healthcare cluster and network management (HEALTHY SAXONY)
Published on 20 August 2018
Germany
Dresden
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About this good practice
Established in March 2014 as port of call for all representatives from companies, institutes, universities and research establishments active in the health sector and healthcare, HEALTHY SAXONY (HS) was founded by both Saxon University medical centres, the largest Saxon communal hospital, representations of both practitioners and hospitals, the largest health insurance company in Saxony and a number of further members, totalling 10. Together with the Saxon Ministry of Social Affairs, HS defines tangible measures and projects that derive from the formulated strategy in the Masterplan. Those projects aim at improving one or more of the Masterplan aspects, organized into 3 areas of interest (improve transparency in the healthcare economy, provide support services and improve general framework within the healthcare system). Both institutions carefully monitor the validity of these areas of interest. HS eases the transfer of knowledge from innovation to end-users in order to minimize the transaction costs in the process of market entrance. HS was included as GP because of the interesting scope of its 23 members, comprising all major healthcare players in Saxony to minimize transaction cost. The foundation of HS followed an ESF-funded implementation project “Koordinierungsstelle Gesundheitswirtschaft”. The 10 founding members provided 10000€ each for setting up operations, all 23 members pay a membership fee.
Resources needed
The initial preparation of HEALTHY SAXONY received ESF funding of 237443 EUR. Initially, 10 members provided 10000 EUR for setting up an office. Annual budget sums up to about 35000 EUR out of membership fees, used entirely for personnel (80%) and other expenses (20%).
Evidence of success
The existence of a facilitating cluster for the healthcare industry and healthcare providers helps biotechnology, medical devices and other industries with their going-to-market attempts. Thus, HEALTHY SAXONY indirectly contributes to fostering employment and job creation. HEALTHY SAXONY already provided assistance for three transfer projects (medical, biotechnology and textile products). Solid quantitative results cannot be measured and reported so far.
Potential for learning or transfer
Different from the usual cluster organisation approach, HEALTHY SAXONY comprises all major healthcare providers in Saxony. It thus provides rather good insight into the healthcare system from a user perspective which is a unique conceptual approach worth looking into. Main lesson learnt is that the homogeneity amongst its members generates an atmosphere of trust which is essential in order to identify common challenges and translate them (in the sense of cross-cluster-collaboration) to other clusters like biotech, medical devices etc. Also including payors and select cluster representatives (i.e. textile industry) facilitates hands-on discussions and finding of feasible solutions.
Setting up such a demand-side cluster provides a viable counterweight to the usual industry-driven supply clusters (e.g. biotechnology, microelectronics etc).
Setting up such a demand-side cluster provides a viable counterweight to the usual industry-driven supply clusters (e.g. biotechnology, microelectronics etc).
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
HEALTHY SAXONY e.V.
Germany
Dresden
Contact
project coordinator