d·Health Barcelona Part Time hits equator with prototyping and business model phase

One of the most difficult milestones for the d·HEALTH Barcelona part-time fellows was to decide which unmet clinical need they will continue working on for the coming months after finishing the clinical immersion with a large pool of needs. To narrow down the list, the participants screened the needs identified based on the following parameters: clinical impact, market opportunity and a study of potential competitors already on the market or in the development phase. This significantly cut down the list and helped them choose the need with the most potential. After choosing a need, each team starts working to come up with a solution. The team at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital will focus on finding a solution to boost adherence to rehabilitation treatments among patients with brain damage from stroke. The fellows who did their clinical immersion at Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital hope to develop a device to diagnose chronic kidney disease in the early stages. And the students who were at Bellvitge University Hospital are going to design a solution to monitor the recovery of stroke patients. Finally, the fellows at Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí will focus on finding a solution to mitigate the neuropathic impact of chemotherapy treatments in patients with colorectal cancer.

After choosing the solution they want to work on, the teams will move into the prototyping phase. This is a repetitive creative process, with constant trial and error while also keeping an open mind and exploring options beyond the known limits and designs. They have to take into account many variables and assess the proposals that come up from different points of view: technical viability, cost estimates, resources, commercial options, etc.

To kick them off in this phase, the fellows did some workshops with experts in device development and creativity/micro-innovation.

“Start to bring your ideas to life by imaging the prototype of your solution,” was Perdigó CEO Arnau Perdigó’s introduction to the session on Development of Medical Devices. He highlighted the importance of looking at the process from different perspectives right from the beginning, based on how the product would work and what it would look like.  Plus, he had three key tips for developing a medical device: “You have to take into account the human factor. It’s important to get feedback from professionals and patients, and above all you have to assess the implementation of your proposals during the prototyping process. The second point is risk management: list the mistakes and problems that could come up during development. And last but not least, the whole process should have ongoing validation and verification.” 
 

For her part, Emma Giner, People and Organization Shaker and former International HR director at Inditex, opened the doors to the world of micro-innovation, creativity and growth. She shared concepts like the remote association test: innovation that comes from juxtaposing things that seemingly have nothing to do with each other to possibly find a connection and create something totally new. This thread that unites the various elements can be the beginning of something interesting. She also spoke about the think provocation, taking nothing for granted: what would happen if we changed this variable? And what if we looked at it from another perspective?  All of these questions are part of the micro-innovation process, and now is the time to ask all of these questions, lay out everything you know and dare to imagine a non-existent solution, which may be the key.
 

While they are doing the prototyping, the fellows will also start to work on their business model, laying out how their project can generate, provide and capture value, ensuring the future success of the entrepreneurial venture and that the solution will reach the market and most importantly, patients. 

We invite you all to see what the fellows think of this first edition of d·HEALTH Barcelona Part Time.