Enabling innovations to survive the 'Valley of Death' Article in digital magazine FMT Gezondheidszorg

Robotics has a high potential to solve the growing staff shortages and decrease the costs in healthcare by introducing high precision and creating efficient workflows. However, many promising innovations, including medical robots, often fail before reaching the market. UT is working to revolutionalize the field by launching multiple initiatives including the Robotics Centre and promoting collaborations in Europe.

In an article for FMT Gezondheidszorg, Françoise Siepel, technical physician and associate professor in the Robotics and Mechatronics group, states that robotics can improve the quality of healthcare across Europe on several levels, ranging from surgical to companion robots.

“Robotics has a high potential to address the increasing shortage of personnel and the continuing rise of costs in healthcare”. Unfortunately, innovations rarely reach the market, therefore innovators in healthcare should focus on ‘surviving the valley of the death’. Removing adoption barriers and creating trust on the clinical side is key.

The UT is currently creating a change in how innovations are introduced to the market following the value chain. It has bundled all robotics research, including medical care, in a Robotics Center and has already taken the initiative for European organisations to join forces to bring robotics into the clinical setting through DIH-HERO.