Thursday, March 26, 2026
By the time an idea or new technology reaches the hands of a surgeon, it has already gone through a long innovation process. If it makes it at all, because many promising innovations never reach the finish line.
The Medical Delta Program ‘Medical Instruments Manufacturing: from Idea to Clinic’ (abbreviated as Medical Delta Program ‘MIMIC’) aims to accelerate the innovation process of advanced medical instruments and increase their chances of success.
Developing a new instrument that can be used in a clinical study is relatively expensive and risky. The Medical Delta Program ‘MIMIC’ brings together expertise to facilitate innovation up to so-called ‘first-in-human studies’.
To achieve this, the program launched a series of workshops last year. These workshops brought the network together, allowing different stakeholders to collaborate. The challenges experienced by partners in the innovation process form the starting point of the program, ensuring that MIMIC’s outcomes align with what is most needed in practice.
The design agency Panton is closely involved in the program as a consortium partner. Panton has extensive practical experience in developing medical innovations, from initial ideas through to market introduction. They work with a wide range of organizations, from start-ups to multinationals. Senior Product Developer Wilfred Teunissen aims to use this expertise to support researchers and early-stage companies in the innovation process.
He notes that in particular researchers and start-up entrepreneurs often underestimate the expertise required to develop a medical innovation. “To achieve medical innovations, you need others to see what you don’t yet know.”
This interview is the ninth in a series featuring practice partners of the transdisciplinary Medical Delta programs and living labs.
Can you tell us about your role within the Medical Delta Program MIMIC?
“Panton is a design agency that helps organizations innovate in healthcare. This can involve medical instruments, digital products, and also processes, such as developing care transitions and redesigning care pathways.
In everything we do, we take a bottom-up approach: we work with stakeholders while keeping sight of the defined goals. We are skilled at developing creative, human-centered solutions through thorough analysis and a structured development process.
Since our founding, we have focused on healthcare design because it requires specific knowledge and experience, and innovation in healthcare is still urgently needed.
The MIMIC program is still in its early stages. From the start, we were invited to participate and help accelerate innovation. For us, participation is interesting because it allows us to strengthen our network in a practical way. We also want to share our experiences to contribute to knowledge development.
We helped set up several workshops. These were intended to bring the network together and map out what and who is needed at each step of the innovation process. We want to help strengthen the network and particularly support researchers and start-ups. We also contribute ideas on how the MIMIC program can develop in the coming period.”
What challenges in the innovation process does the MIMIC program aim to address?
“In fact, it starts even before a researcher decides to start a company. Typically, a scientist conducts research, develops an idea, a technology, and possibly already has a proof of concept. And then what? How do you ensure that your idea becomes a safe product that will actually be used in a hospital? This process often involves many uncertainties, and researchers don’t always know which steps to take.
Once a start-up is established and development begins, the question arises: what do you do first? Do you start with what you’re good at, or focus on what is still highly uncertain? Within MIMIC, we aim to make this process more transparent.
What stands out is that everyone has their own blind spots in such a process. There are always things you overlook, whether you are an entrepreneur, scientist, healthcare professional, or engineer. You tend to look from your own perspective, while successful product development requires combining these different perspectives. The key question is: what can you do yourself, and when do you involve others? MIMIC aims to provide a platform for this.
Everyone has their own blind spots in such a process
The program focuses on supporting the inventor. Often, the questions are very practical, such as: ‘When should I start documenting, and how do I do it?’ or ‘How do I find out what surgeons want?’ or ‘How can I create safe prototypes for initial studies, and who can help me develop or manufacture them?’. By helping start-up companies with these kinds of topics, there is no need to reinvent the wheel each time, and the innovation process can be accelerated.
Another challenge is producing small batches of test products for clinical studies. These must be safe, consistent, and comply with regulations, which can be costly. Within MIMIC, we are also working on practical solutions for this.
We adopt a different approach compared to looking from a theoretical model or innovation processes shaped around fixed policy steps in funding calls. The strength of the Medical Delta Program MIMIC lies in its accessibility: we focus on the challenges you are facing right now and then develop appropriate solutions.”
How is clinical practice involved in your program?
“The end users of medical instruments are usually doctors or nurses. Within MIMIC, they are represented by innovation advisors from several hospitals.
A common question from researchers and entrepreneurs is: ‘How can we bring our prototype into a hospital?’ However, capacity is limited, so we work with hospitals to find solutions.
It starts with opening doors and getting to know each other
During the MIMIC workshops, we learned that hospitals want to be involved early on in evaluating the usefulness and application of innovations. This led to the idea of organizing sessions where innovations are presented and assessed against hospital criteria. This helps start-ups find the right entry point into hospitals and quickly understand what is still needed to align with clinical practice.
An important goal of Medical Delta Program MIMIC is to facilitate access to expertise and connect institutions for practical support. It starts with opening doors and getting to know each other.”
Do you have examples of connections already established?
“We have built strong relationships with Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) of academic institutions in South Holland. Connections with universities of applied sciences have also been strengthened, including through student projects.
The network is growing. You can see this in workshops, where even competitors help each other find their way. A broad perspective is necessary to move forward more quickly.”
You mentioned that medtech innovation is complex. Why is that?
“Because you need to understand both the technology and the medical treatment. Regulations for developing safe and effective instruments and obtaining approval require extensive documentation. You must demonstrate compliance with requirements and prove that the product does not pose unnecessary risks.
The innovation process requires combining various requirements into a product that is safe, user-friendly, technically feasible, and economically viable. Over the past twenty years, Panton has developed expertise in integrating insights from these perspectives through thorough analysis and a structured development process.
The entire process requires a transdisciplinary approach. Engineers, healthcare professionals, patients, investors, certification bodies, distributors, purchasers, insurers: you need all of them at some point.
We help start-ups map out the necessary steps. We continuously iterate to better meet requirements and identify suitable production techniques that match the intended scale and cost targets. Our experience allows us to support researchers and start-ups within the MIMIC program.”
How do you incorporate feedback from clinical practice?
“The designer’s perspective is well captured by a statement from design engineer Kees Dorst, professor in Sydney, about the ‘designer’s paradox’: ‘You can only properly define your problem when you think about the solution. But you can only develop a solution when you understand the problem.’
At the beginning, you engage in discussions with, for example, the surgeon about what the product should be able to do and what the user needs are. That becomes your input for developing concepts or prototypes, which you then present back to the healthcare practice, where you gather new feedback for an improved version.
You continuously incorporate new requirements and arrive at increasingly precise definitions of what you want
Defining exactly which problem you are solving and working toward a solution go hand in hand. Kees Dorst refers to this as ‘co-evolution of the problem and the solution.’ This is an iterative process: you continuously incorporate new requirements and arrive at increasingly precise definitions of what you want. You also keep checking with clinicians: ‘does this meet your needs?’ In this way, you continuously validate throughout the process.
We try to make it clear to start-up companies that you need to look early on at what is truly desired and needed in the medical application. Sometimes a technological development is assumed to be very efficient, but it does not align with the needs in clinical practice. In such cases, the advice is to involve users at an early stage and ask them to review and reflect.”
It is notable that the program actively seeks collaboration between wo, hbo and mbo. Why is this so important?
“Because everyone has a role. A graduate from vocational education (mbo) is capable of making the instrument. Mbo graduates from the LiS (Leiden Instrument Makers School, ed.) often go on to work in, for example, manufacturing companies. Many university of applied sciences (hbo) graduates move into development work, and these institutions need practical case studies to prepare their students for how medtech innovation works in real life. And university (WO) students are the potential researchers of tomorrow.
In the collaboration between research universities (WO), universities of applied sciences (hbo), vocational education (mbo), and the professional field, there are still areas for improvement. The program identifies and actively explores these points in order to build bridges between them.”
What are the key lessons so far?
“It has been mentioned several times, but the most important conclusion is that everyone has blind spots. No one can master all disciplines, so collaboration is essential. The Medical Delta program highlights the importance of transdisciplinary cooperation.
In a sense, this is an obvious point that everyone can see, but at the same time it is truly the problem as well as the starting point. For me, this defines why the Medical Delta MIMIC Program exists and why the professional field needs this program: to realize medical innovations, you need others to help you see what you don’t yet know.”
What would you like to share with the Medical Delta community?
“The most important thing is: open your doors. Encourage cross-pollination, listen to others, and try to understand each other. There is plenty of opportunity for everyone to contribute to healthcare innovation.
I would also like to emphasize the facilitating role of the MIMIC network and access to knowledge in a broader sense. We have many institutes in this region, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and numerous networks. It would be great if these could increasingly collaborate at a top-down level as well, strengthening one another in realizing innovations in healthcare.”
Photo's: Guido Benschop
Text: Sietse Pots
Also read: "The instrument maker can talk to anyone" | Medical Delta
