Supprt for companies within the project The Innovative Hospital

Important results from the project

The goal of this project has been to identify to which extent a limited support can catalyze product development in SMEs. Seven companies were been identified and received support for tests and evaluation. The support has been in the form of financed time within Uppsala University hospital and has ranged from 10 up to 100 hours. The support has been granted for one expert evaluation, two usability studies and four studies providing clinical data for clinical evaluations reports. In all cases the results of tests and evaluations has been effective.

Expected long term effects

The reported effects from the projects have been in the following forms: increased quality (3), increased market size, shorter time to market (1), Launch and sales (1). The project as a whole has also shown that the support for time within the hospital is not the only tool needed to realize tests and evaluation. A number of hurdles have been identified and strengthen the belief that support for tests and evaluation needs to be complemented by a testbed to be effective. Ability to support continues collaboration and adapt to outcome and needs are believed to be key success factors.

Approach and implementation

The project has been based on four main activities; selection criteria, identification of projects, delivery of test and follow-up. The scope of the projects were varied which ended up being positive from a learning perspective. During evaluation of the results and projects it is clear that early projects and or very small companies needed a lot of additional support to be able to benefit from the planed and granted support. The conclusion is thus that support in the form of time does catalyze development but additional support may be needed in early phases and for small companies.