Hospitals are great places for innovation, if we invest past the pilot
Hospitals are not a good place for innovation.
That was one of the statements I presented to fellow University of Twente alumni during a great Healthcare / MedTech meetup at kaiko.ai in Amsterdam.
Luckily, not too many hands went up in agreement. But the statement did exactly what it was meant to do: trigger a good discussion.
Having been embedded as a researcher in a hospital for over 10 years, I actually saw innovation everywhere. Not only from researchers, but also from doctors who spend most of their week on patient care and still find the time and energy to work on innovation projects. So no, I do not believe hospitals are bad places for innovation. But I do believe innovation in hospitals needs a stronger foundation to survive beyond the first pilot.
For me, that foundation consists of a few things:
- Budget to keep promising projects alive after the first proof of concept
- Valorisation focused on impact, not only on financial returns
- Serious investment in IT architecture
- Early collaboration with industry
Too often, a project is funded with research money, a lot of effort goes into building something from scratch, a paper is written, and then the project stops. While the real harvest often starts after that phase. That is when the technology needs to become reliable, scalable, embedded in workflows, and useful in daily practice. Often this part costs less than the original research phase, but by then the money is gone and no new investment follows.
The same applies to valorisation. It is often mentioned in healthcare innovation, but in practice, the moment a project has potential beyond the first proof of concept, the conversation quickly becomes about who gets which piece of the pie. The default should not be ownership or revenue share. The default should be impact, with fair agreements only when the hospital has truly contributed to the commercial value. I have seen young, brave startups begin their journey by handing over a significant equity stake to a hospital or university that claimed IP developed with public research money before a single investor had the chance to come in.
That does not help innovation move forward.
And then there is IT architecture. I think this one is mentioned the most, but sadly I still have to emphasize it. A lot of great innovation comes from industry and could be highly valuable in healthcare. But too often the hospital infrastructure is not ready to support it. The ROI of IT upgrades is often not immediately visible, but not investing in it kills innovation before it can even start.
So hospitals are great places for innovation. But only if we also invest in what happens after the first pilot.