Bringing Perspectives Together and Providing Collective Guidance to the Innovator

In 2020 Health~Holland and Health Innovation Netherlands (HI-NL) decided to work together and advise consortia funded through the Match Call programme to make use of the HI-NL Round Table service. This is particularly encouraged if the innovation studied will request CE marking during or within two years of the project. The shared goal of Health~Holland and HI-NL is to set new innovations on the right path from the outset.

In 2020, the first Round Table supported by a Match Call grant was successfully held. It advised on a novel COVID-19 rapid test method that TNO was developing. The innovators praised the useful discussions and hands-on advice about the following steps that emerged from this Round Table. In January 2021, another Round Table making use of the Health~Holland/HI-NL collaboration took place, and many more will follow this year.

For consortia eligible for the Match Call programme and who are working on an innovation that would benefit from the guidance of a HI-NL Round Table, the combination is an excellent proposition. The consortium will gain all the benefits of the HI-NL Round Table while being supported by the PPP Allowance to cover (part of) the related costs.

“Last year, we started with the Round Table service. Bringing stakeholders together at an early stage of innovation to guide innovators proved, without a doubt, to be extremely valuable for everybody involved. Collaborating with Health~Holland makes the Round Table service even more accessible for innovators.”- Irene Kanter-Schlifke, Director of Operations HI-NL

Supporting the Health & Care missions: +5, -30

With the collaboration, HI-NL is also proud to contribute to the five missions of the societal theme Health & Care. The central mission is that by 2040 all Dutch citizens will live at least five years longer in good health, while the health inequalities between the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups will have decreased by 30%. Medical technology can play a key role in realising this mission.

New innovations have the potential to make care more accessible to all citizens and more affordable to the system. But it will still be essential to evaluate upfront, advise on how an innovation can actually add the value we expect, and then provide the necessary guidance to ensure that the innovation is implemented in a meaningful manner for its users. By providing such guidance and helping generate the appropriate evidence of value, HI-NL supports this central mission of Health & Care.

Technology also facilitates the transition of care from the clinical setting to the home setting (mission II) and enables people with chronic conditions or limitations to actively participate in society (mission III). In those cases, health innovations will often be used by citizens and patients themselves, for example to monitor the progression of their condition at home, with or without active guidance from a healthcare professional.

For those products, it is also vital that the right innovation is used for the right purpose, and the right evaluation is applied to the right innovation. HI-NL helps to give actionable guidance based on stakeholders’ requirements from an early stage onwards, which increases the chances of successful implementation.

This interview is also published in Year in Preview 2021, which is filled with the most important developments in the Dutch Life Sciences & Health sector and provides a glimpse of what’s on the map for 2021. Read the Year in Preview here!