HEALTH.E LIGHTHOUSE
Enabling “Moore for Medical”
Health.E will accelerate the innovation in medical devices and systems by stimulating the development of open technology platforms and standards, thereby moving away from the inflexible and costly point solutions that presently dominate electronic medical device manufacturing.
Open technology platforms, supported by roadmaps, will generate the production volumes needed for sustained technology development, resulting in new and better solutions in the healthcare domain.
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It is the mission of Health.E to:
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Translate the needs of MedTech and Pharma into ECS opportunities
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Identify gaps in the Strategic Research Agenda
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Stimulate open technology platforms and standards
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Connect to European initiatives and relevant communities
HEALTH.E VISION
Accelerate innovation in electronic medical devices by the endorsement of open technology platforms: “Moore for Medical”
The rising cost of healthcare, caused by an aging population, is one of the major challenges that present-day society has to deal with. In order to keep healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone, it will change radically in the coming decades. Healthcare will become increasingly decentralized and personalized, as medical care will move from the hospital to people’s homes as much as possible. This transition in healthcare can only be achieved through the massive development of digital healthcare devices that can provide personalized monitoring, mentoring and treatment.
Despite this urgent need and the enormous resources that are being invested in research, true innovation in terms of products reaching the market has been slow. One of the root causes identified is the lack of open technology platforms. This will release the power of Moore’s Law, that has been the driving force in electronics for more than fifty years, to the healthcare domain: “Moore for Medical”. It is the vision of the Health.E Lighthouse innovation can be accelerated by stimulating the development of truly open technology platforms.
HEALTH.E MISSION
Create awareness
As healthcare is becoming increasingly decentralized and personalized, borders between the traditional domains of the MedTech, Pharma and ECS industries are fading. In this newly explored territory new medical domains are arising that provide more personalized healthcare. This change from centralized to point of care diagnosis and treatment, represents important opportunities for the ECS industry with its expertise in digitization, high volume, high quality and low-cost manufacturing. The mission of the Health.E Lighthouse is to create awareness within the ECS industry of the new and important opportunities that are presented by the transformation in the healthcare domain.
Create a sustainable ecosystem
The Health.E Lighthouse will create a sustainable ecosystem consisting of manufacturers, end-users and other stake-holders. This will make it possible to align and mutually connect European, national and regional initiatives, and the establishment of a forum to discuss and prioritize emerging opportunities and applicable open technology platforms. The Health.E Lighthouse especially welcomes initiatives that are particularly aimed at the development of open platforms.
Stimulate open technology platforms
The breathtaking pace of innovation in the consumer electronics industry has only been possible by the industry’s endorsement of open technology platforms on all levels both in hardware as well as in software. In the medical domain open technology platforms are as yet almost absent. This applies to the hardware level, where innovation is impeded by the high development costs of micro-fabricated devices that form the interface between the living world (body, organs, tissues or cells) and the electronic systems. It also the case for the software level, where the lack of open but secure communication platforms hampers the adoption of wearable devices. The Health.E Lighthouse will stimulate the implementation of open technology platforms that can be used for multiple applications by multiple users.
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Dissemination
The Health.E Lighthouse will actively disseminate its vision and mission by means of workshops and whitepapers that will summarize the emerging opportunities in electronic medical devices for the ECS industry and that will make recommendations for the implementation of open technology platforms. Documentation material will be produced that will address industries, institutes, regulatory bodies and healthcare organizations, policymakers and the general public.