Recovery, Deloitte: “Investing in innovation and sustainability to improve healthcare”

“Innovation, digitization and sustainability: these are the polar stars to look to in order to make use of the resources of the NRP destined for health, redesigning the future of our health system to increase the well-being of the whole society”. This was stated by Andrea Poggi, Innovation Leader of Deloitte, commenting on the agreement between the State and the Regions for home care which provides for the investment of over 4 billion euros from the NRP to bring public assistance and the most appropriate care to patients’ homes . “With the restrictions imposed by the pandemic – explains Poggi – many patients have relied on telemedicine for the first time or have made use of sites and apps to access health services and services. In fact, according to the study by Deloitte Shaping the future of European Healthcare, about 65% of healthcare professionals interviewed in Italy witnessed an increase in digital technology following the Covid-19 emergency. Although the sudden transition of products and services from the physical to the online channel has also led to the emergence of need for human contact, and this may be particularly true when we talk about doctor-patient interaction, the pandemic has however shown how digitization and innovation have been winning weapons in the first phase of the emergency and that, especially in the post-Covid, they will be able to simplify and improve many procedures, making the whole sanitary machine more efficient “. “Just think of the digitization of medical records, prescriptions and electronic health records – he lists – which, as the same study shows, are still only partially exploited. These and other innovations, if used to their full potential, can redesign the way in which we are used to thinking about the concept of treatment and prevention, improving the performance of the health system for both patients and professionals in the sector, and in general increasing the social sustainability of our country. In other words, we could achieve a level of digitization and modernization of healthcare facilities such as to pave the way for new commercial models and services tailored to the customer, but also for much more innovative and faster clinical trials “. A true digital and innovative turning point, however, can only be achieved with targeted investments in technology, innovation and research, and with public incentives that create the conditions for the consolidation of a more competitive and dynamic open innovation ecosystem. “For years we have supported the importance of innovation applied to the health sector and for this reason, as Officine Innovazione, we organize the Health & BioTech Accelerator, the largest Open Innovation program dedicated to Health and Biotechnology at national level”, continues Poggi . “The Health & BioTech Accelerator – he clarifies – is an example of how the collaboration between startups and partner companies can lead to extraordinary results when collaborating to develop solutions with a high potential for innovation, sustainability and quality on the market. An operation that brings added value. to the whole country system and which can make a fundamental contribution to the restarting of our economy “. But what are the characteristics that make the Health & BioTech Accelerator a real best practice to look at for the future? Francesco Iervolino, partner of Deloitte Officine Innovazione explains: “This is a real supply chain program, in which vision, collaboration and creation of sustainable change are the fundamental pillars. To trigger these virtuous mechanisms, however, adequate weapons must be used, such as Technology Transfer and Open Innovation methodologies, perfect tools to rapidly enable the transformation and improvement of business models and to build more resilient and sustainable companies “. “We need to focus on initiatives such as the Health & Biotech Accelerator, that is, a collaborative reality between start-ups and companies committed to innovating, creating new entrepreneurial realities or accelerating the transformation of existing ones, to make use of the resources of the Italian Pnrr destined for health” , underlines Andrea Poggi. “Not surprisingly, an overall investment of about 16 billion euros is expected in this sector, precisely in recognition of its social and economic importance. It will also be essential to approach the development of strategic sectors such as this one with tools capable of combining innovation and sustainability, in the name of the new innovability paradigm, and to do so in a perspective of expanded collaboration, in which the actors involved act in the same direction to identify solutions capable of generating widespread value “, he says. “The innovation and ecosystem initiatives that we support today, in fact, will serve a much broader purpose than we can imagine. They will increase the well-being of society and the quality of life of the current generation and, above all, of future generations”, concludes Poggi.