Inspiration session Medical Delta programs: a failure can also be brilliant

Whenever you do research, innovate and initiate, something will fail. The trick is to not let it get you down and to learn from your failures. Then they are "brilliant failures. Professor and Chief Failure Officer of the Institute of Brilliant Failures Paul Iske explained at the inspiration session of Medical Delta how failures are part of innovation and how you can learn the most from failures.

Scientific leaders and Medical Delta-funded PhD candidates and postdocs from Medical Delta's fifteen scientific programs came together to share the progress of their programs - including brilliant failures. After several speed dates and Professor Iske's lecture, attendees broke up into sub-sessions to present and discuss their programs to each other, concluding with drinks. All programs submitted progress reports in the second quarter for the 'midterm review'. This review provided a good opportunity to keep each other informed of the progress of each program. External experts will be asked to review the Medical Delta 2.0 program as a whole. This review is expected in the second half of 2022.

The empty spot at the table

A first look at the progress reports shows that most programs are running well. But Paul Iske's talk also opened the conversation to share failures and vulnerabilities. One of the things that can go wrong in innovation is the "empty spot at the table": people or organizations affected by a project are not involved. Among other things, this was discussed in the parallel session where researchers presented the progress of the Medical Delta eHealth & self-management for a healthy society program. The researchers in this program involve end users, for example in the development of health apps, and go to community centers at every stage of development to test how the end user experiences an app. In this way, they can ensure that an app is not only functional, but also user-friendly.

Still, the empty spot at the table in several projects remains a risk, the discussion showed. For example, healthcare providers are not always involved in the development of new technology from the first moment, and in many cases that is desirable. If healthcare providers become involved in a project at an early stage, you can ensure that an innovation is immediately in line with healthcare practice.

Stimulating collaboration

One of the outcomes of the Inspiration Session is that the scientific programs are of great value and that Medical Delta should continue to stimulate cooperation between healthcare providers and scientists from all disciplines. In the joint search for technological solutions for sustainable care, many mistakes will undoubtedly be made, but as long as we learn from them, they will be brilliant failures.