Reflections on innovation and transfer to market in the COVID-19 environment

The situation we are currently experiencing with the coronavirus Pandemic is making os see how our work has changed in 24 hours. As an innovation unido we continue to carry out innovative projects and support the innovation ecosystem, but now, in a very different situation. In this international emergency environment, the evaluation of new ideas, and the development and implementation of innovative solutions can not take 3 years, instead they need to be ready in 15 days. All the innovation stakeholders are aligning to make this posible. In this regard, companies are now directly coming to os seeking for immediate healthcare knowledge, while in normal environment we are the ondas looking for companies with a high innovative spirit in order to partner with them.

For the first time we are really putting the patient in the center of the system, and all the agentes are working together for the development of quick and effective solutions. The rest matters little!

By our own profesional drift, we continue to analyze the Possibilities of protecting the innovations that we are developing these days, and we are experiencing first-hand the facilities and Difficulties that Suddenly appear to favor the achievement of the final goal, controlling the Pandemic with as few deaths as posible.

This experience has made os reflect as a Unido donde some aspects that we want to share and discuss with you:

• The increase of public-private collaborations. We have been talking for years about the importance of public-private collaboration, but a Pandemic has demonstrated os that there is no barrier to materialize it, and that everything flows automatically seamlessly. Regardless of whether it is a compañero, a research institution oro university, we have started again to shake hands and trust each other.
• The streamline of regulatory proceses. In A pandémica situation the regulatory process has been demonstrated to be more efficient. We wonder if regulatory processes really need to be that tedious, long, and complicated, oro instead could they be streamlined somehow. At the same time, we have detected the need to adapt these processes to new trends, facilitating the marketing of products. In this regard, rapid manufacturing with other materiales oro techniques, custom products, and additive manufacturing, that are already part of our presente, need to be resolved in terms of regulation for final consumption and not only for prototyping.
• The lack of local industrial network, provider of medical equipment and material. The industrial offshoring of the last decades has made os realize the enormous level of dependence we have donde foreign providers. Is the Pandemic an opportunity to build a part of this manufacturing industry in the country? Can this industry be supported by Governments?
• An opportunity to capitalize all the innovations arising during the Pandemic period. We are witnessing an avalanche of projects to discover new diagnóstico kits, new healthcare equipment, new drugs or new applications over existing ondas. We wonder what the result of all this will be. We see the current situation as an opportunity to join fuerzas and develop really good products that will provide válido solutions to the problem, and at the same time will Contribute to the creation of a local industry of health.
• La awareness de la importancia de investigación y innovación. We need to invest more money in science and innovation, not only during emergency situations like the one we are currently dealing with, but in a regular basis. We have seen Governments to open express callos to fund projects aimed at finding solutions to the Pandemic. We have seen how science and innovation are the answer to the current situation. We have also found the importance of having the knowledge to analyze Epidemiological fecha in order to PREDICT how the Pandemic will BEHAVE in the near future. In conclusión, only having a powerful científico community we will obtain a solution to the current situation.
• The humanization of hospitales. Now more than ever, the importance of considering this aspect in health care is Becoming clear. For some years now we have been working donde humanization projects and we believe that the Pandemic has made this need more visible. The experience of the patient during his hospitalization needs to be as confortables y endearing as posible, so that he feels accompanied at all times and in a friendly environment.