Healthcare Innovation in Practice: The Noaber Foundation

The strategy of the Noaber Foundation is to develop an unorthodox approach to force breakthroughs in healthcare innovation.

One of the first steps in this approach was the start of a separate network for healthcare bringing together a broad range of stakeholders. The Noaber Foundation established VitaValley, a network for innovation in healthcare. We describe the original ideas and visions that underlie this approach and show how, in a process that started with utopian dreaming and much trial and error, we built a network of stakeholders of knowledge, clinical experience, technology and capital, to develop and implement new innovations in medicine and healthcare delivery. Research innovation was connected to investment, business and implementation. A strategic alliance with the Mayo Clinic in the USA was established to strengthen the impact of basic research and clinical investigations, and to connect these to innovative solutions and investments. Later on, this resulted in the Alliance for Healthy Ageing, an international cooperation between Mayo, Noaber, VitaValley, and the University of Groningen. Our experiences have taught us that breakthroughs in innovation in healthcare can only be realised by the effective use of networks to develop eco-systems with a shared vision – and that innovation has to be driven with a focus on impact.

An extract from Healthcare Innovation in Practice, with Maarten Verkerk, Nicholas LaRusso and Paul Baan in Breakthrough: From Innovation to Impact, Volume 1.

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