WATCH: Terje Peetso – Now is the time to talk about innovation

The Health Tech Living Lab Summit in Tallinn looked for ways to implement innovation while preserving resources and making wise use of them. Since the format of the conference changed to a webinar due to the emergency situation declared by the government of Estonia mere hours before the event was due to start, Terje Peetso from the North Estonia Medical Centre felt it was the perfect time to talk about innovation.

“It is clear that the need for innovation may arise at any time,” said Peetso, “making it convenient to have innovative solutions at hand. Even though hospital examples are digital, innovation need not be digital, sometimes it is enough to change certain activities to generate novelty.”

Peetso brought out eight points to keep in mind in a hospital environment. “First, determine the need or problem,” she said. “It is often easier to describe a problem than a need or a solution when people don’t often know what the solution might be. Good ideas or written needs go nowhere without a proper plan. It’s always busy in a hospital and it’s hard to find time for extra assignments; planning is key here. We also need to consider other resources, such as labour or funding.

It is also important to keep the end users who voiced the problem or need constantly involved in the development process. There is no need to redevelop or reinvent everything – perhaps something suitable already exists to save us the time of reinventing the wheel.

If there is a possibility to test something, like a prototype, it helps detect mistakes, but it can be difficult to perform tests in a hospital environment. On the one hand, a hospital is an excellent example of a living lab, but we also need to make sure patients are safe. Consider the patients and the required size of the control group.”

“Additionally, take notes of what happens during the testing process and analyse the results,” she advised, “because these steps form the basis of subsequent actions. The results should be put to use and not forgotten. If you have taken all the previous steps, it would surely be a waste not to use the solutions. Spread your results to allow others to learn from them and take innovation to even more people. We can even learn from failures.”

When speaking about experience and lessons, Peetso stressed that a good project manager is a very valuable asset. “The key to success is to find a person who is familiar with the healthcare field and the needs of partners and can put all of that into a plan effectively,” said Peetso on the basis of projects conducted in the North Estonia Medical Centre. “I also agree with the importance of strategic support. Not necessarily positive, but strategic support – sometimes things simply won’t come to pass unless all parties act on it. For example, we need standardisation or common understanding.”

The North Estonia Medical Centre is currently working on a project about the journey of stroke patients. When talking about this project, Peetso highlighted the importance of dividing tasks to allocate resources.

Watch the webinar from: https://www.facebook.com/tehnopol/videos/232361688155438/

Health Tech Living Lab Summit was organised by Tehnopol science and business campus with the support of the European Regional Development Fund.

Tehnopol is the largest science and business campus in the Baltic Sea region and aims to facilitate the generation and growth of world-class tech companies in Estonia and support their expansion to foreign markets by providing solutions ranging from business properties to business development services. One of the focus areas of Tehnopol science and business campus is health tech. The Connected Health Cluster, which was created to support this area, unites everyone in the health sector in one ecosystem. The cluster’s activities generate value for healthcare providers, health tech companies as well as other stakeholders related to the area. The cluster helps organise local collaboration projects and export health tech solutions to other countries.

The cluster’s activities are co-financed by Enterprise Estonia.