Hospital "technology brokers" are professionals who specialize in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the field of hospitals.
Its origin and history are closely related to the development of medical technology and the need for the transformation of scientific research results.
With the continuous progress of medical technology, the hospital has accumulated a large number of scientific research achievements, but due to a variety of reasons, these achievements are often difficult to directly apply to clinical practice and realize industrialization. In order to promote the effective transformation of scientific research results and solve the "gap" between scientific research and clinical application, the role of "technology broker" in hospitals came into being.
In the past, the focus of hospitals was mainly on medical services and scientific research, and the transformation of scientific research results was relatively insufficient. However, as competition in the healthcare market intensifies and the demand for innovative medical technologies grows, there is a growing awareness of the importance of translating scientific research results into practical applications.
In recent years, medical institutions in some developed countries and regions have taken the lead in cultivating and introducing specialized technology brokers, who are familiar with the scientific research environment and needs of hospitals, and have the knowledge and ability of technology transfer, marketing and business operation, and can effectively promote the transformation and application of hospital scientific research results.
In mainland China, with the advancement of medical reform and the emphasis on innovation-driven development, the concept of "technology broker" in hospitals has gradually attracted attention and attention, and relevant training and training mechanisms are gradually being established and improved.
A hospital "Technology Broker" is a relatively new concept that refers to professionals in the medical field who are responsible for promoting and commercializing innovative technologies, products or services from hospitals or research institutions to the market. This role usually involves multiple aspects such as technology evaluation, market research, intellectual property management, and business negotiations.
Origin and History:
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Origins of Technology Transfer:
The concept of a technology broker stems from the practice of technology transfer. Technology transfer refers to the transfer of research results from research institutions to the commercial sector in order to realize their economic and social value. This concept began to gain traction in Western countries in the middle of the 20th century.
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The role of universities and research institutes:
Initially, technology transfer took place primarily between universities and research institutes and their surrounding business environment. These institutions began to set up technology transfer offices to facilitate the commercialization of research results.
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Special needs in the medical field:
With the development of medical technology, hospitals and medical research institutions have accumulated a large number of innovations. These outcomes require professionals to assess their commercial potential and drive them to market, which has led to the need for hospital technology brokers.
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Importance of Intellectual Property:
Intellectual property (IP) plays an important role in the commercialization of the healthcare sector. Technology brokers need to understand how to protect and leverage these intellectual property rights to ensure that the value of research is realized.
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Complexity of the commercialization process:
The commercialization process of medical products is often more complex than that of general consumer products, involving strict regulatory requirements, clinical trials, market access, and other steps. Therefore, a professional technical broker is needed to coordinate these processes.
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The impact of globalization:
With globalization, the commercialization of medical technology is no longer limited to the local market, but is global. This requires technology brokers to have an international perspective and cross-cultural communication skills.
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Policy and regulatory support:
Many national and regional governments have begun to introduce policies to support the R&D and commercialization of medical technologies, which also provides room for the role of technology brokers to grow.
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Professional Training & Certification:
In order to improve the professionalism of technology brokers, some professional bodies have started to provide relevant training and certification courses to ensure that technology brokers have the necessary knowledge and skills.
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Application of digital technology:
As digital technology evolves, so does the way technology brokers work. For example, big data and artificial intelligence tools are used to analyze market trends and improve the accuracy of technology assessments.
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Sustainable Development:
The role of a hospital technology broker is still evolving and evolving to adapt to changes in the healthcare industry and market.
The emergence of hospital technology brokers is a product of the combination of innovation and commercialization needs in the medical industry, and they play an important role in promoting medical technology development and improving the quality of medical services.
In today's medical field, the transformation of clinical research results has become the focus of attention. In order to accelerate this transformation process and allow more scientific research results to benefit patients as soon as possible, the hospital has begun to cultivate "technology brokers", which is of far-reaching significance and value.
Technology brokers, as a key bridge connecting technological innovation and market application, assume a vital responsibility. They need to accurately identify valuable scientific research results, comprehensively evaluate them, carefully package them, and effectively promote them to achieve the optimal allocation of scientific and technological resources and maximize their value.
Why focus on training junior technology brokers? Due to their long-term contact with patients, clinical medical staff have accumulated a wealth of cases and are able to have a keen insight into many clinical pain points and needs. However, medical staff are often burdened with heavy clinical and teaching tasks, and the transformation of scientific research results has the characteristics of long cycle, high risk and complex process, which leads to the unsatisfactory conversion rate of many medical scientific research results, and many excellent results are difficult to quickly apply to the treatment of patients.
In particular, those high-level hospitals, although they have abundant scientific research resources, cutting-edge technologies and many scientific and technological achievements, and have gathered a large number of high-level expert talents, are often restricted by factors such as imperfect technology transfer mechanism and lack of professional talents in the transformation of scientific research results into clinical applications. Yan Jianyun emphasized that building a team of professional and technical brokers who understand technology, can operate, and are good at communication is of immeasurable significance for significantly improving the transformation efficiency of high-level hospital scientific and technological achievements and accelerating the pace of medical technology progress.
The content of this technology transfer talent training covers three modules: policies and regulations, public knowledge and practical skills. In particular, it is worth mentioning that the training has added highly targeted content such as the transformation operation of hospital patents, the identification of transformation needs in the field of biomedicine, and the transformation process from basic research to clinical application. Through such a careful design, the trainees can fully grasp the whole process skills such as patent application, screening of hospital achievement transformation needs, and hospital patent valuation.
At present, there are obvious deficiencies in the curriculum for the special industry of hospitals. This time, Guangdong Province took the lead in formulating the group standard of "Hospital Technology Transfer Talent Training Outline" according to the characteristics of the hospital's personnel, technology, transformation characteristics and other industry characteristics. The formulation of this standard is of pioneering significance for hospitals to carry out technology broker training more standardly and improve technology transfer capabilities.
To ensure the professionalism of "technical brokers", you can start from the following aspects:
- Strict selection criteria: When recruiting technology brokers, set clear and strict selection conditions, including but not limited to relevant professional background (such as medicine, biology, pharmacy, management, etc.), work experience (such as scientific research management, technology transfer, marketing, etc.) and a certain level of education.
- Systematic training system: Provide comprehensive, in-depth and continuously updated training courses for technology brokers. These courses should cover medical research knowledge, technology evaluation methods, market analysis, laws and regulations, intellectual property protection, business negotiation skills, etc.
- Practical exercise: arrange technology brokers to participate in actual scientific research achievement transformation projects, accumulate experience in practice, and improve the ability to solve practical problems.
- Regular assessment and certification: Establish a regular assessment mechanism to evaluate the professional knowledge and skills of technology brokers. A certification system ensures that they continue to maintain a professional standard.
- Industry exchange and learning: Technology brokers are encouraged to participate in industry conferences, seminars and academic exchange activities to understand the latest industry trends and cutting-edge technologies, exchange experience with peers, and broaden their horizons.
- Mentoring: Experienced mentors for new technology brokers to provide one-on-one guidance and training.
- Continuing education: Technology brokers are required to attend regular refresher courses and training to keep up with the rapid changes in technology and the market.
- Establish a code of professional ethics: clarify the code of professional ethics that technology brokers should abide by to prevent illegal operations and unfair competition.
- Case analysis and sharing: Organize technology brokers to analyze and share successful and failed conversion cases to learn lessons from them.
- Collaboration with universities and research institutions: Provide more in-depth academic support and training for technology brokers with the help of professional resources of universities and research institutions.
Through the comprehensive application of the above methods, the professionalism of "technology brokers" can be effectively guaranteed, and their ability and level of transformation of clinical scientific research achievements can be improved.
In today's rapid development of medical technology, the efficiency of the transformation of scientific research results is directly related to whether patients can enjoy the benefits brought by the latest medical technology in a timely manner. Cultivating hospital "technology brokers" is not only to solve the current problems in the transformation of hospital scientific research achievements, but also to build a more efficient and smooth medical technology innovation ecosystem.
Through the efforts of these technology brokers, scientific research results that might otherwise be shelved will have the opportunity to be transformed into real clinical applications, bringing more hope and cure possibilities to patients. They will build a close communication bridge between researchers and the market, and promote the flow of information and the integration of resources.
At the same time, this initiative will also stimulate the enthusiasm of medical staff to innovate and make them more actively engaged in scientific research, knowing that their results can be translated and applied through professional technology brokers.
In the future, we look forward to seeing more hospitals pay attention to and actively carry out the training of technology brokers, form a strong synergy, jointly promote the innovation and development of medical technology in mainland China, and contribute more to the people's health. It is believed that in the near future, through the unremitting efforts of technology brokers, the medical level of the mainland will achieve a qualitative leap and bring more gospel to the majority of patients. Cultivating hospital "technology brokers" is a strategic initiative, which will inject new vitality into the innovation and development of the medical field and open a new chapter in the transformation of medical science and technology achievements.