Unlocking Innovation in Healthcare: The Case of the Patient Innovation
Prof. Pedro Oliveira
Professor | Operations, Technology and Innovation Management
Dean and Calouste Gulbenkian Chair Professor
Nova School of Business and Economics (NovaSBE)
Multisided platforms are new organizing forms that can boost innovation in the healthcare sector by empowering patients as innovators and facilitating the commercialization of innovations by and for patients. However, applying the playbook script for the platform model from other sectors may prove challenging given the distinctive nature of the healthcare services. Drawing on the case of a leading healthcare innovation platform in Europe, we examine the platform’s role in identifying and enabling the development and diffusion of patient innovations (user innovations developed by patients and informal caregivers).
The case of Patient Innovation is presented. Patient Innovation is an online platform aimed at facilitating the sharing of innovative solutions developed by patients and informal caregivers themselves. Over 5000 innovations have been collected from a community of over 1 million visitors annually, including 300,000 frequent users from more than 100 countries—currently the largest clearinghouse of health-related innovations in Europe.
