When Patients Become Innovators

Abstract

Patients are increasingly able to conceive and develop sophisticated medical devices and services to meet their own needs — often without any help from companies that produce or sell medical products. This “free” patient-driven innovation process enables them to benefit from important advances that are not commercially available. Patient innovation also can provide benefits to companies that produce and sell medical devices and services. For them, patient do-it-yourself efforts can be free R&D that informs and amplifies in-house development efforts. In this paper, we explain how and why the patient innovation system works, how patients can participate in it, and its benefits for both medical patients and firms.

Keywords: innovation, open innovation, patient innovation