GENERAL INFO
Late-Stage Hospital
Late-stage hospitals are leaders in digital health adoption. At this level, innovation is no longer a side activity but a strategic pillar of the hospital’s identity. These hospitals act as regional or national reference centers, scaling validated pilots into routine care, co-developing solutions with MedTech partners, and influencing policy and reimbursement frameworks. The main challenge is to institutionalize innovation —making it sustainable, measurable, and replicable beyond individual departments or projects.
Key Milestones at This Stage
Establishment of an Innovation Hub / Living Lab within the hospital, attracting startups and MedTech.
Scaling from pilot projects to routine adoption across multiple clinical units.
Participation in international consortia and multicenter clinical trials.
Demonstrated impact on patient outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and workforce efficiency.
Ability to influence payers and regulators with evidence-based policy recommendations
Best Practice from the Field
At large teaching hospitals, establishing a Hospital Innovation Hub can provide a structured testbed for startups. By standardizing evaluation metrics and involving payers, such hubs help integrate digital health solutions into routine care and develop models that can be replicated across other hospitals. This approach illustrates how structured innovation hubs can accelerate adoption, validate new health technologies in real clinical environments, and create scalable practices for broader healthcare systems.
Enabling environment for Digital Health Innovation
Understand MDR compliance when evaluating tools to avoid legal and reputational risks.
Map your current digital infrastructure to understand strengths and gaps in your digitalization journey.
Document the impact of pilot projects — this data can support reimbursement discussions with payers.
Nominate a digital champion — a doctor, nurse, or manager who can advocate for innovation internally.
Turn barriers into arguments for joining EU- or grant-funded projects that cover innovation costs
Provide startups with standardized data-collection protocols before starting a pilot.
Join at least one regional hub network to host international pilots.
Explore whether EU or national schemes can help co-finance pilot projects with innovators.
Create an innovation dashboard showing results (cost, outcomes, adoption rates) accessible to all hospital leaders.
Scouting & Recruitment of Startups
Explore whether EU or national schemes can help co-finance pilot projects with innovators.
Identify and prioritize 2–3 problem areas. Share these problems with hubs so scouting efforts attract relevant startups.
Involve clinical leads early to ensure problems are real and not just administrative.
Consider using hackathons as an initial approach to surface innovative solutions and engage multidisciplinary teams in tackling healthcare challenges.
Identify how potential pilots can align with ongoing reforms in your national health system.
Does this pilot directly support a current national reform priority (e.g., digitalization, chronic disease management, cancer strategy)?
Will it integrate with existing national infrastructure (e.g., e-prescription, national EHR, EHDS)?
Could the results of this pilot be scaled to other hospitals in the region/country?
When considering a pilot, check not only clinical outcomes but also whether it reduces waste, energy use, or costs. For example, does a telehealth system cut the number of unnecessary patient trips, or does a digital scheduling tool reduce missed appointments?
Have we involved policymakers or payers early to ensure alignment?
Do we have a plan to share outcomes with health authorities to influence policy?
Institutionalize policy alignment by integrating it into procurement and investment reviews — every innovation should be assessed on how it contributes to long-term strategies.
Build or join multi-hospital alliances that apply jointly for EU or national funding tied to cancer, chronic care, or sustainability programs.
Take an agenda-setting role by presenting outcome data to ministries and EU committees, shaping how new funding calls and reforms are designed.
For advanced hospitals and MedTechs, success depends not only on clinical outcomes but on the ability to demonstrate how innovations advance strategic health priorities. At this level, projects stop being pilots and become recognized as building blocks of system transformation.
Share your procurement and compliance checklist with startups before pilots.
Nominate 1–2 “digital champions” — a motivated clinician and/or manager — to mentor startups on hospital realities.
Medical validation
You are running living labs or innovation programs and want to lead in adopting digital health solutions.
You need to:
✓ Streamline procurement and scaling pathways
✓ Institutionalize startup collaboration
✓ Share best practices and outcomes
Standardize measurement across departments and affiliated hospitals, creating a VBHC-aligned dashboard that tracks costs, outcomes, and adoption rates.
Incorporate national and EU-level metrics (e.g., cancer survival rates, chronic disease management indicators) to align with policymakers’ expectations.
Use aggregated evidence to influence reimbursement negotiations and support scaling into national care pathways.
Technical integration
Hospitals provide technical requirements, data security standards, and integration testing environments.
earlyHTA
Hospitals validate assumptions with real-world evidence.