Kick-off Health Innovation Space

The "Health Innovation Space" aims to accelerate product developments in the healthcare sector - and precisely those technologies and services that are really needed in practice. This is to be made possible by the nationwide unique collaboration between healthcare providers, payers and companies, which already takes into account the different perspectives of the players in the healthcare market in the test environment: On the initiative of hannoverimpuls, AOK Niedersachsen and Wahrendorff , the innovation platform will therefore be used to carry out genuine pioneering work in the healthcare sector. The resulting knowledge will be shared with all the players involved.

Innovations are the key to better treatments, greater efficiency and an improved quality of life. "Digitalization in particular will significantly change the future viability of the healthcare system and bring about groundbreaking improvements in healthcare," says Frank Preugschat, Managing Director of Care and Service Management at AOK Niedersachsen, one of the initiators and drivers of the new collaboration alongside Klinikum Wahrendorff. "The direct collaboration between healthcare providers, cost bearers and companies is our unique selling point, which enables us to develop products for the market quickly and in line with demand," adds co-initiator Holger Stürmann, Managing Director of Klinikum Wahrendorff.

The Health Innovation Space concept has already shown its enormous potential in the first project rounds. Start-ups such as Flow Technologies have already gone through rounds with direct feedback from users, patients and health insurance companies with their digital offerings and achieved excellent results: "High patient satisfaction", "therapy at the cutting edge" and "sensible use of personnel with limited resources" are just a selection of the lessons learned by those involved. Wahrendorff received an additional 100,000 euros in funding for its digital infrastructure as part of the project and - based on the project results - can submit two further funding applications for 450,000 euros together with Flow Technologies. In addition, the results obtained have enabled both to expand their reputation and presence in the scientific field of psychiatry: "Flow Technologies' experience has been very positive across the board. Thanks to the important work of hannoverimpuls, the ecosystem here works really well! This will enable Hannover to continue to position itself as a center for innovation in the healthcare sector" says Charles Michelson, CEO of Flow Technologies.

The structured process of the Health Innovation Space - each project round runs from selection to evaluation in four phases - thus enables payers as well as service providers to have needs-oriented access to innovations: "The increasing number of project partners and project rounds will also create a growing culture of innovation in the healthcare sector in Hanover-Hildesheim ," says Doris Petersen, Managing Director of hannoverimpuls. The business development agency for the city and region of Hannover initiated the umbrella brand Digital Health City Hannover, of which the Health Innovation Space is a part.

Everyone involved has high expectations of the Health Innovation Space for the Hannover-Hildesheim region: many project partners are now working shoulder to shoulder to drive innovation - every successful market entry is also an important step towards the optimal healthcare of tomorrow.

Your press contact:
Katharina Nörthemann
E-mail: Katharina.Noerthemann@hannoverimpuls.de
Tel. 0511-300 333-74