Barriers to Biomedical Engineering Commercialisation

Abstract

The healthcare sector faces severe problems due to increasing costs, decreasing workforce and an increasing share of elderly people. Innovation is proposed as the main cure. However, there are several barriers that prevent new ideas from becoming innovations. In this chapter we focus on the biomedical engineering sector and the barriers to commercialisation that are present for applied research projects within this sector. We describe and categorise the barriers and discuss their implications and how they could be overcome. This study has a longitudinal approach and is based on data collected annually through half-structured interviews for approximately 40 research and development projects at four universities, two hospitals and one municipality healthcare centre, across eastern and central Sweden. Our results found a broad range of barriers to commercialisation, which have been categorised as follows: (1) Barriers coupled to the healthcare sector per se, for example security regulations, procedures for governmental procurement and the industry structure. (2) Barriers related to the market structure, for example public procurement matters and the fact that hospitals commonly look for holistic solutions rather than pieces and gadgets that solve isolated parts of problems. (3) Barriers related to entrepreneurship attitudes among researchers. The findings contribute to research on the ability to create innovation in a highly prioritised sector.

Citation

Norrman, C., Öberg, C. and Hult, P. (2015), "Barriers to Biomedical Engineering Commercialisation", New Technology-Based Firms in the New Millennium (New Technology Based Firms in the New Millennium, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1876-022820150000011011