What’s a Sheffield snooker hall owner doing going to an “AI for Health” innovation event in Bochum, Germany?

18th June 2025

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the twinning between Sheffield and Bochum, Germany.

To celebrate, Sheffield and Bochum have held a number of events and exchanges, including a visit from Lord Mayor of Sheffield Safiya Saeed to Bochum over the May bank holiday, as well as the recent highlight of the “Sheffield Inn” pop-up venue in the German city, via Sheffield City Council.

Dan Kirkland - tech advisor and former Non-Executive Director at Sheffield Chamber of Commerce – earlier this year travelled to Bochum to attend the "AI in Health" innovation event.

Read on for Dan's reflections of the visit:  

What’s a Sheffield snooker hall owner doing going to an “AI for Health” innovation event in Bochum, Germany? And why is it even relevant?

I’m Dan Kirkland and I run Hillsborough’s Spot On Snooker Club, however snooker is not my only passion. I have co-founded and exited tech businesses in Sheffield and I now spend a lot of my time advising companies on their tech strategy. I have also just finished a 4 year term as a non-exec director for the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

And what about Bochum in Germany? If you’ve heard of Bochum Parkway in Sheffield then this might give a clue, but Bochum is twinned with Sheffield so we have a bond with the German city, and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Sheffield City Council wanted to support this important event.

AI in Health was a showcase of AI startups that are focussed on health and care tech. With so much pressure being put on the UK’s health and social care services, tech is going to prove vital in managing the health of our city’s, our country’s and the world’s population.

With an aging population combined with a decreasing working population, there has never been a more important time to invest in technological solutions for healthcare. Furthermore, according to ONS data, approximately 10% of the UK population are already providing some form of unpaid care. Put bluntly, without technological innovation, even basic levels of healthcare will become more and more compromised.

So, attending the AI for Health event was about more than providing support to an important partner to Sheffield, it was also about gaining useful insights in innovation. It just so happens that with its universities and startups, Bochum boasts one of the world’s leading hubs for health and AI tech, so what better place to host an AI in Health programme where startups from around the world can showcase their healthcare tech.

The event didn’t disappoint, with around 50 companies showcasing their products and nearly a dozen keynote speakers. Packed with demonstrations and discussion, I was also lucky enough to be asked to be on one of the panels giving companies feedback on their pitches.

The innovation was inspiring, with companies showcasing so many valuable products that could help hospitals, carers, patients and people at home. Tech ranged from prevention to early detection, through to management of chronic and acute health issues.

A number of startups looked at earlier cancer detection, and a couple also looked at early Alzheimer’s detection. It’s exciting to see innovation that can prolong a healthy life and help prevent serious diseases from taking lives early. And by detecting issues early it means they can be prevented from progressing to something more serious, which in turn will help reduce the burden on the NHS, social care and on the vast number of unpaid carers.

An interesting company also offered a device that monitored hydration levels of people with catheters, and could also detect infections, which allows them to be treated before they

progress to something more serious. Perhaps surprisingly this company limited their market to hospitals and nursing homes, but I feel the device could also be very useful more widely to people at home. It could then help prevent even more people from getting serious infections, and again reduce that burden on unpaid carers, the NHS and the social care system.

Having been tested for sleep apnea myself recently, I was also intrigued by one company’s product that detected when someone stopped breathing in their sleep. At the point of detection their product would cleverly release certain scents that stimulated the brain to kickstart breathing again - without the person even knowing about it. Literally a silent lifesaver.

Then there were products that help with the administration burden of care, including an AI note taker that saves GPs time by summarising patient appointments and creating follow-up actions. Although this has some concerns over GDPR, it cannot be denied that such products would allow GPs to focus on providing quality care rather than being bogged down with administration.

Another interesting product was an AI chatbot that could triage patients, automate the UK’s 111 online service and provide key information to a GP before an appointment. It was a bit like ChatGPT but focussed on medical care. A product such as this would not only provide faster care, it would also free up GP surgeries by reducing their calls and appointments, not to mention the administration burden.

These are just a few examples of the type of tech that was being showcased, and what we can expect to feature in the future of healthcare. The importance of products like these cannot be understated and every hospital, social care provider and unpaid carer can benefit from similar products.

Before I left Bochum I just had to nip into C&A and Woolworth (without the “s” at the end), and while the latter didn’t sell 7” records, it did have a great pick ‘n mix section. Ok, so it wasn’t the healthiest of endings for a trip to a healthtech themed event, but it was still memorable.

Although some people are fearful of AI and what it might mean for their jobs, there simply aren't enough people to sustain the healthcare needs of our population in the long-term alone. AI is key to closing that gap and there is a huge opportunity for innovative companies, whether they are in Bochum or Sheffield. And Sheffield already has a great core of medical tech companies so we can grow that hub and be a real leader, not only in the UK but the world.