Contrary to common belief, open innovation is not only about collaborations between big companies and startups. It’s about leveraging partnerships based on when in the funnel time-line they come into place.
First steps towards Open Innovation
Regardless if it’s startup safaris or running proofs of concept; financial resources could be drained before a partnership is even in place. At the same time, credibility can suffer multiple blows unless partnering is internally and externally monitored as part of this strategic process.
Yes, open innovation collaborations may involve startups; but it also sets the ground for scale-ups, established partners, other types of institutions, and even competitors. Any partnership will be influenced by where in the project funnel the collaboration is formed. Whether it is as early as the problem discovery phase, or at the end towards validation and launch. So, what does this mean?
It means that an open innovation strategy achieves impact through the development of relevant connections; these are the ones that get real-world results. Ideal as it may sound, opening up to a partnership leads to a dire need for new strategies, and even a mindset shift on what open innovation is.
Below are two important steps to consider in your journey towards successful partnerships through open innovation.
CHECK YOURSELF
Knowing the pain-points and strengths of your own organization is the first step to set thriving collaborations in motion. Not only from a strategic, but a technical, financial and value-based perspective.
Although a detailed strategy plan starts with knowing your own strengths and gaps, the actual step forward comes when companies realize exactly what it is they need to know about themselves.
In order to enter a partnership, which department should be approached first? How should they be approached? The answer to all key questions, the way pilots are set up, and the overall strategy. It will all depend on being able to recognize what you need to know about your organization.
New ways of working, connecting, and communicating will restructure the mechanism that makes external collaborations withstand the speed of evolving ecosystems. However, even after setting the right parameters for yourself, there is still a lot of ground to cover. For example, the B2B sector has progressed in such ways the success doesn’t rely solely on strong deals, but a new perspective on open innovation overall, one that expands the limits of what the partnerships can achieve.
BEYOND COMMON SENSE
Collaborations are a two-way street. Both partners will enter not only a collaboration, but the opportunity to learn, while at the same time offering and receiving groundbreaking perspectives. However, an abundance of information doesn’t make open innovation partnerships fall into place.
The approaches should be simple, but that doesn’t make them obvious. The goal of having a strategy is not only to help collect relevant data and assess risk but to develop a solid and flexible plan that doesn’t leave key aspects behind and that can adapt to its context.
Essential information is achieved by asking the right questions. What are the requirements for a partnership to work? Even if our mission is aligned, how can we make sure such collaborations are long-lasting? Which are red or white flags when risk-assessing potential partners? An innovation strategy will aid in determining the right questions and will help come up with the answers.
Why should B2Bs look at open innovation strategies?
By pushing aside limiting open innovation concepts, a re-signified open innovation strategy broadens the horizons for potential collaborations, and it can make the most of exploiting their internal and external resources.Through investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and accelerators, open innovation boosts the innovation agendas of organizations, and it does it tailor-made.
Ranging from research and development, to focusing on specific products and solutions; the possibilities may appear to be endless. Innovation strategies narrow down the possibilities, simplify complicated sets of information, and speed up the innovation process.
By connecting the right data, open innovation strategies create long-term partnerships that look to make a positive impact at a larger scale, improve, and accelerate the approach to validated results. They go beyond what’s good enough by finding more scalable and even unexpected possibilities.
Why should an open innovation strategy be in place?
Think of information as a waterfall. Open innovation strategies make sure the water is filtered out until it turns into a stream. Your innovation strategy will be this filter. A partnership that follows no plan will have the opposite effect.
But, filtering and setting the right data in place is not the only reason why open innovation strategy should be in place. So what is the reason? Innovation strategies need the right information to be set in motion, but they’re not a linear plan with steps to follow.
Innovative strategies have the ability to move forward as the strategy itself develops. It is a way of learning while doing, and doing to validate solutions. Plans for efficient problem solving, product or service launches, and new ways of thinking, are all to be living structures that grow as they go.
GENERAL RULES DON’T APPLY
But, open innovation is more than marrying companies based on data and common goals. Although information is the base, without an innovation strategy in place, an investment can take a wrong turn.
When general rules don’t apply, a custom-made plan is necessary. Why? Because the personality of a business will be one of the cornerstones of a successful collaboration. Just like each company, every partnership should be unique. A template-like approach will only get you so far, this is where the strategy comes in.
Unseemingly, a great number of companies walk down this road without a clear overview on their validated options. A good open innovation strategy will be flexible enough to adapt not only to context, but to the strengths and gaps of each partner.
MURPHY’S LAW: TACKLING PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY SHOW UP
Open innovation strategies also lead to success by tackling a partnership’s crucial requirements. Their job is to create flexible solutions when the potential future obstacles are virtually unknown. The only way to tackle the unknown is by strategies that learn while being executed.
Partnerships that don’t reach their goals tend to have a common denominator: a lack of consistency. The best results are not born from a linear plan and a bundle of information; they thrive on strategies that pivot their way around potential challenges based on validated facts.
Making it matter
Innovation strategies are not a trend, but a mindset. They are fueled by relevant knowledge, and thrive on their capacity to constantly adapt to a fast paced and ever-evolving internal and external market. As the requirements shift, so do solution strategies to be applied.
The rapidly changing B2B industry has led to the need of innovation strategies, to make sure partnerships are up to date with how fast and vastly business fields intersect. Looking outside one’s core industry is not only relevant, it’s a need. How does your organization look at open innovation? Which strategies have you pushed to activate the power of collaboration?
Tell us below, we’d love to hear about your experiences!
It seems that nearly every economic conversation these days revolves around inflation. Each question seems to lead to another. Is it transitory? Will it get worse? If so, when? And for how long? Which of the many factors — including soaring post-Covid-19 demand, supply chain shortages, fiscal and monetary stimulus, energy politics, or all the many changes in how we live, work and play post-pandemic — should matter most as we try to build a picture of what’s happening?
In all the debate, one point gets very little discussion: the role of technology as arguably the most important variable in what might happen to inflation over the coming several years. For every inflationary factor, from labour shortages to transportation bottlenecks, fuel costs, or even longer-term pressures like an ageing population, there is a looming technological change that could shift the calculus around pricing in ways that are hard to predict.
Consider the clean energy transition. Already, demand for electric vehicles is pushing up the price of commodities such as copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt. Green vehicles and power plants are much more metal-intensive than the technologies they are replacing. As more companies and nations move towards a carbon tax and seek to limit fossil fuel production, energy prices may rise further in the short term.
But the wider timeline is, of course, what matters. While a fast transition to a cleaner world will create some inflationary pressure, it will dramatically cut the cost of the climate-related disasters in the longer term. What’s more, technological innovation itself eventually lowers costs. Morgan Stanley data show that short-term spikes aside, commodity prices have trended down for 200 years. That’s because every time one energy source became too expensive, a new one was invented to take its place. We might be heading into a cold and expensive winter. But given the plummeting costs of renewable technologies such as solar panels and wind farms (and increasing public and private investment in them) there is good reason to hope that, with time, the final destination could be a much better and cheaper place — one that would put a dent in some of the 1970s stagflation analogies.
What about the inflationary aspects of supply chain delays? Some logistics experts believe port backups will last for years. And yet, already, we’re seeing the largest and richest companies (Amazon, Walmart and Costco, for example) adjusting to the problem with innovations of their own.
Those innovations will include more vertical integration (for example, owning rather than renting some of their own shipping containers to allow more control) but also using artificial intelligence systems to better track deliveries. Autonomous vehicles, both trucks and ships, are getting a new boost of interest. The first autonomous container vessel will be tested in Norway by the end of the year. If such systems smooth traffic, some supply chain-related delays and price pressures would begin to abate.
As the internet of things becomes ubiquitous, more companies will use new technologies to improve efficiency. As the chief executive of Ark Investment Management, Cathie Wood, noted in a recent interview, such innovations, which include autonomous mobility, blockchain, gene editing, adaptive robots and neural networks, are more likely to usher in a period of longer-term deflation than inflation, given the depth and breadth of their impact across all areas of business.
Certainly, they will disrupt labour markets in ways we can’t yet envision. Technology could, for example, play an important role in offsetting the inflationary pressures of ageing baby boomers, who will require more care at exactly the time the labour force is shrinking, by increasing the productivity of existing healthcare workers and the system. China, which has poured $1.5bn into using big data in healthcare over the past decade (and many billions more into artificial intelligence) is likely to be the epicentre of AI-driven diagnostics and healthcare innovation.
The politics of using big data in sensitive areas such as healthcare and finance will, of course, vary from country to country, as regulators grapple with the social implications of such cutting-edge technologies. Those differences in national policies could themselves be inflationary if they contribute to cross-border frictions in global business and when it comes to the movement of people, goods and capital.
In a multipolar world, there will inevitably be more delays, shortages and supply and demand mismatches in the short term. And yet, the fact that the global economy has become somewhat more fragmented over the past couple of years is also an opportunity for technology-driven innovation that could eventually bring prices down. Think about vertical farms that grow produce minutes from where people eat it, telehealth and virtual education platforms that eliminate travel costs, and 3D manufacturing that cuts through complex and far-flung supply chains.
These are just a handful of the many new technologies that are currently booming. The change such innovation could bring is arguably the only major disinflationary trend right now. But it may prove to be the most powerful.
Key to a good ideation session is that everyone in the room feels comfortable contributing their ideas. How to do so? By asking everyone to kill judgment completely: no negative thinking, no “yes, but”, no nah-faces. If someone hesitates in jotting down an idea, tell them“at this stage, there are no bad ideas”.
It is easier said than done: when developing new products/services/business units, it’s very easy to be tempted by critical thinking. Indeed, often times, initial ideas sound just absurd – and “this can’t work” is the first thing you may have in mind. However, great business concepts are an unusual combination of (not-so) crazy ideas that become meaningful when combined together.
Consider each idea as a piece of a puzzle: however insignificant it could look at first, it may be a piece of a bigger picture later on.
2. Capture everything
In the heat of the action, brilliant ideas might get lost (“it is such a good idea, tomorrow we’ll remember it for sure”. You won’t). There is only one way to solve this: capture every idea on a post-it.
Too many ideation sessions happen during regular team meetings, without the participants being fully aware of being ideating. Ideas are shot verbally and jotted down in the meeting minutes (in the luckiest scenario). Instead, a key element of the best ideation sessions is that each idea is tracked and can be used as a building block in following sessions.
A couple of extra tips: 1) one post-it, one idea. Simple. Don’t try to fit an entire business model in 7×7 cm of paper. 2) Use markers, not pens (it will help you to find the most concise way to describe your idea. Your teammates will love your conciseness). 3) Be visual: if possible, instead of using verbal language, draw a sketch of your idea.
3. Go for Hybrid Brainstorming
Group brainstorming is always better than individual brainstorming, right? Well, not really: research shows thatcombining individual brainstorming with group exercises leads to more and better ideas.
Best solution: “Hybrid Brainstorming”. Individual ideation first, then group ideation. Starting an ideation session with group brainstorming would make the loudest voices in the room set a determined direction (thus narrowing down the breadth of ideas), and frustrate the most creative minds in the room – instead, begin with an individual component. Once everyone has set her/his own approach to solving the problem, move to the group session. Leave enough time to discuss and build upon each other’s ideas.
4. Quantity over Quality
The old adage “Quality over Quantity” doesn’t hold during ideation exercises. There is nothing like thinking about the quality or feasibility of ideas to stop the creative juice from flowing. Read our Idea Hunting guide to get more inspiration. Later on, use Analogy Thinking and Opposite Thinking to broaden the spectrum of possibilities (or find here alist of 10 ideation tools to try).
Selection is important but it shouldn’t be done during creative exercises. Go for quantity and worry about the quality later.
Another change we see is that the startup ecosystem is acting as a stimulant by being responsible for connections and mentoring, space of incubation, and course funding.
Next year is poised to be the beginning of yet another thrilling decade having high expectations. Statistics from CrunchBase tell us that a whopping amount of more than $ 1.5 trillion was invested in VC deals in the last ten years worldwide. More than $ 300 billion were infused in 30 thousand partnerships in various stages in 2019 alone. It was a record-breaking amount ever put in any year.
Internet of Things Startups
Internet-of-things has become a significant trend not only in the VC world but also in the general scheme of things around the globe. This concept has gained currency because there is lockdown everywhere, and things are expected to be human-less, at least for the coming few years, till we get vaccinated. IoT perceives a world where every object—right from thermostats to bread toasters—is connected through the internet. More and more industries are coming in the domain of IoT, such as—mining, agriculture, and traditional manufacturing. This worldwide pandemic would give birth to more and more industrial and personal applications of IoT.
For establishing businesses as well as innovative startups, circumstances around us are signaling to launch B2B and B2C companies operating on the principle of IoT. Brands have already started feeling pressurized to create robust cloud-connected applications and products in fear of being left behind.
Data Crowdsourcing Companies
We see that crowdsourcing has already expanded its wings in many domains, and this trend is likely to be carried on in the coming years as well.
Let us take the example of Waze. It is an internet-based mapping service that utilizes information populated by the general people using it. It is an application that does not require updates from a centrally-located, connected source—instead; it utilizes users to provide those particular updates. Such crowdsourcing applications rely on the gamification effect—that is—by creating an impact on users’ minds that they feel rewarded and excited about providing information continuously.
We would see many more outsourcing applications in the year to come and venture capital companies need to watch them.
Constantly evolving technology is giving a push to more and more peer-to-peer crowdsourced applications. Entrepreneurs, as well as venture capital companies, should try to learn as much as possible regarding such applications, which have the potential of catching people’s buzz in less time.
Artificial Intelligence Startups
Artificial intelligence has started to mesmerize people’s imaginations, like never before. According to the artificial intelligence index report, artificial intelligence and machine learning are among the top-rated and favorite subjects for a doctorate in computer science. More than a fifth of graduate engineering students are taking up either artificial intelligence or machine learning as their project topic. Moreover, in the last decade, there has been three times increment in peer-reviewed artificial intelligence research.
Similarly, venture capital companies have started endeavoring in the domain of AI and looking for talented entrepreneurs. Statistics from CB insights tell that artificial intelligence startups have accumulated more than $ 25 billion in funding alone in the year 2019 by forging more than 2000 partnerships. Notable examples include UiPath—a robotics process automation provider, and Nuro—an automated robotics vehicle company that has recently gained a lot of traction. This trend seems to be continued in the coming decade as well.
Cryptocurrency
There has been a widespread agreement among experts that cryptocurrency research has moved past the innovation curve’s early adopter period. And we also see that a lot of venture capital companies have started to fund crypto startups. Cryptocurrencies have begun launching initial coin offering, which is—in a sense—is threatening the existence of the venture capital concept. At least, it can be said that the initial coin offering promises to change how startups are funded. Initial coin offering enables entrepreneurs to get their own funds, which is not entirely different from crowdfunding. However, it is done in a way that lets them bypass the regulations in conventional venture capital financing.
One of the cryptocurrencies company Tezos has raised $ 250 million in less than a day. Similarly, FileCoin—another cryptocurrency, broke the earlier record and raised $ 260 million soon.
Evidently, it can be said that things are getting tough for venture capital companies in the cryptocurrency domain. Some venture capital companies have taken a head start. United States’ first bitcoin venture capital company—Pantera Capital, has come to the foray and has created a $100 million fund. At this stage, it is difficult to say how the world of cryptocurrencies would shape the investing methodology of venture capital companies; however, it can be said with confidence that this experiment is worth watching.
Winding Up
On an overall scale, we are quite optimistic that the technological innovations in the coming time would offer a host of opportunities for further growth of venture capital. However, with the emergence of new technologies and their widespread adoption—regulatory mandates would come in place as well. We hope that in the tug of war between innovation and regulation—equilibrium would be set that would not hamper innovation while being positively regulating to prevent monopolistic behavior that curbs innovation.
Since 2014, when our article “The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation” appeared in these pages, executive awareness of the powerful and ever-evolving ways in which digital technology can create competitive advantage has become pervasive. But acting on that awareness remains a challenging prospect.
It requires that companies become what we calldigital masters. Digital masters cultivate two capabilities: digital capability, which enables them to use innovative technologies to improve elements of the business, and leadership capability, which enables them to envision and drive organizational change in systematic and profitable ways. Together, these two capabilities allow a company to transform digital technology into business advantage.
Digital mastery is more important than ever because the risks of falling behind are increasing. In 10 years of research, we have seen digital transformation grow increasingly complex, with a new wave of technological and competitive possibilities arriving before many companies mastered the first. When we began our research, most large traditional enterprises were using digital technologies to incrementally improve parts of their businesses. Since then, this first phase of activity has given way to a new one. Advances in a host of technologies, such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and 5G, have opened new avenues for value creation. More important, leaders now recognize the need for — and the possibility of — truly transforming the fundamentals of how they do business. They understand that they have to move from disconnected technology experiments to a more systematic approach to strategy and execution.
As increasingly conscious consumers gain more access to, and a better understanding of product information and choices.
Packaging
The packaging industry is continuously changing as it responds to environmental factors, social change, and consumer habits, and we expect to see a continued effort by manufacturers to find new, innovative packaging solutions as we move into 2021.
Functionality
The possible long-term immunological health consequences of Covid-19 have shifted consumers’ focus from nutrition and enjoyment to overall health and wellbeing, with consumers seeking food products with immune-boosting ingredients that support personal health.
COVID-19 has shown the central role that governments can play in addressing society-wide challenges.
In 2021, leaders across the public sphere need to integrate technology solutions into the heart of wider rebuilding and recovering efforts.
Doing so will also help reach our Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
As the global community continues to grapple with the wide-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic the hope is that, over the course of 2021, vaccine rollout will finally enable countries to transition from crisis response to ‘recover and rebuild’.
New technologies have played a crucial role in governments eliciting cooperation during the crisis, keeping societies functional in a time of rolling lockdowns, and underpinning solutions across sectors and borders.
The pandemic has further accelerated the pace of digitisation of enterprises and supply chains, connectivity, automation, intelligent solutions and the deployment of tools such as 3D printing, drones, and virtual reality.
And yet, the positives have also brought a social cost: those less digitally ready have been disadvantaged and data privacy and cybersecurity risks have become more prevalent.
As attention, policymaking and investment turns to rebuilding our economies, it is vital that the laser focus on, and cooperation around, technology and innovation continues.
In the latest collaboration between the World Economic Forum and PwC –Harnessing Technology for the Global Goals: A framework for government action– we examine how governments and public sector leadership can drive the uptake of advanced technologies to tackle the wider systemic challenges defined by the UN’s Global Goals (or 17 SDGs) and help us build forward stronger.
This proactive leadership approach will be critical to fostering long-term, sustainable growth and resilience for the 2020s.
A public sector more than capable of mobilizing
‘Governments, perhaps previously and unfairly perceived as slow movers, have showed during the pandemic how quickly they can pivot to meet immediate needs, leveraging the frontiers of technology and human ingenuity in the process.
Examples include Colombia’s rapid distribution of pre-programmed laptops to remote-working students. Then there’s Sierra Leone’s swift development and deployment of a mobile app to monitor deliveries, admissions, discharges and support services at quarantine facilities, in real-time.
The experiences of 2020 showed us thatkey characteristics that governments need to fosterin the months ahead include:
●Adaptability:While the global health crisis continues, technological solutions should be designed for resilience and adaptability. The problems of 2021 aren’t yet truly known, but this sense of adaptability can already be applied to challenges on the horizon such as economic recovery and climate change. At the same time, we must build resilience into economies and communities, to future-proof us from more crises.
●Swiftness:Governments will need to apply the same fast-paced action to long-neglected problems such as hunger, poverty and job access, and explore how technology can be leveraged to dial up action and swiftly so. We must keep in mind that COVID-19 is not the only social and economic problem associated with health issues, loss of life and economic hardship.
●Collaboration:Governments will need to continue building and maintaining the partnerships that have been central to combating COVID-19, whether these are within the public or private sectors. They need to reflect and build on lessons learned during the pandemic, which include supporting innovation and long-term thinking, strengthening supplier relationships, investing in breakthrough R&D, and simplifying procurement processes.
Continued collaboration across all sectors will be essential in leveraging technology to create impact and systemic change at scale for wider challenges, from climate change to biodiversity loss.
So, how can this happen?
In thenew Forum and PwC reportwe outline an action‐oriented checklist to support governments and public sector leaders in enabling the use of technological advancements to deliver progress towards the Global Goals.
There aresix key leadership areasvital to unlocking the potential that technology offers, and to manage potential downside risks that can arise.
1. Vision and strategy
Governments need to be proactive in the area of developing and deploying technologies at scale. Any solutions put in place, even with limited resources, can trigger systems-wide change during a time of heightened emergency and tackle multiple social, economic and health issues at once.
To do this, governments need to set an agile, adaptable vision and strategy on what they are hoping to achieve and how they will realise those outcomes with deliberate planning and coordination.
2. Governance and accountability
Delivery of a ‘tech-for-good’ vision and strategy should be supported by the clear assignment of governance and accountability to effective members of leadership teams across government. Developing flexible action plans, offering transparent collaboration groups, and facilitating sandboxing under leadership oversight should all form a part of this.
Covid-19 has offered the healthcare sector a great opportunity to educate both policy makers and the general public about the importance of data in developing innovative medical solutions. But there are still obstacles to making that data available to those who need it most.
The equation is simple: data increases the ability of the healthcare sector to predict and deal with epidemics, cure disease and improve the quality of life.
Data replaces guess work and allows researchers, clinicians and hospital staff to make informed decisions based on real-world cases, while aggregating data from different areas, different regions, different countries, and allows medical professionals to see the bigger picture.
“When it comes to innovative solutions in healthcare it is crucial that complete personal medical data is available, and not just CT scan results or a list of medicines that an individual patient takes,” says Ligia Kornowska, the managing director of the Polish Hospital Federation, and a leader of the AI Coalition in Healthcare, trying to change regulation and educate patients about the use and benefits of AI in healthcare. “Only then can you have a full picture of a patient’s medical history. Only then can you make sure that various aspects are taken into account when developing an innovative solution.”
Few global events in recent years have demonstrated this as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. In many countries, the health data research effort in response to the pandemic has been unprecedented in both its scale and scope. The amount of data available is one of the reasons that it has been possible to develop successful vaccines against the coronavirus in less than a year.
In the UK for example, the medical records of 56 million people, held by general practitioners, were made available – safely and securely – for essential Covid-19 research and response. More than 4.2 million users of a Covid symptom study app revealed new symptoms and regional hotspots, while some 80,000 patients were recruited into a ISARIC-4C study, finding out how Covid-19 is affecting people across the country.
A further 48,000 Covid-19 viral genomes were analysed by the Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, created specifically to deliver large-scale and rapid whole-genome virus sequencing to local National Health Service centres and the UK government.
Awareness
For many ordinary people, Covid-19 has had the effect of making them aware – often for the first time – of the importance of data in improving outcomes. They quickly realised, even in the early days of the pandemic, that the collection, use, sharing and further processing of data can help limit the spread of the virus and aid in accelerating the recovery, especially through digital contact tracing.
Such data collection and processing, including for digital contact tracing and general health surveillance, may include the collection of vast amounts of personal and non-personal sensitive data.
However, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in November, this could have significant effects beyond the initial crisis response phase, including, if such measures are applied for purposes not directly or specifically related to the Covid-19 response, potentially leading to the infringement of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
“This concern is especially pressing if some emergency measures introduced to address the pandemic, such as digital contact tracing, are turned into standard practice,” warns the WHO.
But who owns the data? And how can we find a balance between ensuring that innovators can access as much anonymous health data as they need while reassuring patients that their personal data is not being accessed by banks, insurance companies, or national social security systems?
Mikołaj Gurdała, innovation manager at EIT Health InnoStars says that educating patients can be extremely beneficial.
“Access to data which is regulated in a standardised and proper way by all EU member states is a key driver for innovation. Firstly, it’s about educating patients and citizens about the data they generate and managing and how this data can be used. Secondly, you try to standardise data between the different sources, then on top of that you add in technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to create a full and highly transparent pathway to show how data from a single patient can serve to teach algorithms in diagnostics or therapies,” he tellsEmerging Europe.
The need for EU-wide regulation
But he is keen to stress that this can’t happen without proper regulations being in place.
Gurdała says that EIT Health, a network of best-in-class health innovators backed by the EU, is a “lighthouse” warning healthcare regulators and payers that the projects they finance (or co-finance) include data security as an element.
In 2021, EIT Health will introduce a new data operability model which will include data related to all of the projects that it has financed.
“We have to look at the general complexity of healthcare,” he says, “and when data is added to this the complexity grows. What we try to do as EIT is simplifying regulation by implementing sandboxes in regards to security, pilots, and projects that demonstrate scalability and value for patients.”
Reiterating his point about education, he adds that while patients should always own their data, they should be made aware of how useful it can be if shared. At the same time, “they should be able to decide what their data can be used for, and by whom.”
But the framework of any policy should come from the EU, he adds.
“There should be a European standard because we as Europeans can be treated anywhere in the bloc.”
Augustin Jianu, a former minister of communication and digital society in Romania and the co-founder and CEO of Dime.ly, a tech start-up aiming to bring big data to small companies and set a new standard for ethical data collection by creating data royalties, says that we must understand that not all health data is equal, in that the associated risks differ significantly.
“As a result, regulators should strive to distinguish between all known types of health data,” he says.
“For instance, organisations that handle electronic health records or patient/disease registries should be required at a minimum to implement strong cyber security and data protection measures. The NIS Directive and General Data Protection Regulation adopted at EU level are good examples for what must be done by organisations that handle these types of health records.
“On the other hand, anonymous health surveys, statistical data or anonymous clinical research datasets could very well be public information, unless some type of intellectual property or commercial secrets are involved. Consequently, there should be no regulation for these types of anonymous health data and organisations should be encouraged to use and share such data without limitations in order to promote and foster medical innovation.”
Is blockchain technology a solution?
Ligia Kornowska says that in a recent survey carried out in Poland by the We Patients Foundation, 77 per cent of respondents said they would agree to their anonymised medical data being used for research and epidemiological updates, while 83 per cent would like to manage their medical data and be able to give access to it to selected individuals and institutions. Up to 91 per cent would like an easy way of checking who reviewed their medical data, and when.
Despite this overwhelming public support for sharing data, she says that there is currently “very limited access” to anonymised medical data in Poland.
“For example, there is an act on patients’ rights, and several clauses are inconsistent with the definition of anonymisation stipulated in GDPR, and a lot of hospitals do not know whether they can share anonymised data or not,” she tellsEmerging Europe. Another example, it could be argued, of the need for EU-wide legislation.
“As far as personal medical data is concerned, I believe every patient should be able to donate their personal data just like they can donate blood or marrow,” adds Kornowska. “They would donate their data to trusted third-parties — that discussion should take place on the European level — who should collect the patients’ consent.”
She suggests that blockchain technology could be a solution.
“This would mean the patient’s consent for use of their data is noted, but so is every occasion on which the data is accessed. That cannot be removed, modified or hidden. The patient should have access to that. This is our idea about how to make data secure, and understandable for patients so that they can decide what is done with their data.”
Accelerating digitalisation
At the beginning of 2019, Croatia introduced a new law that defines how health information and medical data is used.
Called the Health Data and Information Act, it improves the scope of personal data protection in healthcare by amending regulations and laying down rules on the use and protection of data from patient medical records in Croatia’s Central Health Care Information System (CEZIH).
The Act regulates prescribing, managing, storing, collecting and disposing of patient medical records in CEZIH and lays down principles for managing the professional documentation of healthcare workers and healthcare associates.
“One of the challenges was how to find a balance between various regulatory frameworks, standards and recommendations that will fit operators of essential services in the health sector, not overloading but enabling them to use the existence of the EU Network and Information Security directive as a driving force to enhance cybersecurity in their institutions and organisations,” says Hrvoje Belani, who acts as head of e-Health and cybersecurity within the independent sector for IT and e-Health at the Croatian Ministry of Health.
“The other challenges include available resources (both human and financial) at the operators of essential services to systematically implement defined security requirements and manage their information security and cybersecurity systems, as well as allowing us as a sectorial authority to efficiently audit and supervise the operators of essential services during these processes.”
He adds that Covid-19 has helped to accelerate the digitalisation process, as it pushed citizens to move online, perhaps realising for the first time that this was a good way to access services.
“As terrifying as the pandemic is, it was also an opportunity to take an extra step in the digital transformation process,” he tellsEmerging Europe.
Balázs Gasz is an associate professor at the University of Pecs in Hungary, head of the clinical division at PTE 3D Center and CEO of ME3D Graft, a start-up offering data-driven remote surgical training. He is in full agreement about the impact that Covid-19 has had on sharpening attitudes about the importance of data in creating innovative medical solutions.
“We have been constantly thinking about how to get hold of more medical data, data of better quality, and which devices and technologies to use in order to collect and process it, so that it can be applied to clinical decisions,” he tellsEmerging Europe.
“As a clinician, a researcher and a start-up founder, I can say that the pandemic has helped us collect more data, faster.”
Moving forward
It is clear that the amount of data that the healthcare sector has both gathered and been allowed to access as a result of the Covid-19 emergency will be useful for medical start-ups long after the pandemic is just a bad memory.
Forging a future in which this access is facilitated at all times, but in a safe and secure way, with complete public trust, will be one of the biggest challenges for Europe’s policy makers as attention moves towards creating better outcomes across the healthcare spectrum, not just Covid-19.
Educating patients will be crucial.
“We should build as many user cases as possible to show us, as citizens, what the benefits of collecting, securing and sharing our data are,” concludes EIT Health InnoStars’ Mikołaj Gurdała
“There are already many examples, like in the Netherlands where patient data is used to restructure urban areas to build more recreational spaces where they are needed. In Hungary, the government was able to manage the flow of people spending their holidays on Lake Balaton. They were able to show them the consequences of accumulating a large number of people in one area during the pandemic. When we show people specific cases, we start to believe that data – and the way we collect and share it – can save people’s lives.”
Innonation initiativeZAUQ Group is proud to be part of the innovation initiative of Special Technology Zones in Pakistan. Special Technology Zones Authority is mandated to promote the knowledge-based national ecosystem for stimulating and enhancing the multi-dimensional collaboration between Industry, Academia, and Government for 21st-century Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and new Technology Creation.
Launch ceremony scheduled at Friday, the 8th of January, 2021, Islamabad – Pakistan.
STZA will also help create favorable conditions for the growth of the national technology sector by means of providing policy mix-oriented legislative and institutional support.
The Honourable Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, who officiates as the President of the STZA Board of Governors.
Study shows ambitious U.S. startups are not in decline — but timing and location matter.
The year 1995 was a good time to be an entrepreneur. Especially a high-tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, with the internet boom starting, the economy growing, venture capitalists searching for new investments, and a whole horizon of novel business ideas to explore.
Indeed, a new study co-authored by an MIT professor shows that U.S. startups founded in 1995 enjoyed more growth than startups founded in any other year from 1988 to 2014. Other things being equal, the startups of 1995 were three times as likely to grow significantly as those from 2007, which had to battle through the 2008-2009 Great Recession.
As the study shows more broadly, ambitious startups remain a vital part of the American economy. New business registrations have experienced a long-term drop in the U.S., but the number of startups capable of high-impact growth has risen.
Written by innonationdotpkNovember 17, 2021
