Recognizing the needs in business related education for healthcare technology field
Sorvisto, Waltteri (2021)
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024061823617
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024061823617
Tiivistelmä
This thesis was commissioned by SPARK Finland, a program designed to increase the maturity of academic and clinical discoveries towards practical solutions in the life science and health tech space.
The objective of the thesis is to assist SPARK Finland in their endeavors of developing a new business-related education platform for the field of healthcare technology. Specifically, the objective includes mapping the needs and expectations of the benefactors of such education, and to see how those expectations correlate with the commonly known factors in start-up creation and high-technology field.
The theoretical side is in two parts. First part discusses the field of healthcare technology in general and addressing the specialties that new ventures will face in this field, such as regulation, intellectual property and academic entrepreneurship. The second part focuses on the critical success factors established in high-tech start-ups, a focus group for SPARK.
A quantitative research was conducted on participants of SPARK’s Biomedical-Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training courses to find out how important they considered the education suggested, who they saw as optimal beneficiaries, what topics were thought as important and challenging, and what they thought of the course. The results found that the participants found the education very important, and topics such as business development, IP, product development and design thinking as important. Funding, market understanding, and teambuilding were seen as most challenging aspects.
Results of the research are compared to the theoretical side to find how well the participants expectations reflect the realities of building successful startups after attending the Bio-innovation course, and it was found that similarities exist, but also contrasting differences. This information was used to give a conclusion on what aspects SPARK should focus on in the education, and what potential developments could be made.
The objective of the thesis is to assist SPARK Finland in their endeavors of developing a new business-related education platform for the field of healthcare technology. Specifically, the objective includes mapping the needs and expectations of the benefactors of such education, and to see how those expectations correlate with the commonly known factors in start-up creation and high-technology field.
The theoretical side is in two parts. First part discusses the field of healthcare technology in general and addressing the specialties that new ventures will face in this field, such as regulation, intellectual property and academic entrepreneurship. The second part focuses on the critical success factors established in high-tech start-ups, a focus group for SPARK.
A quantitative research was conducted on participants of SPARK’s Biomedical-Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training courses to find out how important they considered the education suggested, who they saw as optimal beneficiaries, what topics were thought as important and challenging, and what they thought of the course. The results found that the participants found the education very important, and topics such as business development, IP, product development and design thinking as important. Funding, market understanding, and teambuilding were seen as most challenging aspects.
Results of the research are compared to the theoretical side to find how well the participants expectations reflect the realities of building successful startups after attending the Bio-innovation course, and it was found that similarities exist, but also contrasting differences. This information was used to give a conclusion on what aspects SPARK should focus on in the education, and what potential developments could be made.