Harnessing the benefits of academic-industry collaboration

1. Harnessing the benefits of academic-industry collaboration Dr Claudia Pagliari eHealth Interdisciplinary Research Group University of Edinburgh Enterprise in Europe eHealth Mission Glasgow 25.5.10

2. Aims • To highlight • Problems facing the translation of innovation to routine practice • Potential benefits of collaboration between eHealth designers & researchers e.g. for • adding to the evidence base • optimising & tailoring tools and services • supporting business case • maximising implementation • Give examples of current and recent collaborations • Discuss challenges for effective collaboration

3. The eHealth Climate • Ambitious programmes to revolutionalise healthcare information management & communications using digital technologies • Policy drivers to empower citizens/patients to self-manage health • eHealth innovation strategic priority for Digital Economy (e.g. WHI) • Major industry players entering eHealth market + explosion of new business ventures • Promise of BIG rewards….

4. eHealth business in the danger zone • Uncertainty over return on investment • Widespread failure to demonstrate clinical or efficiency gains or translate into routine practice [1] • Technical problems (chiefly interoperability) • Major barriers are socio-technical, • Lack of demonstrated benefit & suboptimal business case definition • Lack of persuasive evidence for long-term investment • Austerity climate [i]Kaplan B, Harris-Salamone K (2009) Health IT success and failure: recommendations from literature and an AMIA workshop. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association March 4, 2009 as doi:10.1197/jamia.M2997

5. Designing for & with users • Staged user engagement for • + clinical appropriateness • + interface usability • + models of impact • + understanding of contexts of use • Robust evidence of impacts needed to • persuade clinicians of value • motivate evidence-based practice/ commissioning/purchasing Academic research can maximise quality & objectivity of both

6. Need for integrated approaches Developers, designers (Suppliers) Researchers & evaluators Individuals, organisations and communities (Users, Purchasers, Commissioners, Payers)

7. Sequential stages in evaluation of complex healthcare interventions

8. Working model of iterative evaluation. Qualitative & quantitative research methods, tailored to problem & stage of innovation

9. Examples of eHealth@Edinburgh Public & community health • Telemonitoring, telehealthcare, M-health for long-term illness • Online health interventions (e.g. smoking cessation, depression) • Evaluations of large scale IM&T implementations (e.g. NHS CRS) • Patient centred healthcare (e.g. Personal health records) • Public engagement (e.g. on record linkage for research) • Evidence syntheses & HIT policy analysis (systematic reviews) • Record linkage Informatics & e-Science • Grid computing, distributed data architectures • Artificial intelligence applied to healthcare • Robotics, nanotechnologies, bionics • Medical imaging (e.g. microbubbles) Laboratory and translational sciences • Prescribing & infection information systems, point of care testing Social, political, legal and management sciences • Emerging innovations & technology policy & governance Veterinary sciences • Virtual farm Medical eLearning technologies • Virtual medical school, global learning Education • Health Informatics postgraduate programmes (MSc, PhD) … Etc….

10. Examples of industry collaborations in eHealth • Intel (home telehealth) • Tunstall Medical (home telehealth) • IEM (telemonitoring) • Selex (telemonitoring) • Avalis (mobile telehealth) • T+ Medical (mobile telehealth) • Orange (mobile patient support) • IBM (methodology, high performance computing) • Agilent Technologies (AI for prosthetics) • Bristol Myers Squibb (medical imaging technologies) etc………

11. What forms do these collaborations take? • Supplier sponsors academics to evaluate or co-produce their product • Academically-developed technologies inspire industry investment or collaboration • University spin-off continues academic relationship • Researchers purchase eHealth software/hardware for study purposes • Supplier provides low-cost/free technology & support for research • Full collaboration on integrated programme of development or implementation activities • Industry and academic partners working together out of academic interest or to scope ideas for innovation (e.g. DE)

12. Benefits to industry • Access to theoretical & methodological expertise • Potential for positive independent evaluation to support the business case (academic credibility) • Cheaper than consultancy firms • Opportunity for continuing professional development of industry staff

13. Benefits to academics • Access to new types/sources of knowledge (e.g. market surveillance) • Proximity to emerging innovations • Scale benefits of working with large organisations • Financial, technical or equipment support • Opportunity to optimise interventions prior to clinical trials • Chance to influence & study already-planned rollouts

14. Challenges for industry partners • Risk of negative findings which do not support the business case • Problems with preventing publication of unflattering results due to ‘academic freedom’ • Negotiating new ways of working together • Non-shared language, concepts, culture, drivers • Mismatched timescales

15. Challenges for academic partners • Exclusion of applied research in metrics of academic performance • Restricted publication due to implied vested interests or lack of distance • Vulnerability to funding cuts at short notice • Non-shared language, concepts, culture, drivers

16. Conclusion • Appropriate collaboration between industry & academia can help to strengthen the quality, effectiveness and adoption of eHealth innovations • Critically it also provides a means to substantiate the business case on which evidence-based decisions about purchasing or commissioning will increasingly be based

17. To discuss collaborative opportunities contact: Claudia.pagliari@ed.ac.uk Edinburgh eHealth Group