Collaborative Healthcare Innovation in Sweden

The medical technology (medtech) industry in Sweden is situated within a complex innovation ecosystem, in which various stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors need to collaborate to meet demands on effective and efficient healthcare. Demographics are changing and those in need of healthcare are not only larger in numbers than ever but they are also more knowledgeable and demanding. Increasing innovative performance is crucial in both the private and public healthcare sectors, but bold steps forward need to be taken in light of stricter rules and regulations for how healthcare stakeholders should manage both their internal processes and the ways in which they interact with other stakeholders in the larger innovation system. The traditional way in which medtech companies gain access to user needs, primarily working through a sales–purchasing relationship with the public healthcare sector, is outdated and needs to be replaced with an increasingly collaborative and cocreative model of healthcare innovation. This chapter describes experiences and lessons learned from InnoPlant, a 3-year (2008–2011) action learning project involving three companies from the Swedish medtech industry, two county/regional councils responsible for public healthcare, and four academic institutions—carried out within the framework of the Swedish Product Innovation Engineering program (PIEp). The purpose of the project was to advance the capability of stakeholders from the public, private, and academic sectors to collaborate in the cocreation of healthcare innovations.