Case Studies

Overview

Market entry to the NHS is complex. To support medical device companies to evidence their progress towards Minimum Viable Products, a cross-sector (University-NHS) accelerator programme was created for SMEs who are developing In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices (IVDs). To evaluate this programme, Businessable created a custom knowledge exchange and evaluation (KEE) framework for them, blending metrics from existing IVD protocols (POCKET), NICE, and other regulators’ requirements with data required to measure commercial progress. 

Data capture systems were built for the programme to evaluate the venture’s progress against metrics and summarised in an impact report for delivery staff.

Challenge

Evaluations for frameworks for IVDs exist but don’t often include content related to the NHS’s contract procurement process. This programme was specifically designed to speed up the process of NHS adoption of IVDs, so it required a custom build that would speak to the needs of NHS commissioners and procurement teams.

Solution

A custom blend of an existing IVD protocol was married alongside several other commercialisation, commissioning and evaluation frameworks to create a bespoke approach that met the customer’s needs. The cohort was successfully delivered with mixed methods data collection tools designed to evidence the metrics identified in the framework. As such, Business created and delivered a framework for the entire programme working alongside project management staff that surfaced relevant impacts and issues to consider for iteration.

Overview

Imperial College has a global reputation for engineering and technology, as part of its work, the university supports the creation of spin-outs from academic staff. Formalised in a programme, the Med Tech Super Connector was a collaboration led by Imperial and seven other London-based institutions to commercialise medical technology research. We designed the analysis framework for the project and delivered impact reporting against it each year for the five-year duration of the project.

Challenge

Disruptive and innovative approaches to commercialisation and making spin-outs require creative ways to capture their impact, particularly across an eight-partner consortium. Businessable created a multi-level system that captured progress in participant's learning, technological developments, and business network changes as a result of the programme. That allowed staff to document all the various activities and multiple forms of impact occurring.

Solution

By the end of the programme, each cohort had a mixed methods report, an interim report in year three, and a final report in year five. The data during that period was used for re-design and changes to delivery, to support broader impact reporting in the institution and to make a case for follow-up funds. Imperial successfully used the reporting to secure follow-up funds and is now running another multi-million pound medical tech programme focusing on artificial intelligence using the learning from this previous set of evaluations.

Business studies and academic books describing how service innovation works are often highly technical (not without reason). There are fewer works that try to describe the underlying mechanism behind why innovations work, and even fewer that do so from a theory-driven perspective.

In response to this, our director has published a book explaining the socio-economic theory behind service innovation, pulling together in one place all of the text on the topic from noted French intellectual Pierre Bourdieu. Drawing from his own experience, years of academic and commercial research delivery has informed the content of this book. 

Bourdieu's Theory of Economic Practice and Organisational Modelling is a primer for anyone interested in learning how to analyse service innovation from a social capital perspective. Or with a wider interest in business theory. 

The book is available from Cambridge Scholars publishing now, with a free 30-page exert on their webpage for you to sample. 

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-0178-2