Innovation is a game-changer. And innovation in healthcare is not only a life-saver, but it improves and enhances the quality of people’s lives. The European project Helium is a collaboration between organisations to boost the development of health innovation and economic growth.
The forecast for Europe is a population whose proportion of citizens aged 65 and older is projected to double over the next 50 years. Paradoxically then, this innovation has also presented us with the considerable societal challenge of today and tomorrow: how can healthcare systems be made sustainable in the face of an exponential rise in longevity, taking into account the need for care, affordability and management of scarce resources?
It is a challenge that affects us all – from government to citizen, from industry to hospital ward. And the solution is one that requires the engagement and participation of all parties.
NEW COMPETITIVE MINDSET
HELIUM (Health Innovation Experimental Landscape through Policy Improvement) is a project that addresses these very issues. It focuses on health, wellbeing and life sciences as smart specialisation sector with high innovation potential. Its aims include;
- Strengthening new competitiveness through innovation
- Linking innovation market needs and policy
- Generating more opportunities to implement new technology in health
- Enhancing quality of life and improving care
- Providing better diagnosis, monitoring and physical / mental rehabilitation of patients
- Improving policy instruments through more efficient public funding of health innovation
- Enabling the development of better quality projects in health innovation and improved governance of policy instruments
Besides improving people’s health and quality of life, innovation can also bring financial benefits and economic growth if it can be implemented and translated into successful business models to meet the complex needs of the care system. The failure of innovative ideas is often due to innovation systems not facilitating the scouting, creation, valorisation and market uptake of the innovation.
Helium intends to change through sharing knowledge so that more opportunities are created to implement new technology in health. By changing the market mind-set, we aim to facilitate the uptake of innovative healthcare products and services.
THE HELIUM IMPACT
Helium is collaboration between Brainport Development (LP), City of Eindhoven, Thomas More Kempen, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, Semmelweis University, National Healthcare Service Center (AEEK), University of Porto and the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI). The establishment of a solid network will generate high added value both in societal and financial terms, meeting stakeholder needs and engaging actors who are the drivers of the experimental landscape for health innovation and can implement the actions envisaged and enabled by the policy change. Furthermore, interregional learning will help improve policy instruments in terms of governance and the ability to promote projects with greater scale, impact and sustainability in the field of health innovation. We call on all the actors in the healthcare landscape, from public authorities and policymakers, EU and regional networks and associations, developers of healthcare products and professionals to local communities and individual users and patients to engage in this initiative.
