about giving clinicians the flexibility to create their own services, while using the concept of telehealth simply as a basic tool to take data from one place to another.

“We believe we have found the industry’s tipping point based upon how we come up with different types of managed applications and packages. So our help isn’t just about coping with long-term conditions. We’re actually supporting people with pregnancy or even obesity.”

Mr Wijayaratna explains that the ex-act equipment deployed into a patient’s home is determined by their doctor, but common options are: Blood pressure monitors, which also monitor heart rate as well as detect atrial fibrillation); pulse oximeters, which measure blood oxygen levels and heart rate; weight scales, which also measure body fat and body water percentages; and thermom-eters.

“We also offer two mechanisms of getting the readings back to the clini-cian and triage team – a home hub device which connects to the medi-cal devices (over USB or Bluetooth) then transmits the results back to InHealthcare over 3G; and the simple telephone.

“Our system calls the patient at a pre-agreed time and he or she then

enters the results over the phone. The advantages of this method are cost savings and suitability for short-term deployments – such as pre-eclampsia, a condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy.”

Bryn Sage, chief operating officer at parent company InTechnology says InHealthcare wants to break the cur-rent models for patient-led healthcare. “Many previous attempts to deliver tel-ehealth services have cost, and wasted, a lot of NHS money and not lived up to expectations, largely because they have

been product- rather than service-led. We have turned this around by devel-oping a Cloud-based solution that is device agnostic, built on open standards architecture software, verifiably cost-effective, and puts the patient first.”

Mr Sage believes that, correctly implemented, telehealth offers better patient care, drives positive behavioural change in patients with long-term ill-ness, and gives clinicians access to data directly from the patient’s own environ-ment, all of which offer the potential to change the way medicine is practised.

“Sure, the system might be about cutting costs,” he says, “but it also fundamentally improves the delivery of healthcare.”

Mr Wijayaratna is adamant that healthcare must remain a public service. “Telehealth simply makes it possible to automate and provide the infrastructure to make it work more ef-fectively,” he says, “It has the potential

to radically transform the NHS and delivery of healthcare to patients. It’s undoubtedly the future of sustainable, effective healthcare.

“After all, if you can provide a tool that both allows the patient to self-manage and clinical staff to manage a greater population of people through the one resource, you are seriously impacting on the big problems that are hitting the NHS at the moment – too few resources and increase in number of people living longer with long-term conditions.”

telehealth hits the sweet e-spot

Saneth Wijayaratna, chief executiveofficer of inHealthcare

inHealthcare’s triage is managed using a purpose-built telehealth portal designed by a leading health software specialists following substantial investment by intechnology

a patient recording their blood pressure at home

the ‘novelty’ of remote patient-doctor communication is growing up to seriously change healthcare delivery, learns rick Wilson

InHealthcare is a division of InTechnology, one of the UK’s leading service providers which delivers Cloud-based services to over 800 public and private sector businesses across the UK.

InTechnology has an unrivalled offering embracing Network, Hosting, Data, Voice and Unified Communications and is also the first UK provider to integrate hosted IP Telephony with Microsoft OCS and offer it as a fully managed, hosted service. What’s more the company have now added Hosted Exchange to provide a complete, unique and fully managed Unified Communications package.

Launched earlier this year, InHealthcare, is the UK’s first end-to-end managed telehealth service provider helping patients self-manage long-term conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure and strokes.

The launch of the new managed service comes in the wake of the cloud service provider’s recent investments in leading telehealth company United Telehealth (UTH) and Healthsolve, one of the country’s leaders in healthcare software.

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight8

IT would be fair to say that top rank-ing legal firm Brodies LLP has a unique selling point. At a time of economic turbulence, which has seen some rivals merging with firms down south, Brodies has stayed true to its roots, retaining a solid Scot-land-focused approach. It is, in fact, the only member of the re-defined Scottish ‘big four’ to do so.

And it appears to be paying dividends, with Brodies experiencing a 16 per cent turnover increase in 2011-2012, and deliv-ering a 22 per cent increase in operating profits. It is now the largest law firm in Scotland, having doubled its staff over the past five years to just over 500, and it has achieved numerous top rankings in highly regarded independent directories such as the Legal 500. Brodies was also named the Scotland Law Firm of the Year 2012 in the Who’s Who Legal Awards and is home to Clare Munro, the firm’s head of oil and gas, and the only Scotland-based lawyer to be included in The Lawyer’s 2012 ‘Hot 100’ list of the rising stars of the UK profession.

Managing partner Bill Drummond could be forgiven for feeling a sense of self-satisfaction, however such an emo-tion is most definitely not part of his makeup. The man whose guidance has contributed significantly to Brodies’ suc-cess since he was first elected managing partner 14 years ago is the first to admit that the strategy which has achieved so much for his firm might not suit others.

“The strategy that we’ve adopted is ap-propriate for our clients and the law firms that we work with internationally. Other firms have different clients and different notions of what’s required for them. They might be right but I like to think that for us, our clients, and our partners in the legal sector, we have adopted the correct approach.”

He continues: “There are a number of words we ban at Brodies and one of those is ‘consolidation’ which suggests that you’ve arrived at your destination and are, to some extent, prepared to rest on your laurels. I don’t think anyone in our client base sees the world that way. We refuse to accept any sense of being some-thing that could not be improved upon. We’re constantly looking at how we can deliver even better services.”

Unlike many of the other leading Scot-tish law firms, which have opened offices in London, Brodies has instead concen-trated on expanding within Scotland, opening an office in Aberdeen in 2011, where it offers its full range of legal ser-vices, including expertise in the oil, gas and wider energy sector.

There has also been a foray on to foreign soil, with the establishment of a Brussels office last year, but this doesn’t signal any more expansion plans over-seas, Drummond explains.

“Brussels is the epicentre of the legal system operating in the context of Euro-pean law and I don’t really think we see

that as foreign. For us, opening an office in the heart of Europe is all about helping our Scottish clients respond to the grow-ing impact of EU law on their day-to-day business at home and abroad.”

Drummond says Brodies has no plans to follow the likes of Archibald Camp-bell & Harley and McGrigors in merging with southern firms. “London is a mas-sive power-house location of the biggest law firms in the world. It has never made sense to us to go and compete for a little bit of market share in London, when we can work with the City practices to help clients with their Scottish business.

“We really see it as a question of in-vestment priority. We want to be seen as capable in our own jurisdiction and economy, while also being open to do-ing business with law firms in places such as London and New York. We hope that we’re regarded as a law firm that really understands the issues that their clients face north of the border.”

Drummond adds: “Clients come first in our strategic planning process and we’ve never had a client say to us: ‘You really need to move to London.’ We’ve always found plenty of support for our strategy of continuing to develop services in our existing locations, rather than diluting our investment capability by going outside of Scotland.”

With the Scottish referendum looming, Brodies could be well placed to benefit from business opportunities if the na-tion voted for independence. Drummond doesn’t, however, view Brodies as any different from other organisations with significant operations in this country. “I don’t necessarily see us having a par-ticular advantage because we’re solely in Scotland, should the Scottish people vote for independence. I am, however, very

confident about the Scottish economy, whatever is decided in 2014.

“I really do think that we’re a very sta-ble, enterprising economy, with tremen-dous future potential. I certainly believe that investment, whether it’s investment in law firms, other legal opportunities, or in any one of the very active sectors in Scot-land, is giving us a considerable advantage.

“I hope the individuals and organisa-tions in the wide number of sectors that Brodies is involved in recognise that we’ve made consistent investment in Scotland and its future, and that they see this as a good thing.”

A background spent in locations including Nairn, Orkney, North Berwick and Aberdeen, gave Drummond a pas-sion for his country and also fostered a broad outlook. “When people ask me where I come from, I say I kind of just come from Scotland,” he laughs.

Born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Drummond’s legal degree was gained at Aberdeen University and, in a year of raising his mortgage down-payment, he spent spells in Shetland, where he drove taxis, and worked on farms and building sites in the central belt, entering his profession in 1980 as an apprentice lawyer at Brodies.

“There are many people in business and law, who might well have grown up, gone to school and then worked in the same city. It’s pretty much the opposite for me. I lived and studied all over Scot-land,” he says.

“I think perhaps you become receptive to lots of change if you’ve moved around a bit. You keep your eyes open; you see what’s going on — where people are working hard in our economy to make a difference.”

As deputy chair of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, Scotland’s

Managing partner Bill Drummond tells Heidi Soholt why Brodies has stayed true to its roots

leading economic development organisa-tion, Drummond has good insight into the wider economy.

“I don’t see myself only as a lawyer,” he says, “it’s not really possible to do that when your clients have huge stakehold-ings in the Scottish economy. It’s neces-sary for someone with my role in a law firm to try to understand what is affecting clients and happening to them.

“You can’t just sit in your firm and do law and think you can understand what’s important to those people or organisa-tions. I feel it’s important for me to get out there and play an active role in the wider business community. If having moved around a lot in my life has led me to take this view, I don’t know, but it’s kind of where I’ve ended up.”

Drummond admits that retaining a strong presence internationally can be challenging for a Scotland-focused firm, and that directories such as the Legal 500 are an important means of communicat-ing Brodies’ strength and expertise to a wider audience.

“We see the Legal 500 as very impor-tant. It casts a light on our particular strengths as a firm and we take such in-dependent directories very seriously.

“Unless you communicate how you see yourself, and give clients access to rec-ommendations or comments about you, then I don’t think your capabilities are very clear. You might otherwise be a se-cret to yourself — and some lawyers are very good at that.”

Well, the way Brodies is going, there’s certainly no immediate danger of being overlooked. And if the firm has adopted a distinctive strategy in the Scottish legal market, then it hasn’t done it any harm. As Drummond says: “No one’s told us yet that we’ve got it completely wrong!”

I really do think we’re a stable, enterprising economy with tremendous potential

Special report

Firm beliefsBill Drummond has led Brodies since 1998 to become the largest legal firm in Scotland, supporting a diverse range of public and private sector clients active across all key areas of the Scottish economy and a growing UK and international client list.

Drummond was re-elected in May 2010 as Managing Partner for a fifth consecutive term. When he was first elected to run the business at the age of 39, Brodies had one office in Edin-burgh and 170 staff. It now has more than 500 lawyers and support staff in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and last year became the only Scottish law firm with an office in Brussels.

It was named Scotland Law Firm of the Year 2012 by Who’s Who Legal in its annual awards and last year was named UK Regional/National Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards and ranked the top firm in Scotland for quality of legal advice in The Legal Week Client Satisfaction Report.

2012 also saw Brodies report a 16% increase in turnover to £42.8m and a 22% rise in operating profits before partner distributions to £17.6m.

Drummond’s commitment to Scot-tish economic progress is illustrated by his service as a Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) Executive Committee and/or Board member for the past eight years. He was re-elected Deputy Chairman of SCDI in March 2012 for a third term.

When success begins at home

Bill Drummond wants Brodies to be seen to be capable in Scotland, while doing business with law firms in London or New York

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday September 25 2012 9

9

Under the scrutinyof the law

A reference tool for buyers of legal services over the past 25 years, The Legal 500 is now the most

in-depth survey of the UK legal market, says Barry McDonald

Each year, The Legal 500 writes to firms inviting them to pro-vide information on their specialist practice areas, and request-ing specific details of work undertaken in the preceding year. This approach gives a stand-

ard level and quality of data which, in turn, enables the researchers to benchmark legal services providers with both more precision and greater assurance.

Researchers analyse the practices of more than 1,000 law firms, and more than 220 sets of barristers’ chambers and the UK edition has evolved from a pock-et-sized paperback attempting to demys-tify a closed profession into a 1,600-page volume analysing some 1,000 law firms across 100 separate practice areas.

Looking back at the dusty inaugural Scottish chapter, some major law firm names are unchanged, as much as they have developed in size, character and out-look since: Dundas & Wilson, Shepherd and Wedderburn, Brodies, Maclay Murray & Spens and (W&J) Burness all feature.

The landscape for the provision of legal services has changed fundamentally and irrevocably in the time since the in-augural edition, with today’s lawyers (and management partners) facing a host of new challenges and opportunities. Develop-ments in IT and the advent of the internet and social networking have transformed the way in which firms do business. The economic crisis has intensified the focus on efficiency and value for money.

Clients demand that firms move beyond classic, billable-hours models into more client-friendly, less inefficient alternatives. Corporate and social responsibility is more important than ever. Workplace dynamics

are changing, and the demand for flexible working conditions is on the increase.

Legal process outsourcing, onshore and offshore, is proliferating. The regu-latory changes heralded by the Legal Services Act allow for the introduction of Alternative Business Stuctures to the market. Not to mention the impact of possible Scottish independence.

More than 18,000 copies of The Le-gal 500 United Kingdom are distributed every year, although it is to the website at www.legal500.com that many clients now turn, with some 300,000 users per month and four million visits each year. To cel-ebrate the publication’s 25th anniversary we focus here on some key sectors and highlight those top ranking firms.

CORPORATE AND COMMERCIAL

Corporate and commercial Edinburgh and GlasgowCorporate finance boutique Dickson Minto WS has established a deep practice in the private equity market, and in 2011 commercial property specialist Ewan Gil-christ advised Dunedin on its £44 million buyout of Red Commerce.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP’s strong in-stitutional client base — including RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, among oth-ers — has been a core driver of its success in the transactional space.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP main-tained a high transactional workload, including acting for Associated Seafoods Limited in a £12.9 million investment by Scottish Seafood Investments.

Pinsent Masons LLP’s merger with McGrigors LLP married the firms’ strengths in the energy sector. In 2011, the former McGrigors team represented PSN in its £607 million merger with John Wood Group.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s corpo-

rate practice has strengths in the energy, natural resources, finance, real estate and infrastructure sectors. Corporate taxMaclay Murray & Spens LLP’s corpo-rate tax practice brings together legal and chartered accountancy expertise, with the combined offering making it “as good as, if not better than, the Big Four accounting firms and the Magic Circle”. EU and competitionMaclay Murray & Spens LLP provides “faultlessly useable advice’” Michael Dean and two other partners cover the full gamut of competition law matters, from merger clearances to complex investigations.

Gordon Downie’s competition team at Shepherd and Wedderburn acted for Lothian Buses in securing interim orders from the Court of Session against Edin-burgh Airport in relation to its plans to award an exclusive right to operate a bus service between the airport and Edin-burgh city centre.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Commercial litigationBrodies LLP fields one of Scotland’s largest litigation teams, which grew fur-ther with the opening of the Aberdeen office in 2011 and the recruitment of marine specialist Malcolm Mackay from Balfour+Manson LLP bringing the num-ber of partners up to 14.

Burness LLP’s “simply outstanding” dispute resolution team acted for Baxters Food Group in proceedings against its former Irish distributor in 2011.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP’s conten-tious expertise spans finance, corporate insolvency, fraud and regulatory mat-ters, and clients of the team include RBS, Scottish & Southern Energy and the Uni-versity of Glasgow while Pinsent Masons

LLP gained a market-leading litigation practice from McGrigors LLP. The team acted for McMullen Group Holdings in a multimillion-pound dispute with a share-holder over a share purchase agreement before the Court of Session.

FINANCE

Banking and finance Dickson Minto WS is a quietly dominant presence in the Scottish marketplace, with a leading reputation for leveraged and acquisition finance. Practice co-heads Colin McHale and Allan Fraser are highly recommended.

“One of the top legal firms in Scot-land for banking and finance’, Dundas & Wilson CS LLP “routinely outperforms others on both service and value”. Caryn Penley’s team advised Barclays Bank on providing £150 million of facili-ties to Guernsey-based property fund UK Commercial Property Trust.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP’s finance team is noted for its “expert knowledge and useful, constructive advice,” particu-larly its “detailed knowledge of PFI pro-jects and bank requirements”.

The merger between McGrigors LLP and Pinsent Masons LLP created a team with “first-class knowledge” in the infra-structure and renewable energy sectors. Insolvency and corporate recoveryBrodies LLP’s leading corporate recovery practice “combines sound advice with a realistic approach to fees”. Ten partners and 14 other lawyers provide dedicated expertise for a broad spectrum of clients, and in 2011 it acted for Ernst & Young in the politically sensitive administration of Skylon Campbeltown Limited.

Burness LLP fields “a small but strong team, particularly when it comes to con-tentious matters”. It gained as new clients

Special reportLegal 500

Lord Bracadale at a murder trial in Edinburgh earlier this year which made a UK first, when a sentencing at the High Court was broadcast

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight10

AN honourable men-tion in the Legal 500, a new offi ce just opened in London, business emphatically growing, and a still-

expanding insurance litigation team…What’s the secret of such success in

these recessionary times? Conspicu-ously talented people seem to be the answer. “Our people are the key to our ability to deliver excellent legal services” is the conviction boldly expressed in the marketing message of HBM Sayers, headquartered in central Glasgow and fi rmly focused on insur-ance litigation.

The fi rm, which has recently been named Litigation Firm of the Year at the Law Awards of Scotland, is rated as a fi rst tier fi rm within Personal In-jury (Defender) in the latest Legal 500 and is said by this valued and objective industry observer to provide “superb” service backed up by “outstanding” industry knowledge.

Five of its partners’ skills are well ac-knowledged in the up-summing, which says Alastair Leggat and Andrew Gilmour demonstrate “deep knowledge and the ability to achieve excellent results”, John Morrison is “brilliant”,

David Taylor shows “superb attention to detail”, and Rachel Rough is “ap-proachable and always able to help”.

There are 106 staff due to share the credit, of course, according to that fi rst assertion. And if the fi rm’s success is built on the quality of its people, that is based not only on shrewd selection but also on rigorous in-house training.

As one who went through that training herself between 2001 and 2003, partner Rachel Rough says: “We are looking for not just the brightest candidates who can write a good letter but those we feel will fi t in. People who can speak with the clients in a way they can understand. And then we put them through a two-year train-eeship which gives them a lot of direct responsibility – overseen by partners, of course.”

Her colleague Andrew Gilmour – another partner – points out that HBM Sayers received the Investors in People award a few years ago “in recog-nition of our recruitment and training processes”.

But much as they value the time-honoured human element in winning and maintaining clients, Mr Gilmour is quick to point out the mechanisms by which clients assess

the fi rm’s services are increasingly scientifi c: “It means we are working with insurance companies seeking to harness technology to help them run their business – and in that spirit, we provide them with a wide range of analytical data.”

The fi rm was formed in 1999 with the merger of two well-established Glasgow law fi rms – Hamilton Burns & Moore and Cochran Sayers & Cook. Each already had a reputation for insurance law and litigation. Post-merger, the insurance focus strength-ened further, so that HBM Sayers now claims to be “the fi rm of choice in Scotland” when it comes to skills and experience acting for insurers in high-value personal injury claims and high-profi le incidents involving multiple injuries or deaths – such as the Ibrox football stadium disaster, Piper Alpha, the Stockline factory explosion, and the Rosepark Care Home fi re.

And if current legal systems need looking at again, the fi rm stands ready to question them. It recently success-fully challenged the way civil juries reach their verdict in personal injury actions in Scotland, thus ensuring greater consistency in the levels of damages awards.

In terms of infl uence, the fi rm regularly contributes to governmental consultations and has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament in relation to proposed legislation, actively par-ticipating, for instance, in the review of the Civil Justice system. And it continues to lobby the Scottish Gov-ernment on resultant matters such as the Scottish Civil Justice Council and Scottish Courts Bill, “our aim being to refi ne our processes to ensure we can respond to any reforms in a way that gives best service to our clients”.

The fi rm is also helping its insurer clients coordinate their response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation into the personal injury Discount Rate, “an issue of critical importance to our cli-ents as any reduction in the discount rate will have a signifi cant impact on damages paid by them”.

Where people are an assurance of success

COMMERCIAL REPORT: HBM SAYERS

Andrew Gilmour, Partner, Insurance Litigation Department, HBM Sayers

Rachel Rough, Partner, Insurance Litigation Department, HBM Sayers

HBM Sayers provides ‘superb’ service and has ‘outstanding’ industry knowledge. Alastair Leggat and Andrew Gilmour demonstrate deep knowledge and the ability to achieve excellent results: John Morrison is ‘brilliant’; David Taylor shows superb attention to detail and Rachel Rough is ‘approachable and always able to help’.

- Legal 500 , 2012

Legal 500Royal Bank of Scotland Global Restruc-turing and Santander, joined existing cli-ents such as Grant Thornton and Lloyds Banking Group.

DLA Piper Scotland LLP’s clients par-ticularly appreciate the team’s “heavy partner involvement and great depth of expertise”. Its client base encompasses major financial institutions such as Bar-clays and Clydesdale Bank, and account-ancy firms such as KPMG.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP’s Claire Massie provides “outstanding technical advice and innovative ideas on transac-tion structuring”.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s track re-cord in the Scottish market runs long and deep, and practice head Paul Hally has 26 years’ restructuring experience. Unit trusts, OEICs and investment trustsDickson Minto WS’ leading corporate finance practice extends to work for in-vestment fund managers such as Artemis and Baillie Gifford.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP provides “excellent overall service’ in the invest-ment trust arena, encompassing fund for-mation and regulatory matters for man-agers such as Franklin Templeton Global Investors and institutional clients such as Lloyds Banking Group.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP repre-sents some 30 listed investment funds as well as a broad range of alternative, onshore and offshore retail funds. PensionsDundas & Wilson CS LLP recently rep-resented the University of Glasgow at the Court of Session, winning dismissal of a £1.5 million exit debt claim brought by the

City of Edinburgh Council on behalf of Lothian Pension Fund.

The team at Pinsent Masons LLP gives “practical, commercial and understanda-ble advice”, and practice head Ian Gordon is “excellent”.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s clients in-clude Scottish Widows Retirement Ben-efits Scheme and Universal Music Group Pension Scheme.

INSURANCE

Medical negligence: pursuerAnderson Strathern remains a leader in the field, and has two accredited specialists in medical negligence. The team is “responsive, sensible, organ-ised, experienced and a pleasure to work with”.

Balfour+Manson LLP’s team is led by Fred Tyler, who is an expert in clinical negligence cases relating to births.

Accredited specialist Liesa Spiller leads Drummond Miller LLP’s clinical negli-gence practice, which acts solely for pur-suers.Medical negligence: defenderAnderson Strathern acts for the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council, and also recently represented the General Pharmaceutical Council.

bto’s “excellent” team has particular experience in FAIs, and shows ‘impres-sive consistency’; it produces ‘the highest calibre of work, quickly and often at short notice’. Personal injury: pursuerBalfour+Manson LLP’s “excellent” team has experience in offshore matters and

fatal injuries. Practice head Fred Tyler and Louise Duffy are “good negotiators” and “extremely well organised and per-sonable with clients”.

Brodies LLP’s personal injury team “always strives to offer its clients the best possible advice”. The group works for a significant number of referrers, such as National Accident Helpline and Accident Advice Helpline.

Digby Brown LLP is a specialist per-sonal injury firm with particular exper-tise in high-value spinal and brain injury claims.

Thompsons acts solely for pursuers. This “strong” team has a large trade un-ion client base and “good case manage-ment” skills. Personal injury: defenderHBM Sayers provides “superb” service and has “outstanding” industry knowl-edge. Alastair Leggat and Andrew Gil-mour demonstrate “deep knowledge and the ability to achieve excellent results”; John Morrison is “brilliant”; David Tay-lor shows “superb attention to detail”; and Rachel Rough is “approachable and always able to help”.

Simpson & Marwick’s clients are “impressed by its professional and co-operative manner”, and “appropriate and well-researched advice”.Professional negligencebto’s team has particular experience in acting for insurers in investigating claims made against solicitors for alleged breach of contract or negligence.

Brodies LLP, which acts for pursuers and defenders, provides a “high standard” of service and has “a sympathetic ap-

proach”. New clients include Zurich, Axis and Pink Home Loans.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP has seen an increasing number of claims against solicitors and surveyors arising from the downturn in the property market.

Simpson & Marwick acts for a range of professionals including surveyors, building contractors and engineers, and also insurer clients that include Zurich and Hiscox.

“We are delighted to have achieved top rankings in many key disciplines in litigation across the spectrum of dispute resolution. This gives an estalished legal kite mark of expertise and is testament to the service we deliver on each and every assignment we undertake.”

— David Armstrong, Head of Litigation, Brodies LLP

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday September 25 2012 11

LIKE an oasis of calm sur-rounded by the hustle and bustle of modern Glasgow, the Royal Faculty of Procura-tors’ large law library in its elegant Georgian building on

Nelson Mandela Place is like something from another, less frenetic age.

And in many ways it is. The Faculty itself is a collegiate body which has been representing the interests of its members for over 340 years. It continues to serve the legal profession in Glasgow and west central Scotland by providing a range of services, one of the main ones being access to its fi ne library of signifi cant holdings established in 1817. But it’s not just about grand old books.

The Royal Faculty of Procurators is also very much a dynamic and forward

thinking organisation. You will fi nd the 21st century fi rmly established here, the library being equipped with wi-fi , online database access, CD Roms, and a social media presence.

As the library is the largest law library in the West of Scotland, it is central to the function of the Royal Faculty of Procurators and provides access, for members, to a fi rst-class collection of resources including legal texts, case re-ports and journals. Members can use the Royal Faculty building as a place for quiet study, away from the pressures of their offi ce, or as a place to meet and they can also request copies of library material to be emailed through to their desktops by using the document delivery service.

The Royal Faculty also offers a very well-regarded education programme

providing CPD seminars and conferences for solicitors and advocates. Increasingly these are being recorded and are being made available online to view remotely, which will be especially benefi tial to so-licitors who fi nd it diffi cult to travel to the seminars which the Royal Faculty hosts. Another strand of the Royal Faculty of Procurators’ education programme are the PEAT2 courses for trainees (which have been developed in conjunction with the Scottish Law Agents Society) and also free seminars and events for trainee and newly qualifi ed solicitors (through the Royal Faculty’s TANQ Society).

The Royal Faculty has been providing a highly regarded, reliable and independ-ent auditor service for the legal profession since 1844 - encompasing all aspects of executry and trust accounts with a very quick turn around time. The Auditor, Tom McCafferty (formerly Auditor at Glasgow Sheriff Court) has been in post for 6 months, bringing his considerable experience in all aspects of legal account-ing.

The Royal Faculty building which has been described as “one of the most exqui-site halls in the west of Scotland” – is also an incomparable city-centre venue for a wide variety of events. The Royal Faculty has fi ve rooms available for hire…• The Small Library or Dining Room

which can seat up to 10 people, provides an excellent venue with an historic ambience for meetings, lunches and dinner parties;

• The Coffee Lounge which provides a functional low-cost meeting room to accommodate up to 16 people seated;

• The Council Room, adjacent to the Small Library, which can be used on its own for board meetings or small semi-nars and can seat around 20 people;

• The Main Library, which is ideal for small dinner parties with seating for up to 25 people and can also host seminars with seating for up to 50 people; and…

• The Faculty Hall, which can accommo-date seating for up to 110 people and has been used by the Royal Faculty, member fi rms and a range of other institutions for a variety of functions, such as CPD seminars, dinners and cocktail parties.

Membership of the faculty is open to all solicitors who are members of the Law Society of Scotland, advocates and re-tired members of the legal profession, and

a number of different types of member-ship are available including Individual, Practice Unit Membership, Retired Membership, Student Membership and the Book Lending Scheme which gives fi rms practising outwith the Glasgow area access to the library.

Members of the faculty or their fi rms receive access to the library along with borrowing privileges; reduced rates for at-tendance at CPD seminars; reduced rates for the hire of halls within the faculty in addition to reduced rates for the Legal Vacancy Service; access to a discounted book scheme and various other preferen-tial rate schemes for members.

COMMERCIAL REPORT: ROYAL FACULTY OF PROCURATORS IN GLASGOW

4 Oct. 2012 The Offi ce of the Public Guardian: latest issues. Sandra McDonald (Public Guardian, Offi ce of the Public Guardian)

11 Oct. 2012 Social media in law practice: the bottom line. Steven Raeburn (Editor, The Firm)

18 Oct. 2012 Dark Clouds? - Aspects of Cyber Crime. Catherine Dyer (Crown Agent, COPFS)

24 Oct. 2012 Reparation ½-day Conference.

25 Oct. 2012 Preparation for and conduct of a Proof. Andrew Ireland (Partner, Andersons Solicitors LLP)

1 Nov. 2012 The Supreme Court decision in Gow v Grant. Kirsty Malcolm (Advocate, Murray Stable)

7 Nov. 2012 Criminal Law (½-day conference) Panel of 4 speakers (including Lord Carloway, Sheriff Charles Stoddart and Area Procurator Fiscal John Dunn)

8 Nov. 2012 Note your Notices or get Noticed. Donald Reid (Partner, Mitchells Roberton)

14 Nov. 2012 Contempt of Court. Sheriff Rita Rae, QC

The seminars qualify for 1.5 hours CPD (with the exception of the Criminal Law ½-day conference which qualifi es for 3 hours CPD). For further information on membership, booking seminars and courses please visit – www.rfpg.org • Twitter @RFPG2 or telephone the Library 0141 332 3593

Upcoming seminars in the current education programme include –

Legal library hosts a surprising social life

The Main Library at the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow which is located on Nelson Mandela Place

PRIVATE CLIENT

FamilyMorton Fraser has particular experience in high-value divorce and adoption cases, including international cases. It handles cases “sensitively, quickly, accurately and professionally”.

“One of the foremost family law firms in Scotland”, Sheehan Kelsey Oswald Family Law Specialists remains highly regarded despite the departure of Wendy

Sheehan to take up full-time office as a sheriff.

Turcan Connell provides “extremely efficient” service. Personal tax, trusts and executriesTurcan Connell remains a leader in the field, and demonstrates “in-depth knowl-edge of the industry, excellent customer service, and a strong team”. Douglas Con-nell is “a first-class private client lawyer” with “a client-friendly approach”, and Robin Fulton is “attentive and informed”.

REAL ESTATE

Commercial property Edinburgh and GlasgowBrodies LLP’s 23-partner team has “con-siderable depth of real estate knowledge”. In 2011 it acted for HSBC-managed InfraRed Capital Partners Limited on the acquisition, pre-letting, Scottish Enterprise grant funding and construc-tion of a newbuild distribution warehouse in Dunfermline.

Burness LLP’s real estate lawyers “make the client feel they have its best in-terests at the forefront”. In 2011, the team acted for Whole Foods Market on the lease of its first UK store outside London.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP is “entire-ly dedicated to delivering value-based solutions”, and acts for clients includ-ing Standard Life Investments and The Trump Organisation.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP’s clients are “consistently satisfied with the service provided” by its nine-partner commercial property team. In 2011 it represented the Universities Superannuation Scheme

Limited, the second-largest pension fund in the UK, in its £31.25 million acquisition of St John’s shopping centre in Perth.

Pinsent Masons LLP and McGrigors LLP’s combined commercial property of-fering in Scotland “compares well with London-based firms for level of service and attention to clients’ needs”.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s “strength in depth on property matters is second to none”. Nick Ryden’s team acted for RBS Hotel Investments Limited on its invest-ment sale of the Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel and the Glasgow Hilton Hotel. ConstructionMacRoberts LLP’s construction team provides “tailored industry and legal ad-vice promptly and to a consistently high standard”. In 2011 it acted for the Univer-sity of Strathclyde on the procurement of a new technology and innovation centre.

Pinsent Masons LLP’s construction team is “a leader in the field”, particularly for renewable energy projects, where it provides “well-considered, commercial advice that is second to none”. PlanningBrodies LLP’s “highly accessible” plan-ning team provides “confident, authori-tative advice in a timely fashion”, and is particularly noted for its expertise in drafting s75 planning obligations. In 2011 it acted for Loch Lomond & The Tros-sachs National Park Authority in relation to a proposed gold mine.

Dundas & Wilson CS LLP has a blue-chip client base that includes EDF and Lloyds Banking Group. In 2011 it advised the Trump Organisation on its £1 billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s “accessi-ble” planning team provides “measured and considered advice”. Recently, it acted for Taylor Wimpey in an appeal against Edinburgh Council’s refusal to grant planning permission for 75 homes in South Edinburgh. Property litigationBrodies LLP’s Stephen Goldie is many clients’ “first choice” for contentious prop-erty matters. In 2011, the firm acted for Aberdeen City Council in a case concern-ing the recovery of a seven-figure overage payment from Stewart Milne Group.

Burness LLP’s “very impressive” property litigation practice acted for Baronsgate Estates Limited in a multimil-lion-pound dilapidations claim, and was appointed exclusive Scottish real estate litigation adviser to Vodafone UK.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP’s property litigation team has “in-depth knowledge of the market”. Practice head Ewan Easton provides “a clear strat-egy that is always mindful of the client’s objectives”. In 2011, the team acted for Thus Group Holdings in challenging ar-bitration awards relating to the rent re-view of a national property portfolio.

Recent work for the team at Pinsent Masons LLP includes acting for Stewart Milne Group in a dispute with Aberdeen City Council relating to whether a profit-share payable to the council had been triggered.

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s property litigation team acted for EDI Central in a successful claim against National Car Parks Limited for enforcement of obliga-tions under a development agreement.

“Continued market surveillance enables us to respond to continuing flux in the Personal Injury marketplace and ensure that we can respond to any reforms in a way that gives our clients best service.”

—Andrew Gilmour, Partner,

Insurance Litigation Services,

HBM Sayers

JAMES GLOSSOP FOR THE TIMES

Tuesday September 25 2012 | the times

Business Insight12

commercial report: St aNDreWS SemiNar

Energy is not something you associ-ate immediately with tranquil St Andrews. Unless you count the hu-man variety expended on the clever placing of a little white ball; or the muscle power that Eric (Chariots of

Fire) Liddell drew upon when training along the town’s long, golden beach for the 1924 Olympics.

Nonetheless, for 30 years the famous Fife university town has provided a reflective haven for delegates to the annual UK Oil and Gas Law Seminar, and the latest batch of energy-focused legal experts is due to report in soon to the Old Course Hotel – where, between head-down learning sessions from 15 to 19 October, they might pick up on some other, more geographical connections.

Such as? The North Sea lapping around their feet is a reminder of Britain’s vital oil industry a little beyond the horizon, while the fair city of Dundee is a quick seagull flight up and across the nearby river Tay.

And Dundee is the key. Its University’s renowned Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) is the home, after all, of tightly-tailored degree offerings in International Oil & Gas Management – featuring a rich blend of business and management studies and practical skills in a programme that aims to have graduates hitting the ground running in energy industry management roles.

“While other universities’ degrees in natural resources focus on engineering solutions, we focus on law, policy and management, so we specifically produce people with Master of Laws (lawyers), energy economists, and managers for the oil, gas, mining and water industries,” says the gradu-ate school Dean, Ian Ball, adding with a hint of pride: “That’s what makes our offering unique.” The centre is thus supremely well qualified to stage this much-appreciated St Andrews event. Indeed, its clearly defined focus on energy law is so appreciated all over the world that sometimes as many as half of the 60 or 70 seminar attendees are from faraway lands, such as Brazil, China and Africa.

According to Penelope Warne, the seminar director who is head of energy with the global law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, “Energy is a vital factor in the global economy, accounting for some 10 per cent of GDP – significantly more than financial services, which represent only about 6 per cent. Energy, therefore, offers great opportunities for fascinating careers including lawyers!

“There are far too many generalist lawyers out there – more than we need – so we provide an op-portunity for lawyers to start a journey to become specialised in this most relevant of sectors where law, economics and geopolitics intermingle.”

The seminar’s targets are, specifically, law pro-fessionals looking to develop an insight into the UK legal and regulatory framework for the energy industry – including law firms, government ministries and regulatory bodies, international and non-government organisations, international oil and gas companies, national/state oil and gas organisations, oil and gas service companies, banks and investment firms, and students and

academics. They arrive less for

commercial contact and networking as for enlightenment on ever-developing new strands of energy law, with ses-sions and topics ranging from licensing through operational agreements to decommissioning. And however much they may be well-practised professionals, they are all acutely aware of ever-growing complexities – and that this seminar, with its

unique learning approach, makes a valuable focus on these.

“It’s the only seminar that is straightforwardly about teaching, where people actually keep their heads down and take notes,” says Ms Warne, who basically plans and puts the event together in her capacity as a trustee and honorary fellow of the centre. “And there are always plenty of new factors to learn.

“Some people might suppose that, because the North Sea is what you call a mature province – that we seem to have had it forever – oil and gas law is a very established body of law. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s very, very dynamic and it moves forward and changes every year.”

Presumably, major accidents have a bearing on this? “Yes, for example, the Macondo incident in the Gulf of Mexico has meant that our envi-ronmental and health and safety regulation has changed and that there are new ways of doing things. That’s just one aspect showing that noth-ing stands still; that things often have to be done in new and different ways.”

In that spirit, this year’s seminar will provide a keenly up-to-date intensive introduction to the statutory, contractual and regulatory environ-ment for the oil and gas sector and will factor in the challenges of change faced by the sector.

Among such topics to be addressed are: High oil prices extending the life of North Sea fields; cutting-edge technology and innovation, includ-ing new capping devices; changes to the legal and regulatory framework to take account of different needs; a growing emphasis on smaller companies exploring smaller fields; legal issues involved in extending the life of older fields; new players obtaining licences; decommissioning issues; and greater emphasis being placed on standard form documents.

Specifically, the seminar’s formal topics will be: Trading licence interests, decommissioning, drill-ing contracts, environment, farm-outs, FPSOs, gas agreements, gas sales, health and safety, JOAs, liabilities and indemnities, licence applications, model clauses, oil agreements, oil pricing, pipe-lines and terminals, production licensing, sole risk, taxation, and unitisation.

More than 20 expert speakers are scheduled to appear, and two high-profile examples of these are Paul Dymond, managing director of Oil & Gas

UK, and Warwick English, senior lawyer at Shell with 30 years’ experience as an oil and gas lawyer – who is also a trustee of the Dundee centre.

That she can pull in such names is testament to the strength of Penelope Warne’s presence in the UK energy law field. She practises in both the London office of CMS Cameron McKenna and its Aberdeen office, and advises on a broad range of oil and gas law and commercial work related to the oil industry. Her practice relates mainly to the UK Continental Shelf but she also under-takes international work, particularly in Houston, Brazil and Norway. She works closely with the firm’s Moscow, Warsaw and Edinburgh offices.

And she is an essential presence at the St Andrews event, according to Peter Cameron, director of the Centre.

“Thanks to Penelope’s network across the oil and gas industry, she can procure such high-profile speakers and mould the content of the presentations,” he says. “She leads the seminar all day for the whole week, providing additional teaching and industry perspectives linking the presentations to provide continuity to the del-egates, taking them from one subject to another and making the whole thing hang together.”

Taking the other director’s chair alongside Ms Warne is senior lecturer in energy law Stephen Dow, a graduate of the Dundee centre himself.

A solicitor, he took his Masters degree there after a period in private practice. He worked on post-privatisation regulation of energy indus-tries before being appointed to the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy in 1994. In addition to working on legal aspects of stranded investment in the energy sector, his research interests include oil and gas law. He also has an interest in the financing of energy projects.

Together, he and Ms Warne are confident of delivering another St Andrews success story, and if the responses of delegates to last year’s event are anything to go by, it seems likely that the seaside tradition will be around for good while longer. Here are a few of the comments:

“I found the seminar to be invaluable. The speakers were informative and extremely forth-coming with their knowledge and experiences.” – Janice Kon, Hess Oil & Gas Malaysia.

“An excellent, informative course providing a very good grounding to lawyers and contract advisers involved in the oil industry.” – David Henry, Centrica.

“I highly recommend the course to any profes-sional in the oil and gas industry who wants to learn more about not only the UK’s legal system but also the environmental, safety and political challenges that the sector is facing worldwide.” – Mercedes Gutierrez, Shell.

oiling the legal wheels of energySt andrews seminar lays down latest law to update global power experts

penelope Warne, head of energy at international law

firm cmS cameron mcKenna

tranquil setting for thoughts on a ‘very, very dynamic’ industry: east Sands, St andrews

UK Oil and Gas Law: St Andrews, 15-19 October 2012

Spread over five days, this seminar features leading experts from the oil and gas industry who will cover topics from licensing agreements and regulations through to decommissioning.

Who is it for?Professionals looking to develop an insight of the UK legal and regulatory framework for the oil and gas industry including legal firms, government ministries and regulatory bodies, international and nongovernment organisations, international oil and gas companies, national/State oil and gas organisations, oil and gas service companies, banks and investment firms and students and academics.

Why participate?This seminar provides an overview to the statutory, contractual and regulatory environment for the oil and gas sector and factors in issues and challenges faced by the sector:

• High oil prices extending the life of North Sea fields

• Recent and topical changes to the legal and regulatory framework

• an increasing emphasis on smaller companies exploring smaller fields

• legal issues involved in extending the life of older fields

• new players obtaining licenses• addressing decommissioning issues

changes in the approach of the UK government towards energy challenges and greater emphasis being placed on standard form documents

For further details and to registerplease contact:Hugh Gunn or Pamela LawrenceCentre for Energy, Petroleum and MineralLaw and PolicyT: +44 (0) 1382 385871 or+44 (0) 1382 388381E: c.seminars@dundee.ac.ukAlternatively, please visitwww.cepmlp.org/online

commercial report: St aNDreWS SemiNar

Energy is not something you associ-ate immediately with tranquil St Andrews. Unless you count the hu-man variety expended on the clever placing of a little white ball; or the muscle power that Eric (Chariots of

Fire) Liddell drew upon when training along the town’s long, golden beach for the 1924 Olympics.

Nonetheless, for 30 years the famous Fife university town has provided a reflective haven for delegates to the annual UK Oil and Gas Law Seminar, and the latest batch of energy-focused legal experts is due to report in soon to the Old Course Hotel – where, between head-down learning sessions from 15 to 19 October, they might pick up on some other, more geographical connections.

Such as? The North Sea lapping around their feet is a reminder of Britain’s vital oil industry a little beyond the horizon, while the fair city of Dundee is a quick seagull flight up and across the nearby river Tay.

And Dundee is the key. Its University’s renowned Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) is the home, after all, of tightly-tailored degree offerings in International Oil & Gas Management – featuring a rich blend of business and management studies and practical skills in a programme that aims to have graduates hitting the ground running in energy industry management roles.

“While other universities’ degrees in natural resources focus on engineering solutions, we focus on law, policy and management, so we specifically produce people with Master of Laws (lawyers), energy economists, and managers for the oil, gas, mining and water industries,” says the gradu-ate school Dean, Ian Ball, adding with a hint of pride: “That’s what makes our offering unique.” The centre is thus supremely well qualified to stage this much-appreciated St Andrews event. Indeed, its clearly defined focus on energy law is so appreciated all over the world that sometimes as many as half of the 60 or 70 seminar attendees are from faraway lands, such as Brazil, China and Africa.

According to Penelope Warne, the seminar director who is head of energy with the global law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, “Energy is a vital factor in the global economy, accounting for some 10 per cent of GDP – significantly more than financial services, which represent only about 6 per cent. Energy, therefore, offers great opportunities for fascinating careers including lawyers!

“There are far too many generalist lawyers out there – more than we need – so we provide an op-portunity for lawyers to start a journey to become specialised in this most relevant of sectors where law, economics and geopolitics intermingle.”

The seminar’s targets are, specifically, law pro-fessionals looking to develop an insight into the UK legal and regulatory framework for the energy industry – including law firms, government ministries and regulatory bodies, international and non-government organisations, international oil and gas companies, national/state oil and gas organisations, oil and gas service companies, banks and investment firms, and students and

academics. They arrive less for

commercial contact and networking as for enlightenment on ever-developing new strands of energy law, with ses-sions and topics ranging from licensing through operational agreements to decommissioning. And however much they may be well-practised professionals, they are all acutely aware of ever-growing complexities – and that this seminar, with its

unique learning approach, makes a valuable focus on these.

“It’s the only seminar that is straightforwardly about teaching, where people actually keep their heads down and take notes,” says Ms Warne, who basically plans and puts the event together in her capacity as a trustee and honorary fellow of the centre. “And there are always plenty of new factors to learn.

“Some people might suppose that, because the North Sea is what you call a mature province – that we seem to have had it forever – oil and gas law is a very established body of law. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s very, very dynamic and it moves forward and changes every year.”

Presumably, major accidents have a bearing on this? “Yes, for example, the Macondo incident in the Gulf of Mexico has meant that our envi-ronmental and health and safety regulation has changed and that there are new ways of doing things. That’s just one aspect showing that noth-ing stands still; that things often have to be done in new and different ways.”

In that spirit, this year’s seminar will provide a keenly up-to-date intensive introduction to the statutory, contractual and regulatory environ-ment for the oil and gas sector and will factor in the challenges of change faced by the sector.

Among such topics to be addressed are: High oil prices extending the life of North Sea fields; cutting-edge technology and innovation, includ-ing new capping devices; changes to the legal and regulatory framework to take account of different needs; a growing emphasis on smaller companies exploring smaller fields; legal issues involved in extending the life of older fields; new players obtaining licences; decommissioning issues; and greater emphasis being placed on standard form documents.

Specifically, the seminar’s formal topics will be: Trading licence interests, decommissioning, drill-ing contracts, environment, farm-outs, FPSOs, gas agreements, gas sales, health and safety, JOAs, liabilities and indemnities, licence applications, model clauses, oil agreements, oil pricing, pipe-lines and terminals, production licensing, sole risk, taxation, and unitisation.

More than 20 expert speakers are scheduled to appear, and two high-profile examples of these are Paul Dymond, managing director of Oil & Gas

UK, and Warwick English, senior lawyer at Shell with 30 years’ experience as an oil and gas lawyer – who is also a trustee of the Dundee centre.

That she can pull in such names is testament to the strength of Penelope Warne’s presence in the UK energy law field. She practises in both the London office of CMS Cameron McKenna and its Aberdeen office, and advises on a broad range of oil and gas law and commercial work related to the oil industry. Her practice relates mainly to the UK Continental Shelf but she also under-takes international work, particularly in Houston, Brazil and Norway. She works closely with the firm’s Moscow, Warsaw and Edinburgh offices.

And she is an essential presence at the St Andrews event, according to Peter Cameron, director of the Centre.

“Thanks to Penelope’s network across the oil and gas industry, she can procure such high-profile speakers and mould the content of the presentations,” he says. “She leads the seminar all day for the whole week, providing additional teaching and industry perspectives linking the presentations to provide continuity to the del-egates, taking them from one subject to another and making the whole thing hang together.”

Taking the other director’s chair alongside Ms Warne is senior lecturer in energy law Stephen Dow, a graduate of the Dundee centre himself.

A solicitor, he took his Masters degree there after a period in private practice. He worked on post-privatisation regulation of energy indus-tries before being appointed to the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy in 1994. In addition to working on legal aspects of stranded investment in the energy sector, his research interests include oil and gas law. He also has an interest in the financing of energy projects.

Together, he and Ms Warne are confident of delivering another St Andrews success story, and if the responses of delegates to last year’s event are anything to go by, it seems likely that the seaside tradition will be around for good while longer. Here are a few of the comments:

“I found the seminar to be invaluable. The speakers were informative and extremely forth-coming with their knowledge and experiences.” – Janice Kon, Hess Oil & Gas Malaysia.

“An excellent, informative course providing a very good grounding to lawyers and contract advisers involved in the oil industry.” – David Henry, Centrica.

“I highly recommend the course to any profes-sional in the oil and gas industry who wants to learn more about not only the UK’s legal system but also the environmental, safety and political challenges that the sector is facing worldwide.” – Mercedes Gutierrez, Shell.

oiling the legal wheels of energySt andrews seminar lays down latest law to update global power experts

penelope Warne, head of energy at international law

firm cmS cameron mcKenna

tranquil setting for thoughts on a ‘very, very dynamic’ industry: east Sands, St andrews

UK Oil and Gas Law: St Andrews, 15-19 October 2012

Spread over five days, this seminar features leading experts from the oil and gas industry who will cover topics from licensing agreements and regulations through to decommissioning.

Who is it for?Professionals looking to develop an insight of the UK legal and regulatory framework for the oil and gas industry including legal firms, government ministries and regulatory bodies, international and nongovernment organisations, international oil and gas companies, national/State oil and gas organisations, oil and gas service companies, banks and investment firms and students and academics.

Why participate?This seminar provides an overview to the statutory, contractual and regulatory environment for the oil and gas sector and factors in issues and challenges faced by the sector:

• High oil prices extending the life of North Sea fields

• Recent and topical changes to the legal and regulatory framework

• an increasing emphasis on smaller companies exploring smaller fields

• legal issues involved in extending the life of older fields

• new players obtaining licenses• addressing decommissioning issues

changes in the approach of the UK government towards energy challenges and greater emphasis being placed on standard form documents

For further details and to registerplease contact:Hugh Gunn or Pamela LawrenceCentre for Energy, Petroleum and MineralLaw and PolicyT: +44 (0) 1382 385871 or+44 (0) 1382 388381E: c.seminars@dundee.ac.ukAlternatively, please visitwww.cepmlp.org/online