Novel Innovation Design for the Future of Health

Book excerpt: This book highlights the reasons for an urgently needed revision of the current global healthcare setup, discusses the needed mindset for a future of health, and provides a comprehensive development toolset for disruption (and for the needed incremental innovations towards disruption). Today’s biomedical and health innovation related research in universities encourages activities that lead to incremental innovations with a relatively low risk of failure. The healthcare industry on the other hand provides tools and devices for established healthcare providers to improve the diagnosis and therapy/ treatment of the patients’ health problems. The patient is not in the center of healthcare provision however, and prevention and prediction are not core goals. The current health setup needs to be challenged and disrupted. Disruptions are coming from technologies or processes that lead to a significant (>10x) reduction in cost or price/ performance and that also come with new business models. The need for change, effects of exponential technologies, and the needed shift to prevention and to homecare for health democratization and patient empowerment will be discussed in detail in the first parts of the book. The subsequent sections address several innovation methods with a focus on a novel meta methodology named Purpose Launchpad Health. This is followed by a comprehensive discussion on health entrepreneurship activities and needs. The final section of the book addresses how to train students to become entrepreneurial health innovators, presenting successful curricula and examples of health incubation and accelerator setups. All of the innovation tools presented and used in this book are summarized in the final chapter to help the reader get started planning an entrepreneurial venture. Written by experts from academia and industry, the book covers important basics and best practices, as well as recent developments. Chapters are concise and enriched with key messages, learning objectives and real innovation examples to bridge theory and practice. This book aims to serve as a teaching base for health innovation design and to prepare for health-related entrepreneurial ventures. Readers with medical, biomedical, biotechnology, and health economics backgrounds - and anyone who wants to become a future oriented health innovator or who believes in disruptive approaches - will find this book a useful resource and teaching tool for developing validated products/ services and processes for the future of health.