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1
Comprehensive Implementation Plan
(CIP) – Template
According to the Application Form, the CIPs are documents that contain the description of
transferable good practices and describe future actions planned to ensure that benefits of the
exchange are not lost after the project ends, hence they guarantee the durability of project’s
results.
The CIPs will specify how each ‘region’ participating in the partnership will work to integrate the
lessons learnt from the cooperation into its local/regional policies.
Table of content
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
II. RECAP OF THE LOCAL SCENARIO: “FUNCTIONAL SWOT” 4
III. PRIORITIES RESULTING FROM SWOT AND ACTIONS PLANNED: REGIONAL H4G AGENDA 14
IV. EXTERNAL GPS FOR REGIONAL AGENDA: LEARNING FROM OUTSIDE 27
V. RECOMMENDATIONS: HEALTH4GROWTH 2020 34
2
I. Executive Summary This report aims to present an overview of the regional health system in Piemonte area.
Piemonte region is particularly suitable for the development of the health sector. In particular the high
and international level of scientific publications of the university, the presence of research centers of
excellence, infrastructure of international level, Incubators of the Universities (as for example 2i3T and
i3P), international large companies and growing SMEs or the implementation of strategic initiatives
(like bioPmed Cluster, the Project “Health City” or the Discovery Initiative of Bioindustry Park).
Despite this and the continuing difficulties in the economic situation, the Italian biotech/Life Sciences
industry showed a growth trend in 2011 (that year Italy still represented 15% of European biotech
companies and the Italian pharmaceutical market was the world’s sixth), reflecting a very surprising
feature that practically bucks the trend in the international scenario. At local level, innovation in the
companies is also fostered by the local European Enterprise Network office (EEN Alps) and the
Chamber of Commerce that – together with CEIP Piemonte – work a lot on internationalisation, tech
transfer, support for participation in EU projects, training and services dedicated to the local firms, in
particular SMEs. As main weaknesses, the limited access to international market and to finance,
together with the (small) average size of companies and the lack of expertise in the management of
(bio) innovation, represent the main barriers to the development of local companies.
In terms of priorities, as a result of the analyses undertaken during H4G project P11 has focused on
few topics that seemed to be critical for the health sector at regional level.
� The link between University and Industry through the development of focused initiatives to
support not only internships in companies but also the development of Industrial Phd courses i.e.
Phd courses organis1ed with and hosted by companies.
� the weak link between the marketing and the research phase through the analysis of impacts and
opportunities emerging from the implementation of living lab initiatives in health care
� a new inclusive collaboration between all the main actors and stakeholders (including hospitals) of
the healthcare domain that goes beyond the different specific technological domains.
In order to go in depth in CIP the partner has examined all the three priorities connected to the
implementation of three best practices able to implement them:
1 - Industrial PhD courses as University - industry links. The first priority looks at the relations
between Universities and companies that are mainly based on a traditional scheme: both Universities
and companies are following different goals and aim at strictly cooperating only in certain cases,
whereas R&D financing opportunities emerge, requiring collaborations and/or licensing of
technologies by universities and/or specific needs of companies, they are ready to work in order to
find a common interest.
2 - Living Lab initiatives in healthcare to better link marketing and research. The second priority
focuses on the development of innovations in life science and health care sector. So far it is frequently
based on a technology push approach. The health care sector has a complex web of users (doctors,
nurses, patients, administrative staff, and so on) and buyers at all levels, as diverse as the innovations
1 ASL stands for Azienda Sanitaria Locale (local health structure in the Italian Health National Organization)
3
accommodated for the sector and the critical mass of which could be different. In our action, we
intend to target the patient’s necessities, trying to consider how feasible specific solutions are from
the health providers perspective. At the same time we bear in mind that the buyer is not always the
same person as the user in the life sciences sector (end-users may be the patients and on other way
the public bodies involved in the public health services).
3 - A new, more inclusive, cluster model. One of the weaknesses emerged in the State of Play Report
is the lack of sectorial (healthcare) network. Even if the cluster policy launched in 2009 by the regional
government is considered by the stakeholders the first positive initiative addressing this issue, more
can be done, especially with a wider and more inclusive perspective.
As concerning the External Good practices, the partner P11 has chosen to focus on three different
foreign GPs identified as a potential benchmark on our territory.
First of all, the Outsourced Faculty of Chemistry/Pharmacists, promoted by Outsourced Faculty of
Chemistry/Pharmacists developed by TEVA Pharmaceutical Ltd and the University of Debrecen. Our
learning from the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project and from the chosen
Good Practice aims to strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching research careers
able to include high skilled researchers within business innovation.
Secondly, LiCaLab – Living & Care Lab, an approach that has been set in Turnhout (Belgium): we were
inspired by that to face the challenges connected with the second priority. LiCaLab (Living & Care Lab),
as explained in the good practice description and during the Thematic Workshop held in Turin on 23th
October 2013, is a real-life environment located in the heart of Turnhout for testing and validating
new products, services and processes.
Thirdly, the Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020, the last Good Practice that we want to implement was
chosen because of the necessity to have an inclusive instrument that can build a connection between
the different sectors and actors of the regional Healthcare system.
In the final part of the document, Province of Turin has identified the main Policy recommendations.
First of all, the Regional government should create and coordinate a common round table among the
different actors connected to healthcare. Further, it should support innovative SME’s in healthcare
sector to test their innovation by clear and simplified procedures, harmonizing as much as possibile the
bureaucratic procedures and fostering SME interaction with Scientific Research centers.
In addition, we suggest boosting new models and product development (e.g. clinical trials) in order to
optimize their validation and implementation on the market. As matter of fact, fostering
entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives able to reduce brain
drain could significantly improve the current situation. In addition, another recommendation aims to
promote the exploitation of young university researchers in SME’s by supporting applied research
during PhD years. Consequently, Piemonte region should continue the clusters experience but
declining them by market-driven, multi-technological domains and following a quad-helix model,
whereas funds could be funnelled to enterprises whose research is aimed to find solutions to social
problems, ageing and health issues. Finally, the Piemonte Region should indicate “Smart Personalized
Health” as one of its Smart Specialization.
4
II. Recap of the local scenario: “functional SWOT”
The aim of the State of Play Report was to give an overview of the regional health system, with a
focus on its main actors, strengths and weaknesses. In this chapter we will summarize the key
findings, underlining the main point of the SWOT analysis for what attains Piemonte Region -
ITALY.
In Italy the health service - which is conceived to be “universal” - is structured according to
different levels of responsibility and management: central, regional and local level.
At central level, with the Ministry of Health as main central institution, the State is responsible for
ensuring all citizens the right to health through a robust universal system of guarantees, named
the Essential Assistance Levels (LEA), and through the National Health Plan (PSN), which suggests
the health goals for the entire population. At regional level, the Italian Regions – and this is also
the case of Piemonte - have legal and administrative responsibility related to outpatient and
hospital care: they operate through a network of local health structure (ASL2) and hospitals (AO)
and they have to guarantee the health services’ activities, checking their quality and efficiency,
following up the goals of the PSN and providing their residents with services going beyond the LEA
(complementary or supplementary), financing them from their own resources.
Since the last decade, due to the Italian huge public debt, in Italy the key driver in health policy has
been cost-containment policy. Despite this and the continuing difficulties in the economic
situation, the Italian biotech/Life Sciences industry showed a growth trend in 2011 (that year Italy
still represented 15% of European biotech companies and the Italian pharmaceutical market was
the world’s sixth), reflecting a very surprising feature that practically bucks the trend in the
international scenario. This development is a strong index of the Italian life sciences industry's
2
5
capacity of innovation, which even in an international context characterised by a little growth of
investments and doubtful forecasts, has shown itself able to forge ahead, and confidently project
itself towards the future. Another key factor is the excellent academic & research background
present in Italy, with a strong commitment towards education and training of biotech scientists &
technicians. A similar situation can be seen for the medical devices compartment even if – in this
case – a trend towards high specialisation and niche markets is ongoing, especially due to the
limited average size of Italian companies.
At regional level, Piemonte is an area presenting a quite-established specific tradition and
historical production related to health care. On the other hand, it is certainly relevant its strong
industrial and technological vocation, in the framework of which – especially in recent years - the
health sector has been able to grow and take on a gradually increasing weight both in terms of
employees, both in terms of wealth generated. In 2013 Piemonte confirmed to be the 2nd
Italian
region in terms of biotech companies and, among the firms, approximately 300 work in the life
sciences and medtech sectors (including related services) with around 7.000 people employed. In
general, our regional area has some features that make it particularly suitable for developing the
health sector, e.g. the high and international level of scientific publications of the university, the
presence of research centers of excellence, infrastructure of international level, Incubators of the
Universities (as for example 2i3T and i3P), international large companies and growing SMEs or the
implementation of strategic initiatives (like bioPmed Cluster, the Project “Health City” or the
Discovery Initiative of Bioindustry Park).
At political level the regional government, within a legislative framework for research and
innovation laid down by the regional law 4/2006 and another one (regional law 34/2004) focusing
on competitiveness, business activity and employment, decided with the Three Years Research
Plan to invest in innovation and research, selecting priority sectors to pour into with specific calls
for proposal (divided into “science push” and “technology pull” sectors, including among others
life sciences, biotechnology, nanotechnology and the processes of advanced production), and in
competitiveness, with specific measures like industrial districts and technology platforms (with one
of them dedicated to advanced health services).
6
Another important instrument is the cluster policy that has been launched in 2009, with the
creation of 12 sector-specific innovation clusters: designed to operate on a whole regional context
and characterized by an application-driven approach, they are focused on SMEs and support small-
medium size R&D projects and high value-added innovative services. As mentioned before, one of
them (bioPmed) is dedicated to life sciences and healthcare and it represent the most important
regional aggregation of – more than 80 - companies, R&D centres, Universities and players in the
field of healthcare. The cluster is managed by Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero, a life sciences
specialised Science Park that, since its inception in 1998, acted as local system integrator for the
development of life sciences in the region. It hosts large companies and SMEs, R&D centres and
pilot plants (Bracco), offers services (ABLE Biosciences) and an incubator (Discovery) and related
services. ). As another example of MNE companies located in Piemonte, there is Sorin SPA, a
company active in the health sector from the 70s, that develops and manufactures medical
devices and is a global leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Currently, the regional
government is defining, in cooperation with all the other interested regional stakeholders, its
Smart Specialisation Strategy which is intended to outline the path to pursue for the regional and
local policies concerning research and innovation during the Programming Period 2014-2020.
An essential actor of the local context is the University System (University of Torino, Turin
Polytechnic and University of Eastern Piemonte) which represent the core of science, research and
education at regional level. The quality of the system is top at Italian national level, while – on an
average - it is good compared to EU counterparts and very good for medical sciences and related
domains, also thanks to the presence of high quality competence centres, as CEIP - Centre of
Excellence in Pre-clinical Imaging - and some National Research Council departments.
The University environment represents the main generator of Innovation and it can be exploited
through many ways: creation of a new company (a set of incubators is present - one in each
university - providing space, support and services), tech transfer or collaboration with an existing
company (a set of TTOs is also present, contributing the university system to remain in touch with
the local industry). One of them, 2i3T – the Business Incubator and Technology Transfer process at
the University of Torino -, aims to develop the local economy acknowledging and transferring the
results of scientific and academic research. 2i3T is a bridging institution, that facilitates Knowledge
7
Transfer from University research and National and International market and industries. 2i3T has a
strong synergy with the Molecular Biotechnology Center (MBC), excellent research center of the
University of Turin equipped with labs and expertise, strongly focused on healthcare topics), tech
transfer or collaboration with an existing company in the health sector, accounting currently for
the 44% of the total start up launched (38 start-ups in 5 years). At the MBC several research
streams have performed at top level into the biomedical field, pursuing frontier translational
projects in the health sector with the training of high-skilled people involved.
At local level, innovation in the companies is also fostered by the local European Enterprise
Network office (EEN Alps) and the Chamber of Commerce that – together with CEIP Piemonte –
work a lot on internationalisation, tech transfer, support for participation in EU projects, training
and services dedicated to the local firms, in particular SMEs.
A key part of our State of Play Report is the section dedicated to the interviews that have been
performed involving 15 local stakeholders (from the regional government to the Chamber of
commerce, from the University centres to the local healthcare cluster). Results show us that in
Piemonte the general quality of science and related technologies is considered good (more than
the 1,8% of GDP is earmarked to R&D expenditure, which puts the region in first place among the
Italian ones for innovation capability) and that the healthcare equipment and services are
considered the most important area for the development of the sector.
In particular some of them are involved in the educational field and are linked with the Academia:
2i3T (as incubator of the University, specialised in life sciences) and Bioindustry Park (the most
important scientific park in the northern part of Italy).
At the opposite, as weaknesses, the limited access to international market and to finance,
together with the (small) average size of companies and the lack of expertise in the management
of (bio) innovation, represent the main barriers to the development of local companies.
Furthermore, a setback for enterprises operating into the life sciences is the national regulatory
8
burden upon them and the duration of administrative procedures faced by the companies for
many of their activities (trials, patents, etc.).
The SWOT analysis from our State of Play Report shows the following main Strengths and
Weaknesses:
Strengths Weaknesses
- Good quality of the regional healthcare
system
- Good quality of science and related
technologies
- Focus on new and emerging markets and
sectors (as life science and biotech)
- Skilled labour force in healthcare related
sectors
- Presence of intermediated organisation and
facilitator (as the life science cluster
bioPmed)
- Private investments on R&D as a percentage
of GDP higher than the average in Italy
- Excellent scientific research centers and
business facilitators (as MBC, Bioindustry
Park and 2i3T)
- Good Network of hospitals
- Growth of health care related markets
(cosmetics, “natural foods”, etc) and
presence of a strong agro-food sector
- Interest of public administrations
- Lack of sectorial network (bioPmed cluster
is the first and only initiative)
- Limited access to finance and lack of risk
capital
- Regulatory burden and administrative
length
- Limited internationalization
- Lack of sectorial management expertise
- Small average size of companies
- Labour market rigidity
- Pressure on cost of health
- Returns of “old” diseases” (E.g.TBC) that
impact on the actual health care system
- Not efficient TT system
- Quality of services
And the following main Opportunities and Threats:
9
Opportunities Threats
- Wide range of networking and collaboration
opportunities
- Geographic positioning
- Emerging of new approaches (e.g.
personalized medicine, lifelong
management of diseases, e-health, etc)
- Public funding at EU level (Horizon 2020 and
COSME)
- Availability of expertise in complementary
areas (ICT, chemical, mechatronics, new
materials, etc.)
- International orientation
- Aged society (from companies point of
view)
- Smart specialisation approach
- Touristic attractions related to health
- Collaborative projects
- Participation in European projects
- Potentialities offered by the ICT revolution
- Open innovation
- Aged society (from public authority point of
view)
- Brain drain
- Strong international competition on
products
- Policy issues and governance of the local
system
- World economic crisis
- Competition between territories
- Emerging of new diseases
- Public spending cuts for healthcare
The problems that the territory is facing are largely similar to the problems that other territories in
Europe are facing: aged society, pressure on health care costs, emerging of old and new diseases,
lack of funds for research and innovation, etc.
As to ageing society, the phenomenon may be considered a challenge for the public authorities
and society (increasing health care and social security costs) and an opportunity for enterprises
operating in the life sciences (more potential customers). Combining the Opportunities and the
10
Threats with the local Strengths and Weaknesses we obtain the following functional SWOT
analysis with 13 priorities, to be intended as expectations and intentions for a future and
improved scenario of the healthcare business environment in Piemonte:
Opportunities Strengths - Opportunities
Strategies
Weaknesses - Opportunities
Strategies
- Wide range of networking and
collaboration opportunities,
including Collaborative projects
- Emerging of new approaches
(e.g. personalized medicine,
lifelong management of
diseases, e-health, etc)
- Availability of expertise in
complementary areas (ICT,
chemical, mechatronics, new
materials, etc.)
- Smart Specialisation approach
- Geographic positioning
Public funding at EU level
(Horizon 2020 and COSME)
Reinforcement of a multi-
sectorial clustering action
based on a quadruple
helix model
New networking action
based on a personalized
healthcare approach
Stimulate R&D and
exploitation of scientific
results
Fostering
entrepreneurship and
contamination between
industry academia
Support for the development
and positioning of new global
solution-based products and
services
Support to the growth of new
innovative start-ups with a
public procurement approach
Threats Strengths – Threats
Strategies
Weaknesses – Threats
Strategies
- Aged society -
- New industrial policy
-
- Re-thinking of health care
11
- Emerging of old and new
diseases
- Brain drain
- Strong international
competition on products
- Policy issues and governance of
the local system
-
- Public spending cuts for
healthcare
-
supporting the sector,
recognizing its
strengths and impacts
both on the citizens
and on regional
budgets
-
- Monitoring system for
health diseases
-
- Regional focus on the
European Active
Ageing Society
initiative
-
- Scientific Research
centers and
implement a liason
with the Industry and
the market
system based on a
Personalized healthcare
-
- Actions to maintain talents
and attract talents from
abroad
-
- Focused training course on
bio-management
Regions and territories do not have all the resources to face such problems alone. They need
coherent national/European actions but, at the same time, they have to re-think their policy and
implement a partnership based approach with other territories, in order to be able to cope with all
the health care needs of the population. In order to overcome some of these threats, and to
overpass the weaknesses that Piemonte Region is facing and exploit external opportunities, we
have decided - together with the local stakeholders - to focus on three main actions to implement,
drawing on what we have learned from three good practices contributed by the other partners of
the project: Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020 (an Innovation Network for Active and Healthy
Ageing), LiCaLab – Living&Care Lab (a real-life environment for testing and validating new
products, concepts and processes in living and healthcare) and Outsourced Faculty of TEVA
Pharma (a market oriented approach for education).
These three actions address the 13 priorities indicated in the previous table in a coherent way:
each single actions design a strategy that will implement in our territory an external Good Practice
that will target on one or more of the identified priorities.
12
In the next chapter, we will explain the connection between the local scenario just described and
the actions that we would like to implement. Before doing that, it is expedient that a clarification
is done in regards with one of the weaknesses highlighted in the SWOT analysis: limited access to
finance and lack of risk capital. In Europe this is an across-the-board issue, deeply affecting SMEs
capability of innovation and business, and for this reason the “Health 4 Growth” project has been
handling it with a specific thematic area and focusing on venture capital and other innovating
funding scheme. In Italy, including our region, this shortcoming is particularly severe as the annual
report for the Italian biotechnology industry has shown. According to its figures, in 2013 the
capital venture raised in Italy for biotech companies was less than € 25 million (UK, Germany and
France collected respectively € 190, € 180 and € 110 million) and the number of financings was
much lower than in little countries (in terms of population and enterprises operating in the
biotech sector) like Denmark, Sweden or Austria. A similar situation would suggest that policies
and initiatives concerning the life sciences address this problem. As for the Comprehensive
Implementation Plan here at issue, any of the strategies identified in the functional SWOT analysis
refer directly to access to finance for SMEs. Two main reasons can explain this, which are:
complexity on finding proper good practices related to the access to finance, proposed by other
partners and transferability to our local context; lack of adequate powers and policies tools for our
regional and local authorities to address this matter (considering also the cost-containment rules
to comply with). However, our implementation plan and policies recommendations take into
account the lessons learnt from the exchange of experiences within the project partnership and
stressed during the Interregional Integration Masterclass, held in Coimbra on 11st and 12nd
December 2013: capital investment decisions need to address the move from acute illness treatment
to prevention; many times R&D and innovation funding schemes, e.g. crowdfunding, are not
suitable for health related ventures (in terms of timing and continuation); various different finance
providers often can syndicate. As shown in a more detailed way in the following sections, the
actions to undertake embrace some of the above mentioned aspects (it is the case of the action
which try to adapt the LiCaLab good practice to our context and aim for prevention more than
patient treatment) and one of the external good practice selected, the Outsourced Faculty of TEVA
Pharma, can be considered as an innovative funding scheme (although not directed to SMEs).
13
A further meeting with local Stakeholder Platform, highlighted the needs of a better infrastructural
organization to permit the exchange of information about each patient.
As said before, in our landscape a lot of excellence centres stand out (i.e. Candiolo Cancer
Research Centre) and the administrative skills in the Public Authorities allow the use of database in
the health field.
New experiences and projects may be funded by the National Governement (Aree Interne Project
– Improvement of quality and quantity of health (telemedicine, first aid services, etc)
14
III. Priorities resulting from SWOT and actions planned:
regional H4G agenda
The local scenario described in the previous chapter and the final SWOT analysis highlight the
strengths, the opportunities but also the weaknesses and the threats that our region has to deal
with. In order to explain the connection between them and the actions chosen between the
external good practices, we have to summarize the development path of a new solution in the
health sector and to highlight the weaknesses on which these good practices can have a positive
impact. In fact, in such an innovation-led sector like healthcare, if we consider the process of
product (or service) creation and its introduction into the market, we can recognise the value
chain of companies, the problems they come up against and the external factors influencing
(positively and adversely) their competitive advantage and activities.
In general, the main four steps of a new healthcare solution development path are: Research,
Development, Testing and Marketing. Although during the whole process a network of actors is
anyway implicated (a not fixed network for all the steps, it should be said), each phase has a main
actor: university for Research, start-ups and young companies for Development, bigger companies
and hospitals for clinical trials and testing and end-users for Marketing. Differences exist between
the specific sector (medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, services etc.) but the main
points and the parties involved are similar.
The system that results from the interaction of different actors is quite complex, global in its
development and able to support both the increase in know-how and growth and deliver solutions
to societal challenges.
Taking into account this complexity of interactions and the regional needs mentioned in the
previous section, strengthening our local stakeholders network is a precondition for all the
strategies targeted by our priorities and the recommendations addressed to our policymakers.
15
This aspect could be better clarified by taking a look at the networking system of stakeholders, as
shown in the figure below:
The web of interactions among actors involved into the Life sciences sector of Piemonte should be
structured (and for some of its components the whole dynamic framework shown in the figure, as
the connections among companies thanks to the bioPmed cluster and 2i3T business incubator, is
already a fact) according to the innovative ecosystem approach which is holistic and
interdisciplinary, with the potential to encompass all the determinants of innovation. It differs
from earlier analytical approaches in assuming that innovation relies primarily on interactions
between companies, institutions and people and tracking the linkages between industry,
government and academia in the development of technological and organisational innovations.
The patient, being the final users both for local health structures (ASL) and companies, is at the
centre of the whole ecosystem. His needs and expectations require to be addressed by the public
16
authorities (regional ones in first place) which play a crucial role by means of coordination of the
stakeholders network and policymaking as well (based on information delivered by the patient
and other stakeholders). The main recipient of their regulatory power are all the health providers
(ASL, NHS), committed to providing healthcare to patients and collecting data and information on
their necessities (in compliance with privacy regulations) in way of giving public authorities the
right point of view to undertake and carry out appropriate policies.
The policy makers (public authorities) are in charge with the outlining the regulatory framework
and facilitating the research fields in the health sector, easing the matching between SMEs and
market. In this way it is essential to investigate the possibilities of SMEs to access to public
procurement more easily and being the ways to help them on international markets.
In line with the living lab approach the patients contribute to the experimentation and evaluation
activities of medical devices, carried out by the companies and research centres.
These two actors just mentioned cooperate (sharing information, competences and facilities)
without intermediaries or by taking advantages of TT organisations. Information about patients
should be shared between companies, research centres and ASL. A good and practical example of
this advocated collaboration might be local registers of pathologies: provided by the local ASL,
they could be an useful starting tool for research centres and companies.
In the Piemonte system, this process shows in general an insufficient Academia-Industry-Regional
Government-End Users collaboration, that generally are able to create a triple or quadruple helix
model. So we try to Highligh some weak points that can however be overcome with specific
actions, exploiting the strengths and the opportunities illustrated with the SWOT analysis and
addressing specific strategies which interact within a priority of intervention. The healthcare
system in Piemonte still remains a little bit detached but in asymmetric way as some connections
are well established (e.g. among the companies involved into the bioPmed cluster and the
Chamber of commerce) but other ones are less intense. In general there is still a gap between the
industry related players and the University related players, which tend to continue to work in their
“comfort zone” (academia-academia or industry-industry). A deeper involvement of final users
and healthcare providers is necessary too. A fruitful co-development dynamics (e.g. through
17
innovative public procurement) should be encouraged and will be one of the main interests of this
Comprehensive Implementation Plan. Starting from an integrated approach on connecting
research and technology transfer, we aim at pursuing a common effort into different backgrounds
of the health sector, able to foster economic growth through innovative and business
performance, based on the Human Capital enhancement.
In particular, we decided - together with the local Stakeholders - that our effort should focus on
three priorities:
1- the link between University and Industry through the development of focused initiatives
to support not only internships in companies but also the development of Industrial Phd
courses as for example PhD courses organised with and hosted by companies.
2- the weak link between the marketing and the research phase through the analysis of
impacts and opportunities emerging from the implementation of living lab initiatives in
health care
3- a new inclusive collaboration between all the main actors and stakeholders (including
hospitals) of the healthcare domain that goes beyond the different specific technological
domains.
As for the Regional Stakeholders Platform previously mentioned in this section, the three priorities
we are about to describe share the same network of actors; but each priorities gives more
prominence to some of them, as it will be shown in their specific descriptions.
Here following an in-depth explanation of these three priorities:
1 - Industrial PhD courses as University - industry links. The relations between Universities and
companies are mainly based on a traditional scheme: both Universities and companies are
following different goals and aim at strictly cooperating only in certain cases, whereas R&D
financing opportunities emerge, requiring collaborations and/or licensing of technologies by
18
universities and/or specific needs of companies, they are ready to work in order to find a common
interest. On the other hand the internal dynamics of the sector would require a more strategic
collaboration attitude. The synergies between universities and companies are at the basis of the
development of innovative companies through the start-up creation and a focused and
strategically interpreted technology transfer activity. In order to achieve those results it seems
necessary to align the “culture" and the attitude of both actors. In such perspective the capability
and the ability to develop training paths where universities and companies are working together
seems to represent an effective approach and so, the development of high-level training schemes
in companies at PhD level, matching industrial needs, emerges as a quite interesting scenario. The
current internship schemes could offer to students the possibility to enter in contact with the
industrial world during their training path as integral part of their curriculum and - from a different
side - PhD industrial course could be part of a more complex initiative to boost technology transfer
and increase employability of scientists.
The interconnection between academia and industry is a matter addressed by the policies
adopted in Piemonte in relation to research, innovation and entrepreneurship. First of all, the
Piemonte Region, with the law n.04/2006, has undertaken on organizing, supporting and creating
a regional system for research and some of the overall objectives are promoting the interactions
among local stakeholders (creation of a network embracing the productive system and research
centres), fostering initiatives capable to link research, tech transfer and higher education. In order
to boost the regional competitiveness a “Plan for competitiveness 2011-2015”, regarding
innovation and entrepreneurship, has been launched within the ERDF Operating Programme 2007-
2013. It has been supporting different measures and actions, from the Technology platforms and
Innovation hubs to the Living labs and the use of public procurement as an instrument to stimulate
innovation. The proposed pilot action is complementary to the goals targeted by the Smart
Specialization Strategy for the Piemonte region (defining the main guidelines for the EU Strategy
2020 in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship) related to advanced training for Phd students
in local companies. The policy recommendations, provided in the section V of this CIP, could be
useful to bring this practice to a deeper attention of the regional policymakers. Furthermore, the
19
feasibility study should be a proper way for entrepreneurship policies to take better into account
the needs of local enterprises.
Expected results: Through the performance of the identified GP and its adaptation to the local
territory, we look at implementing this plan at different levels with an integrated approach (top
down and bottom-up), involving a general policy level and - at the same time - taking into account
all the stakeholders identified during the H4G project, in order to ensure a wide participation.
In line with the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project, this practice aims to
strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching research careers able to include
high skilled researchers within business innovation.
The expected results are the design of the courses to implement the soft skills of PhDs and
planning a training period in the industry during the courses for PhD students according to the
Italian labour law.
2 - Living Lab initiatives in healthcare to better link marketing and research. The development of
innovations in life science and health care sector is frequently based on a technology push
approach.
The health care sector has a complex web of users (doctors, nurses, patients, administrative staff,
...) and buyers at all levels, as diverse as the innovations accommodated for the sector and the
critical mass of which could be different. In our action for the second priority, we intend to target
the patient’s necessities, trying to consider how feasible specific solutions are from the health
providers’ perspective. At the same time we bear in mind that the buyer is not always the same
person as the user in the life sciences sector (end-users may be the patients and on other way the
public bodies involved in the public health services).
The “patient experience” is at the core of the choice by a user and an integral part of the product
that is under development. This is particularly important if linked to the development of the
personalised health care paradigm. A similar paradigm entirely meets the “patient experience”
approach and what has been repeatedly pointed out at the Interregional Integration Masterclass
20
in Coimbra by the “Human Capital” and “Regulatory Framework & Business Infrastructure” teams:
put the patient at the centre of the innovation system, providing this way more effective solutions
and pursuing a more market-oriented model of development.
The personalized medicine in this way has a revolutionary nature; is not limited to newly evolved
diagnostic techniques based on the genetic or physiological characteristics of the individual. In fact
the personalised medicine is a new global vision of healthcare encompassing prevention,
diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, where the person is considered as a whole and not just for
her/his single health problem. With this new, wider perspective, we can talk about a new
personalised healthcare paradigm that covers all human health aspects. This new holistic
paradigm of health is also defined as “P4 medicine”3.
A path towards P4 medicine must be “paved” with a solid and extensive knowledge management
infrastructure that contains individual patient information. It will be provided by strategic
partnerships involving all stakeholders, including universities and TTOs but also hospitals and
general practitioners associated with patient-centered care. In this perspective a knowledge
3Personalised, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory
21
management infrastructure requires a supporting institutional and business infrastructure
engaging national/local authorities, incubators and chambers of commerce in order to adapt laws,
policies and initiative to the structural socio-economic conditions of a territory and health sector
specific features.
A living lab represents a user-centred research methodology for conceiving, prototyping,
validating and improving complex solutions in multiple and evolving real life contexts to be
considered as platforms that bring together various stakeholders (starting from final users) at the
earlier stage of the innovation process in order to design and experiment breakthrough concepts
and potential value leading to breakthrough innovations. But the term "living lab" or "living
laboratory" is also used for representing residential home facilities where the behaviour of people
living in this house is observed and usage patterns are collected by researchers and companies
that are designing and investigating new technologies.
In this type of living lab, which our action should be based on, users/patients are more observed
subjects than involved in the co-creation of ideas and their unacknowledged needs are taken into
account (there is often a gap between what people say they do and what they actually do in real
life). This way fixed costs can be partially reduced (specific laboratories are not needed and a
smaller number of staff members is engaged into the testing and evaluation phases) and
disadvantaged territories can benefit from these type of initiatives.
In Piemonte, the core location, asTurin and the other urban areas of the region, could take
advantage of advanced infrastructures and positive socio-economic conditions. But they are
counterweighted by the presence of marginal territories which suffer from severe and permanent
natural and/or demographic handicaps insomuch as showing lower level of socio-economic
development and difficulties on accessing the main infrastructural networks (especially the IT-
related ones like broadband connection), hindering this way business development and people
mobility. These areas, which are located in most of the mountain territories and some hills of the
southern part of the region, risk falling into a vicious cycle of ageing and decreasing population,
services cutting, weakening of the business structure. As for the topic at issue (link between the
marketing and the research phases of the innovation process in the healthcare sector), adopting a
living lab approach as above described could fit the features of these marginal area since the
22
experimentation and evaluation activities would involve patients directly at their houses so that
they don’t have to move to a located laboratory. The ageing and desertification (also known as
empty regions)4 phenomenons, shared with most of the other European regions and developed
countries, are particularly remarkable here in Piemonte since the old-age index 5. is largely the
highest one in Italy. Access to medical assistance, as well as prevention measures, early diagnosis
and pathology identification and adequate social services are an essential part of social stability
and a prerequisite for healthy ageing. Consideration of ways in which to improve the systems in
order to prevent certain illnesses connected with old age, improve their treatment and help
elderly people to live independently at home for a longer period could simultaneously improve the
wellbeing of old people and lead to more rational use of resources.
Considering all the issues above mentioned (P4 medicine, living labs, marginal areas, population
ageing) our action aims at getting public policy makers more aware of the importance of
supporting a final user-centred approach where the patient, identified as an over 65 person living
in a marginal territory of our region, have his health conditions monitored at home by means of
innovative medical devices which are either under experimentation (not the specific device but
the remote monitoring system, data transmission included) and need the patients’ feedback or
already into the market, requiring an evaluation of their technical and cost specifications in order
to improve them. In particular, the aged citizen is monitored to prevent future diseases and
consequent treatments. While regional authorities are expected to steer the stakeholders network
and define the relevant policy making towards the specific necessities of the users and local area
targeted by the action at issue (based on information collected by companies, universities and
local health structures), ASL (local health structures) are directly involved into it through the public
procurement. Indeed, they might scope and select, by launching calls for tenders, innovative
solutions designed to monitor elderly people’s health and under experimentation (or already
available in the market) by private enterprises and/or research centres interested to get their
4R.Muenz, Ageing and demographic change in European societies, 2007 – as reported by G. Rakhorst - Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands (HANNN), Groningen, the Netherlands during the meeting “Ageing Society : technological challenges and market opportunities” held in Turin on 15th Oct 2013 5 see http://www.tuttitalia.it/piemonte/statistiche/indici-demografici-struttura-popolazione/).
23
products directly tested and evaluated by patients. These calls for tenders could concern the
procurement of medical devices, and the related equipment and services for data transmission
and management, combined with the experimentation/evaluation process or without it. As
stressed during one of the meeting of our regional stakeholders platform, the access of start-ups
to public procurement procedures should be facilitated and health sector commissioning body
should look at how they can simplify procurement processes by reducing bureaucracy, clarifying
procedures, adopting e-procurement tools. It is also important to develop training schemes that
help local businesses strengthening their capacity and capability to comply with the requirements
of public sector contracts. An initiative promoted in 2012 and 2013 by the Province of Turin and
called “Informabando” went into this direction, by providing free training courses for SMEs
focused on national and international public procurement, but it would be useful to focus part of
these formative paths on the healthcare, addressing companies but also public procurement staff.
The outputs (more correctly the results) of the implementation strategy that may be envisaged for
this second priority should reduce the gap between research and market during the innovation
process since the enterprises and research centres benefit from the capability of patients to test
and evaluate their devices and services.
Expected results: As for the specific strategies affected by the indications outlined in this sub-
paragraph, their expected results are the following ones:
• stimulate R&D and exploitation of scientific results;
• support to the growth of new innovative start-ups with a public procurement approach;
• monitoring system for new diseases: our action focuses on medical devices and services for
monitoring elderly people;
• regional focus on the European Active Ageing Society initiative;
• personalized healthcare: as previously explained the proposed draw on the paradigm of P4
medicine.
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3 - A new, more inclusive, cluster model. One of the weaknesses emerged in the State of Play
Report is the lack of sectorial (healthcare) network. Even if the cluster policy launched in 2009 by
the regional government is considered by the stakeholders the first positive initiative addressing
this issue, more can be done, especially with a wider and more inclusive perspective. In fact, the
cluster bioPmed has been originally created only for a specific sectorial domain - focus on bio and
medical technologies - and even if today it can be considered the most efficient life science
innovation Cluster in Italy and one of the best in the European context (demonstrated by the
number and the quality of European and international projects and partnership signed, by the
number of the members increasing over the years and especially by their positive evaluations on
the activities provided by the Cluster), that operates locally as a system integrator, it only
represents one of the regional instruments dedicated to improve the innovation and the
competitiveness of a single sector. Despite this, through the years the Cluster has evolved its
vision from a sectorial approach to a multi-sectorial approach based on the wider paradigm of
personalized medicine. This kind of approach is based on a new global vision and perspective of
patient’s prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, where the person is considered as a
whole and not just for her/his single health problem. Thanks to the "converging technologies", the
synergistic convergence of different fields of science and technology that are all progressing
rapidly (like nanotechnology, new materials, ICT and biotechnology), the personalized healthcare
can in fact create at the same time new innovative products and services, and – consequently -
new market opportunities.
Moreover, with this new wider perspective we can also talk about a new personalised healthcare
paradigm, that encompasses all the human health aspects: it shifts the focus from a simple
medicine, intended as a simple cure to be used only in case of need, to a global medicine, which
aims at the individual wellbeing during the whole of his life6. This means that not only Life Sciences
6 This new holistic paradigm of health is also defined as the “P4 Medicine”: P1-Personalized: according to the
characteristics of the single person, it’s able to identify a personalized medical treatment; P2-Predictive: it’s able to
identify what diseases can affect in the future a particular person and how it will react to a specific medical treatment;
P3-Preventive: it facilitates a proactive approach to health and medicine, promoting thereby disease prevention and
thus shifting the focus of medicine "from the ill-being to well-being"; P4-Participatory: people will be able to take their
decisions based on accurate information, thereby taking responsibility for their own health. The role of the society
becomes important for the management of the patient at all levels.
25
sector will be involved but, exploiting the potential of the converging technologies, also different
innovative sectors will take advance of it, with important positive consequences in term of
economic growth, creation of new high skills and in perspective also on reduction of healthcare
cost. At local level, for example, an important initiative in that sense - Innovation to Market: focus
on Ageing population7 - has been promoted in Piemonte with the collaboration between different
sectors: Life Sciences, ICT, Agro-Food, Mechatronic and Textile clusters decided to work together
for a common path that, through a specific seminar, corporate meetings and one-to-one meetings,
want focus the attention of their members to this new opportunity of business. Another local
example is the establishment of a University ‘nurses advanced learning programme’, aimed at
training the professionals to a new multidisciplinary activity in order to facilitate their skills
reconversion and to pave the way to the implementation of a new model of healthcare delivery.
The final aim is to increase the quality of life for frail old people, mostly from isolated territories,
through innovative models of healthcare delivery with multidisciplinary professional teams.
Today, Personalised healthcare is still a new concept and it is only slowly establishing itself as a
promising direction for the future of medicine. No country in Europe is actually embracing and
fully implementing personalised healthcare, as this approach is relatively new and not applicable
to all areas of medicine yet. Therefore we believe that this is an excellent opportunity for
Piemonte Region to position itself, embrace the new personalised healthcare paradigm and
prepare for meeting the challenges of the future. To do that, a first step towards this direction has
to be done and we believe that the example of the network created through the Cooperative
Slimmer Leven 2020 can be a good starting point. In fact, Personalised healthcare is an
opportunity and a promising approach for the future but it requires the efforts of many different
players: Research organizations, Industry, Civil Society and also Governments have to collaborate
together to share a common vision for the healthcare of the future. This collaboration, besides
having the long term ambition of the Personalised Healthcare, can have a positive impact also on
in the short term: connecting different stakeholders from different areas and sectors but
7 http://ageing.torinowireless.it/
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interested in the same domain (healthcare) can in fact immediately stimulate common projects or
initiatives that go beyond the sectorial differences. In Piemonte, so far, a similar initiative is
missing and that is why we choose to select this specific Good Practice. This kind of strategy could
be by the regional authorities as one of the Smart Specialization to be implemented though the
new European Funds. In the Smart Specialization Strategy draft document for the Piemonte region
such vision in still missing, but the policy recommendations, provided in the section V of this CIP,
could be a step forward to bring this practice to a deeper attention of the regional policymakers.
Expected results of the implementation of this third strategy in the Piemonte region are the
following:
• to create a new cluster model based on the healthcare domain. Starting from the successful
experience of bioPmed cluster (triple helix model), the new cluster should embrace a quad-helix
model, with the involvement also of the end-users as resourceful element of the development
path of a new product and not only as representatives;
• to stimulate the cooperation between different actors coming from four different worlds
(Academia, Business, Government, Civil Society as end-users) operating in the same field
(healthcare), but in different sectors (not only Life Sciences but, i.e., also ICT, Agro-Food,
Mechatronics, new materials and Textile);
• to complete the innovation value chain of the local healthcare system, connecting different
words with a common ambition: to create significant technology breakthroughs in the fields of
care, living and wellbeing. Then they would have to be introduced in the local healthcare system
following an evidence-based evaluation in coherence with the European guidelines of Health
Technology Assessment.
In the next chapter, we will explain how we plan to implement the chosen Good Practices in our
territory.
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IV. External GPs for regional agenda: learning from outside
In this chapter, we describe the three external Good Practice chosen and explain how we intent to
implement and adapt them to our regional context.
1 - Outsourced Faculty of Chemistry/Pharmacists
For the first priority, the Good practice (GP) chosen was the Outsourced Faculty of
Chemistry/Pharmacists developed by TEVA Pharmaceutical Ltd and the University of Debrecen and
our learning from the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project and from the
chosen Good Practice aims to strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching
research careers able to include high skilled researchers within business innovation.
Recalling the information contained in the Joint report on State of Play and Collection of Good
Practices and the presentation of the same GP during the Thematic Workshop and the study visit
held in Debrecen last April, this GP developed by the University of Debrecen in collaboration with
TEVA has been generated by the “outsourced faculty” in the TEVA pharmaceutical company to
include industrial, real life knowledge into the education of chemists (later a second faculty was
also established for pharmacists). The objective was to show how a multinational pharmaceutical
company takes part in market oriented education to be able to recruit appropriate workforce from
the newly graduated students. TEVA is a capital-intensive multinational company with more than
111 years professional experience and a collaboration with the Debrecen University has started
since several decades.
Besides the training generated effects, one of the main spillovers of this collaboration has been
the recruitment of new professionals. In facts, the relationship between the University and TEVA
has included BSc and MSc students who intended to write their graduation theses at TEVA
Pharmaceuticals. In figures it has been involved more than 300 students in the visits and around
30 thesis developed through the external faculty.
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One of the main benefits has been the familiarization with the activity of the chemical and
biotechnological methods of industrial production and the opportunity for further contacts and
job opportunities.
As previously mentioned in the Piemonte system one of the main concern is the weak link
between University and Industry through the exploitation of the trained people during the degree
period and the associated risk of brain drain.
In this sense we tried to identify an initiative able to fill this gap extending this topic not only to
internships in companies but also at different level of training periods and stimulation the
collaboration between the University and other companies.
We found that the External Faculty of TEVA and University of Debrecen has been traced a
significant path to be deepened within our territory as a consolidated experience to be adapted to
our territory.
In particular, from the previous SWOT analysis it seems clear that:
• Stimulate R&D and exploitation of scientific results
• Fostering entrepreneurship and contamination between industry academia
• Support to the growth of new innovative start-ups
• Research centers could implement a liason with the Industry and the market
• Actions to maintain talents and attract talents from abroad
• Focused training course on bio-management
Starting from these priorities we have noted that on one hand the local authorities are supporting
more and more the integration between education needs and real necessities of the industries.
On the other hand we aim at having a look also on a positive contamination between research and
transversal skills, including managerial entrepreneurship and communication, that valuate the
scientific background and facilitate the growth of the local economy based on knowledge society.
In this frame the local authorities are part of the process of identification on new paths with the
harmonization between the Industrial and University Education; and central actors of a quadruple
helix system able to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and business competences, in close
interaction with research activities and business approaches.
29
The policy recommendation aims also at developing an international network between
universities, research centres and industrial partners in the health sciences sectors as to improve
the management of key issues in a system participated by the local authorities in order to
implement a quadruple helix model.
2 - LiCaLab – Living & Care Lab
This living lab approach has been set by the LiCaLab good practice and we were inspired by that to
face the challenges connected with the second priority.
LiCaLab (Living & Care Lab), as explained in the good practice description and during the Thematic
Workshop held in Turin on 23th October 2013, is a real-life environment located in the heart of
Turnhout (Belgium) for testing and validating new products, services and processes conceived and
designed in the healthcare sector, operating as a link in the innovation-chain that supports
companies on introducing their solutions in the market. Indeed, the co-creation, testing and
evaluation of new products and services which are evidence-based, taking into account also their
economical feasibility. Methodological support in design and management of real life testing is
also provided, as well as legal, financial and business advice. The effectiveness of LiCaLab is proved
by the fact that 3 new products/services for health care have been tested since 2012 and two of
them resulted in very successful introductions in the market whereas a third one isn’t ready to
enter the market yet. LiCaLab leans on a broad network of partners, both profit and non-profit
organizations with expertise in living and care sciences and a close collaboration between
government, research and industrial partners, health institutions and users is crucial for the co-
creation process of innovation.
The thematic domains LiCaLab deals with are “active ageing” and “housing”, this last related to
innovation supporting people to live independently in a safe, comfortable and accessible house.
It was stressed above that a key factor of success of this external practice is the collaboration
among different stakeholders, public and private ones, and also in our region a similar cooperation
30
among interested actors should be the driver that helps our action to reach its goals. For these
main reasons LiCaLab has been considered as a good experience to look at.
However, some points should be highlighted to explain why the good practice at issue cannot be
transferred as a whole into our regional context but by adapting it to our socio-economic and
regulatory conditions and referring just only to some aspects of the good practices.
The Interreg IVC manual defines the overall objective of the programme as the improvement of
the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments. It may be achieved through
the exchange, sharing and transfer of good practices experiences and identifies a “policy” to the
public institutional framework of the regions.
LiCaLab provides companies with testing facilities (laboratories) whose prospective establishment
can be considered more as an output of policymaking than a policy itself and requires a long/mid-
term programming. So, the setting up of specific facilities for real-life testing is clearly a positive
way to improve healthcare environment but it is in fact beyond what expected within “Health 4
Growth” and would require a deeper and longer political negotiation which overrun the project
deadlines. Furthermore the action envisaged for the second priority targets elderly people living in
marginal areas and for this reason by getting the patients directly involved from their own houses
in testing health monitoring devices, it is possible to avoid the problems for local inhabitants
(especially older ones) of those territories to move from a place to another place in case of a
specific located laboratory for testing; physical conditions of the area where LiCaLab initiative has
been undertaken are much more advantageous than the mountain territories of Piemonte.
Another goal of our action should be the application of public procurement procedures to identify
and buy innovative health monitoring device and services under experimentation but the criteria
of cooperation among local actors in Turnhout region must be adapted to our legal context
concerning healthcare (also because ASL are a key role player in our action).
In order to implement the action described in the previous section and based on “LiCaLab” good
practice, the Province of Turin is considering to exploit the synergies with another EU project for
territorial cooperation (which our local body has taken part into), called “Alcotra Innovation” and
funded by the Alcotra Italy-France 2007-2013 territorial cross-border cooperation program. As for
the health sector, the Province of Turin has considered worthwhile to experiment , together with a
31
French partner, an initiative which consists on monitoring and providing health remote assistance
to elderly people living in marginal areas of our territory by means of innovative devices and
relative services which should be selected, and bought, thanks to public procurement procedures.
If the proposal is approved by the managing authorities of the Alcotra program, we will intend to
use this project to put in practice the action for the second priority. Another funding line could be
also provided by the new Interior National Strategy 2014-2020: linked to the next European
Structural Funds, it offers today to the Italian regions the possibility to apply for financed pilot
projects in the field of education, transport and also health.
3 - Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020
The third Good Practice that we want to implement was chosen because of the necessity to have
an inclusive instrument that can build a connection between the different sectors and actors of
the regional Healthcare system.
From our Joint report on State of Play and Collection of Good Practices, the Cooperative Slimmer
Leven 2020 is an organised partnership within Southeast Netherlands, with Brainport Eindhoven
region at its core. The main purpose of the initiative is to stimulate the cooperation between the
70 members coming from four different worlds: Academia, Business, Government, Civil Society
(end-users). The participants clustered within this partnership share the same ambition: to create
significant technology breakthroughs in the fields of care, living and wellbeing that will, in the long
term, be cost-efficient for society and generate added economic value. In particular, by connecting
different stakeholders from different types of organisations and governance levels the cooperative
tries to be an agenda setter, matching various political-administrative and organizational levels
and develop additional resources, alternative financing, grants and new business models. Named
quad-helix model, this approach is useful and efficient because it involves also the end-users not
as representatives, but as resourceful element of the development path of a new product.
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In Piemonte such cooperative infrastructure does not exist but there are the conditions that allow
it to be implemented: bioPmed cluster it is a good point to start because of its vision that already
embraces a wider personalized medicine approach, but also the willingness demonstrated by
other clusters (dealing with other technological sectors) is representative of the Industry
involvement and interest in such theme. If we consider that also the Research Organizations have
demonstrated their interest (Academia is a fundamental part in innovation driven clusters), the
creation of a new inclusive local network based on a personalized healthcare approach is missing
(or not fully involving) today in Piemonte two of the four elements that compose the Quad-Helix
model: the Civil society and the Government. In our case, Civil Society means end-users, as
Hospitals, ASL (local health structure), welfare organizations, Private Care institutions, Health
Insurers etc., but it is easily predictable that they will show an interest in a new approach
promising new opportunities for all of them. In the Network that we want to implement, their role
is fundamental: their needs and their sensibility about everyday real-life problems represents a
very useful contribution for a common Agenda and they are also excellent starting points for new
project ideas. The fourth part of the Network is the Government: in Piemonte region it means that
we have to involve the political level, as the regional Councillor, but also the technical level, as the
respective DG. For our purpose, we have to involve three departments: Health, Research &
Innovation and Industry. At present only the third is fully committed, the second is partially
committed and the first still needs to be properly involved. Only if we are able to fully engage all of
them we can reach the political weight to set a strong common Agenda with possibility to be
implemented. There are many reasons for each of them to embrace this new approach: as said in
our State of Play Report, also the Piemonte region Healthcare system is facing the problem of cost
constraint and the Personalized Healthcare model promises cost rationalization and reduction.
There are many studies that show how this new approach represent a stimulating opportunity for
researches of many sectors and also a business opportunity for many industrial sectors.
A problem that we might face during the realization of this new collaborative Network is related to
the economic sustainability. If we look at the example of the chosen Good Practice, we can see
that the cooperative’s income comprises a contribution from the members (5.000 euro per year,
33
definitely too high for the average Italian SME). With this budget, the Slimmer Leven 2020 offers a
set of services like projects mapping, partners matching, research of finance and funding schemes.
This kind of model has in principle - with some adjustments - the chance to be implemented in the
local scenario but, if we have the ambition to direct our region to a Personalized Healthcare
model, we need a higher economic effort. In a period of economic suffering like the one that all
Europe - and in particular Italy and also Piemonte region - is facing, it is not easy to find public
funds to invest in such approach, even if the future benefits are many. A solution exists, i.e.
European funds: Piemonte region can overcome this economic problem deciding to invest part of
their new (2014-2020) European regional funds in this challenge. Following the smart
specialization approach8, the Region can in fact decide to concentrate part of their research
investment in the field of Health, giving start to an innovative path toward the personalized
healthcare model.
For that reason, the network that we want to build is even more necessary, because it has the
intent to put together all the actors and sectors involved in the healthcare domain, in order to
share a common vision for the future of our region and it is fundamental to obtain, through their
involvement in the network, political commitment to this new approach.
8 http://ec.europa.eu/research/regions/index_en.cfm?pg=smart_specialisation
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V. Recommendations: Health4Growth 2020
The local stakeholders, the experience gained in the last 2 years and the results of the State of Play
analysis, have suggested us the importance to implement some specific measures, able to
integrate the entrepreneurial system, the local institutions and the academy.
The so-called Leuven system is an example of how collaboration among different actors can foster
innovation, entrepreneurship growth and overall improvement of health system and academic
education provided.
As a consequence, this has enhanced better life and health conditions for the population,
qualifying the region as a touristic health hub.
The study on our territory has underlined that:
1. A strong political guidance is unfortunately missing. Without a unique vision and without a
common plan, single and non-coordinated initiatives alone (for example a single policy
dedicated to innovative research project in the field of the personalized medicine) are not
sufficient and not sustainable;
2. The economic growth of the Health Sector is strictly related with research and higher
education systems, through business innovation activities and intellectual assets up to
innovation in SMEs, as well as an increasing interaction between quadruple helix actors. In
Piemonte there is still a gap within the development of entrepreneurship mind set; but
interesting experiences in self-employment and spin-off are carried out by 2i3T;
3. The coordination between clusters and enterprises is not sufficiently incentivized;
experiences like those gained by bioPmed should be supported to hinder the brain drain
phenomenon;
4. Testing of new products and models is still delayed by bureaucratic system;
5. It is necessary to build fast tracks for healthcare research and experimentation or tools to
enhance them.
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Policy recommendations:
1. The Regional government should create and coordinate a common working group among
the different actors connected to healthcare - i.e. different internal department (DG Health
- health provider included, DG Industry & Innovation, Research and University), clusters
(representing the companies), incubators, universities and scientific parks. Besides is very
important to include the end users (patients through their associations and non-profit
organizations) and social impact actors (Civil Observatory, Third Sector) – draw with them
the framework of a new collaboration and implement a set of coordinated policy/actions
that together can be functional to plan and define the path to follow in order to be able to
achieve long term goals (e.g. Personalised healthcare).
2. Supporting innovative SME’s in healthcare sector to test their innovation by clear and
simplified procedures; harmonization of procedures should help them in reducing time to
market of a new product/service; fostering SME interaction with Scientific Research
centers; Boosting new models and product development (e.g. clinical trials) in order to
optimize their validation and implementation on the market.
Products and services in Health Sector have to be linked to real needs and priorities and
they have to be validated through the Health Technology Assessment.
The interaction between SMEs and Public Bodies can significantly foster innovation.
Fostering entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives
able to reduce brain drain; the educational path has to be structured so that qualified
youngsters’ inclusion and self-employment can be achieved successfully.
3. Fostering entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives
able to reduce brain drain.
4. It is acknowledged that doctoral students need to approach the labour market with
entrepreneurial attitude, project management skills and orientation to business planning.
Promoting employment of young university researchers in SMEs by supporting applied
research during PhD years. The goal may be achieved building a strong link between the
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needs of labour market and the education provided by Academy. Advanced education,
innovation and jobs creation can be fostered by the match between public (EU) and private
funds, co-financing grants for industrial PhD.
5. The Piemonte Region should continue the clusters experience but declining them by
market-driven, multi-technological domains and following a quad-helix model.
The health system should be supported through: scouting and follow-up for start-ups
creation; building of clusters of local and cross-border level; harmonization of European
enterprise legislations.
End users like Local Health Services and Associations need to be included even in the
current cluster model.
6. Funds should be addressed to enterprises that make research to find solutions to social
challenges (ageing and health issues). It would be proper to realize a network of
collaborations among the actors of the health system, like in the picture below9:
9 Source: Europe INNOVA
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7. The Piemonte Region should indicate “Smart Personalized Health” as one of its Smart
Specialization: with a multi-sectorial and multi-technological imprinting, this decision can
be both a prospective answer to local and global challenges (i.e. ageing society, healthcare
costs) and an opportunity of economic growth.