Crossovers

SBIR: Active Elderly People in the Netherlands

A hospital is not designed to promote the activity of elderly patients, since illness is obviously associated with rest. “Take it easy, then you'll get better”. However, research shows just the opposite. Rest is unnecessary and counterproductive to recovery. Patients – especially elderly patients – need to keep moving. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Maastricht UMC+, and Top Sector LSH joined forces for the SBIR competition 'Active Elderly People in the Netherlands' (Acti-On). Through this SBIR programme Dutch entrepreneurs were encouraged to find a solution.

SBIR programme for solving societal problems
SBIR is a competitive programme in which entrepreneurs' creativity is harnessed to solve societal problems. It challenges entrepreneurs to design new products or services and brings these to the market. Companies with the best proposals receive a contract for a feasibility study. The companies with the most promising feasibility study then receive a contract to further research and develop their product.

Various parties participate in Acti-on
Last spring, the call for proposals was published for phase 1 of the Acti-On competition: the feasibility studies. A total of 24 applications came in from a variety of parties. Based on the SBIR criteria – impact, technological feasibility, economic perspective and the cost of the tender – the evaluation committee selected the top six proposals. These applicants received phase 1 contracts from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The companies range from an architectural firm to a high-tech starter and a gaming business.

Unique collaboration with regional partners
What makes this Top Sector SBIR unique is the collaboration with regional partners: in this case with Maastricht UMC+ (MUMC+). The companies that conduct the feasibility studies have a test environment at MUMC+ at their disposal. Furthermore, MUMC+ provides knowledge and expertise. The companies have already taken full advantage of this in phase 1.

Starting phase 2

This autumn, the feasibility studies have been completed and the assessment for phase 2 (R&D project) finished. The three projects that have been selected for phase 2 are: Holland Health House (De Jong Gortemaker Algra Architecten en Ingenieurs B.V.), For what do you come out of bed? (Buiten Komt Voorbij foundation), and Safely moving with smart sensory (Maastricht Instruments B.V.).

Crossover partnerships
How to build a consortium? Both Claartje Aarts (Protospace) and Ingeborg Griffioen (Panton) elaborated on their experiences with consortium building within the crossover field, and spoke about the different languages of the doctor and the designer. According to Aarts: “keep it lightweight”, because building a steady and heavy consortium can influence the start of the project and it is difficult to predict the outcome of the innovation pathway. So an important lesson was simply just to start and discover the innovation road in the meantime.

eHealth implementation

Next to building a consortium, eHealth implementation was an important topic at the CLICKNL Drive Festival. Nowadays, investments in eHealth seem to give a profit somewhere else in the line of development, for example at the health insurance. It is important to find a solution to share the investments and revenues of eHealth implementations. During the discussion the role of the government and the focus on the target audience were mentioned, however no clear answer was given. To sum up, it ended with a general question on how to organise a financial healthcare system where the returns of the innovation reach all the stakeholders concerned.

Create Health examples and opportunities

The two previously honoured projects FIT and Roodkapje presented themselves during the festival. Ben Kröse (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) showed how FIT wants to create insight in the available resources and how they fit the specific needs of elderly people with dementia. Together with the Alzheimer Foundation, FIT wants to help support in the decision making on which tools are suitable when. Evert Hoogendoorn (Ijsfontein) presented Roodkapje, which is developing a game that has elicited a public debate about the elderly and their ability to live independently. Both projects are discussing the ability to validate their product and Hoogendoorn mentioned that Roodkapje is already working on validation during the development process of the game.

Overall, Create Health is a great example of a crossover success where events and discussion bring the stakeholders together and help move the innovation forward. Interested in more opportunities? Read more about the second Create Health call of ZonMw.

Please visit the CLICKNL website for more information on Create Health in Dutch.

Crossovers

SBIR: Active Elderly People in the Netherlands

LINK innovation prize: from lab to business case

Create Health on partnerships in design and healthcare