Networking session brings together Patient Innovation leaders and CHRC researchers in Évora

On the 11th of November, a conference was held at Colégio Espírito Santo of University of Évora with the theme of “Health Innovation”, which was attended by specialists and leaders of the “Patient Innovation” project, such as Pedro Oliveira (Director of Nova Bussiness School) and CHRC coordinator Helena Canhão, along with Eric von Hippel (member of the project's Advisory Board and Professor of Technological Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management). Members of the CHRC from the University of Évora were present at this conference, with the aim of creating a networking environment with the “Patient Innovation” team.

Pedro Oliveira demonstrated how innovation is essential in every area and specified the field of health. He showed examples of chronically ill patients with high-impact illnesses who not needed to be health experts, researchers or doctors to discover ways and devices to improve their well-being. These are the people who impacted health innovation and made their discovery available to people suffering from the same disease. And here comes the importance of the “Patient Innovation” project, where it opens the doors to all those who bring solutions to solve challenges imposed by a health condition, giving them the necessary support at all stages until the solution can be commercialized.

However, some difficulties were also pointed out by Eric Von Hippel, in which it was understood that health professionals still have a lot of resistance to discoveries not made in scientific environments by researchers, which is still considered the more “safe and normal” path. This distances patients from looking for health professionals to continue their right to be followed up. These difficulties resulted in the beginning of the Networking between the CHRC researchers from University of Évora and the “Patient Innovation” specialists. The conversation and the search for solutions was long, and from this moment of networking, possible solutions were found to fight the barriers that are still raised by health specialists in relation to the discoveries of viable solutions by people who are not connected to the health or research.