Ireland as a Healthcare Innovation Hub
Earned…
I think I’d be letting the side down if I didn’t combine “Guinness & Enterprise'', pausing for a quick chat with Uncle Arthur after representing the Guinness Enterprise Centre at Enterprise Ireland’s incredible Global Healthcare Forum 2022 at the Aviva Stadium today.
Reflecting on wicked problems over a pint
Leo Clancy opened the event this morning. What an important job: your organisation is responsible for welcoming and bringing together 125 executives from leading healthcare systems and hospitals from over 20 countries to collaborate and innovate in an effort to improve healthcare for all. And hosting the event in a venue where the Irish rugby team beat New Zealand was not lost on the audience, including the kiwis. Surely we are no longer punching above our weight now and have done enough to set a new bar in sport and Life Sciences.
Many made a subtle but important distinction: we want to prioristise 'health' over 'healthcare'. How do we get in front of the problem before it becomes a problem? For the patient, practitioner, process, physical property and ultimately, the population?
Garrett Murray, Head of Life Sciences at Enterprise Ireland highlighted Ireland's position as one of the world's top 5 global medtech hubs. He referred to a useful tool for summarising that I often use myself to help distil some of the main themes. For me, they were C’s:
COVID. System shocks really test our resilience and ability to respond and adapt. By and large, the ongoing legacy of a pandemic can be a good thing for healthcare systems - innovating, breaking down barriers, a diverse bunch of humans working together to solve a ‘wicked problem’.
COLLABORATION. Chris Coburn, CIO of Mass General Brigham spoke about Boston being like Ireland- anchored by academic institutions, having an interconnectedness and being “tightly packed… working on solutions from bed to bench and back”. Jennie Lynch is living proof that this interconnection and collaboration is possible with this week's events!
CONSTRAINT or Crisis as an innovation accelerant. The same way whole populations learned to work from home and embrace technology in 6 months that some estimated would have taken 5 years - the healthcare industry adapted under constant pressure that mere mortals like me will never quite grasp. Sadly, a constraint is typically one of the main innovation drivers in any sector. We need to create time and space to step outside the day job, challenging group-think and the day job blinkers!
CAREER. Healthcare systems in attendance today are looking at ways of keeping some of the positive change staff had to push through, rewarding their innovation under pressure with the opportunity to pursue a new pathway and build confidence in this new skill set - something that must be applauded and encouraged.
COMMUNICATION. As George Bernard Shaw said - “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”. That is still true but today more than ever, illusion itself is taking place in communication! When harnessed, leveraged and respected as a channel - social media can also be a constructive force of good. Don't lose touch or trust with your communities - they can adapt your message and help you disseminate it - getting care or even intervention to more people, more effectively.
“Above all the shiny devices, AI and emerging technologies - it is the people within the healthcare systems that need to be built in to the innovation cycle”
COUNSEL. Advice for start ups and innovators included making the connection with the healthcare system early - build that relationship and understand what a partnership means. Innovation can be high risk, particularly in this environment - time and effort is required to build relationships and although your enthusiasm is admirable and energising, the timing may be wrong. Build the connection anyway, think about what keeps the provider up at night. In one example it was ‘help me free up beds’ but think that through in a way that incorporates all the steps along the user journey, including…
COMMUNITY! A lot of the healthcare industry is very interested in preventative measures that could be adopted in the home but the home has to be right, able and ready for this 'shift left'. Not everyone has access or has a level of tech/data literacy that some of us are accustomed to. So there’s another reminder of the important role of the community leader - ensuring constituents have access to resources (and places like the GEC).
CONTEXT. Professor Yvonne Doyle of the NHS spoke about how "tech may race ahead of what populations are comfortable with..." And if they’re not ready for this shift we’re excited about, they will still turn up at A&E if they believe they need to. So we need human bridges to build trust and get new things into practice. Some cohorts of neighbouring regions can have a 20 year difference in quality of life. Other cohorts like millenials would prefer online/remote healthcare - 70% of them in one example. The business context is critical and can be a significant gap too, something I often hear from the folks in the clinical setting. The agile innovator can help bring a concept (that you don’t have headspace to develop) from ideation to commercialisation. Trust them to move fast and break stuff where the health system can't.
CULTURE. Stephen Creaner, Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland rounded up the day, speaking about investing and innovating your way out of a crisis - referring to a red thread that showed up throughout the day around the importance of considering the human context and developing a culture of innovation - in order to fuel and sustain positive change.
Above all the shiny devices, AI and emerging technologies - it is the people within the healthcare systems that need to be built in to the innovation cycle - to help the people outside it stay outside, meeting their needs before they become costly and critical.
Way too many people, interesting speakers and topics to mention today but it was nice to see GEC residents Colm McGarvey, Sonia Neary and Foodmarble among others.
Looking forward to engaging with this important mission again on Thursday at the GEC.
To your health.
(Originally posted on LinkedIn, June 2022)