Blog: Living labs - faster together

'Faster alone, further together' is often said when it comes to innovation. But is that really the case? Testing, researching and (further) developing care innovations - with and by care professionals, patients and care institutions: it happens in the dozens of 'living labs' in Zuid-Holland. They give innovators the opportunity to work with end users to find out what is wanted in practice. Students can conduct research into the effectiveness and implementation of innovations. Care organisations can test whether the innovation works and is feasible.

But doesn't it slow things down, working in a group like this, with different interests and goals? The short answer is: yes. It takes time to make a good outline, not to mention the planning and implementation. It is difficult to innovate in an already overburdened healthcare system: you ask a lot of the healthcare system if time must be made available to test and verify innovations. In the meantime, it feels as if your innovation project stands still.

Importance of living labs

But that's not really true. After all, at the end of the day, and certainly in the case of healthcare innovations, you can't do without each other. In a report last year, the Rathenau Institute underlined the importance of living labs for the mission-driven innovations that the government is aiming for, especially when societal value creation is central.

For example, it is important that living labs are not only used to learn about an innovation, but also about its implementation in practice. Intermediary organisations, such as Medical Delta, are needed to make connections between parties, locations and other initiatives in the ecosystem. The context, the ecosystem, must be included in the development from prototype to practice.

Learning by doing

Practice shows that the clinical questions must be leading in care innovations, i.e. those of the patient and/or care providers. Clinical technologists can play a role in retrieving and translating this question. Insurers must play a role in innovation processes.

Attention should be paid to the financial return at an early stage: is the business case right for all parties? And if a research or innovation is successful, how can it be scaled up and implemented? These are all challenges in which all stakeholders in the ecosystem play a role.

Accelerating together

What we have also learned is that it starts with the partners in the living lab: what are their starting points, goals, vision and values, what are their values? Beneath the surface, values can lead to tensions in co-creation processes with all its consequences. Once the tensions become visible, it is often already too late.
By making this clear from the start and investing time in it, a valuable cooperation is created. A Living Lab coordinator, who connects the parties, organises and directs the processes and monitors interests and goals, can play a role in this.

Whether it concerns further development, gauging the actual need for care, or the scientific basis for the effectiveness of a care innovation: living labs prove their worth. They help the economic development of the region, the development of knowledge in the healthcare sector and the acceleration of implementing technological solutions for sustainable care. And you can only accelerate this together, you need all stakeholders in the ecosystem.

So, will you go faster on your own? On the contrary! Together you will go faster, and ultimately you get much further.

By Marijke Will-Janssen, Innovation Manager at Medical Delta

This blog was published earlier on the website of ICT & Health (in Dutch). Interested in learning more about the Medical Delta Living Labs? Please contact us via our Innovation hub for Health & Technology.