The project is called Siish. What can you tell us about it?
“It is a national project that brings together actors from seven regions between Umeå and Lund. The actors are representatives of the innovation support provided along the value chain from idea to finished solution, and the unique aspect is that academia, the business sector and healthcare are all collaborating to achieve the goal. Together we will identify and develop ways to shorten the time it takes for new, innovative solutions to be implemented in healthcare. Siish will further develop and harmonise working methods and processes across Sweden, based on best practice.”
Why is it important?
“Healthcare is facing major challenges and there is a need for new solutions to meet these. At the same time, there are many ready-to-use solutions that have the potential to help both healthcare and patients, but are having difficulty achieving large-scale implementation in healthcare. It is implementation that will be the main focus of this project.”
The project has been preceded by a mapping of factors that facilitate and impede effective implementation. Can you give examples of what they are?
“Based on the mapping, we identified six overarching areas of need for faster implementation, which we will now work on in the project. One example is to create effective contact routes for collaboration between healthcare, the business sector and research. Another is increased knowledge of the regulations that govern the use of new solutions in healthcare.”
Many innovative ideas for healthcare are taking shape at the University. How will researchers benefit from the project?
“Siish is a system development project, which means that the focus is on improving the innovation support system. The aim is that those of us who work in it can provide even better support to innovators who want to develop future healthcare solutions. In just over a year, we will test new ways of working, and I hope it will be with solutions developed by researchers at Uppsala University.”
What happens next?
“We just had a joint kick-off for the project. The next step is to prepare for the systematic analyses that will be carried out in the seven systems. There, we will take a deeper look at what we in Uppsala are doing well in the six identified areas of need, and where we can improve.”