Personalized healthcare has the potential to revolutionize how we approach treatment effectively, not only by improving lives but also by reducing costs and pressure on professionals. Regardless of all the benefits, game-changing breakthroughs remain just out of reach. In this session, we’ll take a closer look at the hurdles holding us back and explore the challenges that come with making treatments truly personalized. Through real-world examples and innovative solutions, we’ll discover how to finally unlock the full potential of personalized healthcare. Check out the presentations from the Innovation Day of 2024 on:

• Advanced diagnostics, from technology to impact
  By Didier Beghuin, CTO at Lambda-X High-Tech Innovation
• Risk management in next-gen (medical) product development
  By Thomas Degreef, Consultant PhysicsLab and Margo Billen, Consultant PhysicsLab at Verhaert Product Innovation

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The post Personalized healthcare, from risk to impact appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Room for improvement

Although minimally-invasive surgery offers many benefits, there’s still quite some room for improvement. To start, the current procedure requires X-ray imaging for localization inside the patient. This not only leads to frequent radiation exposure for everyone in the operating room, it also provides limited 2D visibility. On top of that, it also means the slightest movement, whether through patient breathing, body movement or repositioning by the surgeon, makes the images outdated. In short, radiation exposure, precision, visibility and real-time validity could all be improved.

Or check out the key features in the video below!

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The post A new era in minimally-invasive spine surgery appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Every Life Sciences event discusses digitilization. How do you choose between investing in digitizing new products for customers and developing digital solutions for effective and innovative clinical trials? A completely different objective, different users, and different insights. That’s not all. Potential revenues differ significantly and the risk isn’t comparable. Is creating a specific application to gain user insights in trials even worth the money? In this session with Cochlear, Tom Bertens, Director Research Algorithms & Applications at Cochlear, and Laurent Schauvlieghe, Manager Innovation Acceleration at Verhaert Digital, will give you some inspiration on how to tackle this paradox.

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The post The user insights paradox appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Increased competition puts immense pressure on companies in the life sciences sector. Adding a digital layer helps you differentiate your product and stay ahead of competitors. On a product level, it’ll add new product competences and development methods. On a company level, IoT devices improve service, maintenance, app development, electronics manufacturing and subscription-based business models. How do you balance investment between both? During this session, Wouter Hendrickx, Manager Innovation Acceleration – Solutions Smart Life Sciences, and Ornella Torres Melkebeek, Consultant DesignLab, will discuss this paradox using the example of the rehab market.

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The post The digital paradox appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Innovation often starts with research into the possibilities of new technologies. When should you stop exploring technology and switch to a markets and user-focused approach? What happens when you make that turn too late, too early, or don’t even make it? How do you switch, incorporate market adoption and window of opportunity? Get insights from Nick van Helleputte, Scientific Director Circuits & Systems at imec, and Dirck Seynaeve, Project Coordinator IoT at Verhaert, on the paradox between technology push and market pull.

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The post The R&D paradox appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Many healthcare start-ups see getting their innovation reimbursed as the ultimate goal. However, the regulations can be unclear or insufficient. We often hear that there’s no clear pathway from innovative (digital) care to reimbursed healthcare. In this session, Boris Polm, Program Manager at MedtechPartners, and Frans van Andel, Senior Specialist in Reimbursement at Seijgraaf, shed light on this reimbursement paradox influencing your innovation strategy. Who are the main decision-makers? What’s a typical path towards reimbursement under the national health insurance scheme? What’s needed when it comes to clinical data? And what are the big differences between the Dutch and Belgian health insurers?

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The post The reimbursement paradox appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

The post The reimbursement paradox appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Facing the innovation paradox in Life Sciences

Innovation is vitally important to Life Sciences. However, the industry is traditionally confronted by lower market adoption rates, tighter restrictions and regulations. The current crisis now also causes increased competition and budget cuts. This forces medical companies to face a tough paradox. How will they invest their resources?

On the one hand, they can stay focused on current product lines, technologies and methodologies. This implies fewer risks but can limit disruptive innovation. On the other hand, they can start focusing on longer-term preventative, personalized and value-based healthcare. An approach with more risks and a higher potential to truly differentiate from competitors.

Unlocking your medical innovation potential

A paradox isn’t easy to resolve, and this one in particular has many facets. That’s why we divided it into 4 inspirational sessions, each one tackling a recurring challenge. During the Life Science Paradox event, you’ll gain insights from MedtechPartners, imec, Cochlear and Verhaert on how to successfully overcome the paradox in their innovation:

• 10h00 – The reimbursement paradox (MedtechPartners)
• 10h35 – The R&D paradox (imec)
• 11h10 – The digital paradox (Verhaert)
• 11h40 – The user insights paradox (Cochlear)

Interested in the Life Sciences Paradox event on September 22nd? Visit the event page to register or find more information about the sessions. You can attend this event online or physically at the Verhaert offices in Kruibeke.

The post Verhaert organizes ‘The Life Sciences Paradox’ event with MedtechPartners, imec & Cochlear appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

The post Verhaert organizes ‘The Life Sciences Paradox’ event with MedtechPartners, imec & Cochlear appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Innovations such as the mRNA vaccines have already made significant impact in the current pandemic, and hold an unprecedented potential to a broad range of diseases. For example through self-amplifying RNA vaccines to prolong its efficacy, or mRNA cocktails to protect against existing or predicted mutations. What else could we want? What’s the role of technology? Let’s have a look.

Can we get rid of that painful intramuscular injection?

Or freeing up all those healthcare workers setting jabs day-in, day-out? An exciting new move is seen in the development of nasal spray vaccines delivery and drugs that may temporarily boost our resistance against viral infections. Currently, ten nasally delivered vaccines are undergoing, or recruiting for, phase 1 clinical trials. We’re not there yet. Even though the administration is much more convenient and user friendly, with the potential of decentralizing the complete distribution of vaccines, it comes with its challenges. Unfortunately, our bodies innate immune system isn’t helping, our natural defense mechanism causes some issues. One particular issue is that we actively clear the vaccines or drugs through mucociliary clearance, or snot.

Can we boost our resistance against viral infections temporarily?

What would that imply? Effectively, several studies have shown that nasally administered drugs or compounds create an additional barrier of defense reducing infectiousness of viruses drastically. These drugs may act by locally activating or ‘boosting’ the innate immune system, or by blocking the ‘entry-points’ of the virus on our cells. Interestingly, in mice studies, a drug showed effective protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection pre- and post exposure, with drug administered 8 hours post exposure.

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The post The role of technology in our defense against infectious diseases appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

How do executive leaders try to improve innovation and bring structure in their roadmaps? Let’s dive into 7 key learnings I gathered over the years.

1. Iterations are demanding, but failing means learning
2. Don’t expect to estimate budget correctly early-on
3. Remember where & why your idea originated
4. User centricity isn’t new, but it’s still a struggle
5. Avoid meaningless design buzz words
6. The ‘minimum viable product’ isn’t an all-purpose solution
7. A working prototype means you’re only half-way done

1. Iterations are demanding, but failing means learning

One of the basic principles of innovation is: Failing equals learning. This principle is already well-known, but it’s not always easy to implement. When working on an innovation project, the best way to tackle this is to be aware that the chances of “first-time-right” are very low. If you assume you’ll tackle the development without any iteration, your product is probably not innovative and you won’t gain many new insights. Failing is a way to create new unique selling points, use cases and technology applications. This really allows you to become an expert in learning methods and culture, and believe me it’s also really fun to have something that works out fine in the market as well!

2. Don’t expect to estimate budget correctly early-on

A lot of parties want to calculate the exact price of their innovation project early-on. Out of experience, I know this is just not possible because you can’t predict the future. Other than that, it’s very hard to define all the specifications and requirements upfront. These unknowns influence the size and type of tasks and risks necessary to create a new valuable product or service. Another factor is that there are different ways to meet the requirements, resulting in quite different innovation and development approaches. If you want to control your budget as much as possible, try to specify the scope and include an ‘innovation buffer’.

3. Remember where & how your idea originated

Everyone has a different starting point when innovating. Some detect a new market space, others find a new user need or explore how to new or existing technology applications. When developing new ideas, it’s very important to understand and remember where your idea originated from. How it emerged, will determine a different context of unknowns. In many cases, you’re biased. Your idea seems fantastic and successful, yet this could become your blindspot and an intrinsic danger for pitfalls. I don’t want to take away your enthusiasm, of course. Try to challenge these assumptions and biases, they’ll lead you to the important questions, and maybe make your solution an even bigger success.

The post 7 key learnings about the ins & outs of the ‘innovation’ industry appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

The post 7 key learnings about the ins & outs of the ‘innovation’ industry appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

Accurate blood pressure screenings are of paramount importance to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. Is is possible to perform accurate blood pressure measurement through a smartwatch? In this session Joris De Lamper, Manager Innovation Acceleration Services – Digital Innovation at Verhaert, walks you through the possible applications of wearable devices using PPG signals.

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The post eWatch, using AI to track blood pressure appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.