How to boost innovative ideas in healthcare ?

The H4 under the microscope of LaData

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Alliance Data

4 min readJun 5, 2022

In this article, Thierry Dagaeff, member of the operational management of the new H4 hub in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland) presents 2 innovation projects improving the daily lives of patients and caregivers.

Who has never forgotten to take a pill ? D4P, or “Dose for Patient”, is an app that makes it easier for patients to monitor their medication intake, while improving contact between various players: the pharmacist, the doctor and the patient.

Another project that helps move some of the healthcare from the hospital to patient’s homes is being pushed by Sonceboz: a Bernese company that is developing a subcutaneous injection device for self-administration of medication.

These two projects have several points in common. First of all, they follow the current trend of innovation projects in the field of healthcare, which aims to make patients more autonomous while simplifying the life of healthcare professionals. The second point is that this kind of project is representative of the developments that SILAB (the “Source Innovation Lab”, the innovation lab of the Institute and High School of Healthcare La Source) has been supporting since January 2022.

The future of healthcare is collaborative

The H4 is the hub based in canton de Vaud supporting innovative ideas and projects in healthcare. In healthcare it is not so easy to get in touch with the end users. Whether you are an individual with an innovative idea or a large company that wants to launch a project in a field of healthcare, H4 is the right place. It will challenge your idea and put you directly in touch with the right people (hospitals, clinics, patients, laboratories, …) to leverage it to a development stage: user tests, clinical trials and more. This is why the H4 is building a community around it that brings together dozens of stakeholders in the healthcare sector of Western Switzerland, also known as the Health Valley.

Logo of the H4 — Source: https://www.h4vd.ch

It should be noted that the H4 is not another business creation support organisation, but that it deals specifically with the analysis and setting up of the experimental phases of a project. The search for financing and the project building will be undertaken later, through traditional channels.

The H4 was recently created in January 2022 and financed with 3 million CHF for a period of 5 years by the Institute La Source and the Canton of Vaud. Its mission is therefore to become financially autonomous within 5 years and benefit the regional health ecosystem. Although the location and funding of H4 is based in the canton of Vaud, the project submission is not at all limited to its territory and remains open to all. It is therefore not impossible to see projects from other countries emerge in the near future.

The community as an accelerator

The last point to consider in order to understand the H4 is the last of the 4 “H “: the Hub. Indeed, the H4 community is made up of academics, caregivers, industry and even politicians. The experience and willingness to collaborate of the members of this community has enabled the H4 to get off to a flying start. The half-yearly results have already been achieved after 5 months, according to Thierry Dagaeff, a member of the H4 management team since its launch.

Thierry Dagaeff holds a PhD in theoretical physics and has subsequently been involved in artificial intelligence and innovation projects, and has never been far from entrepreneurs. He is currently co-director of the H4, but has also been an innovation project manager at SILAB for a few years, where he can use his diverse skills in innovation processes for projects in the healthcare field.

Thierry Dagaeff, Co-director of H4 — Source : https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierry-dagaeff/

Medicalytics 2022: #healthdata - Territory to decipher

There is a reason why Thierry Dagaeff is mentioned in this article. Indeed, he will be one of the talented speakers at the Medicalytics event which will take place on 23 June in Lausanne. This event is co-organised by the LaData association, the Haute Ecole de la Santé La Source and the company Calyps. It will combine, as you may have guessed, data, innovation and the world of health. During this conference, Thierry Dagaeff will present an interactive workshop on the subject “Patientflow & dataflow: from pre-hospital to post-hospital”. I won’t tell you more about it and invite you to register for the Medicalytics event without delay! The detailed programme and the biographies of all speakers can be found on the website https://medicalytics.ch. Free registration for the online event over our Meetup group.