Great potential for Swedish medical technology
Medical technology is an industry for the future in Sweden, but to exploit the potential that exists, the industrial, academic and healthcare sectors will have to collaborate more closely on areas such as education and clinical research. This is the conclusion of a joint report commissioned by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.
Sweden has an excellent record in the medtech field: Gambro, Getinge and Elekta are prime examples of thriving companies that have been built up around Swedish innovations. As a whole, the industry employs around 10,000 Swedes and has an annual turnover of some SKr 60 billion. However, many of the discoveries that currently form the bedrock of the medtech industry in our country are 30 – 50 years old.
The recently published report shows that Sweden will have to make targeted investments if it is to keep up with the international competition. There is, however, considerable untapped potential for enterprise and new jobs.
“The funding of relevant research in the medtech field has been declining over the past few years if we compare with the countries we’re competing with,” says Bertil Guve, project manager and director of the Centre for Technology in Medicine and Health (CMTH). “Our university hospital is no longer engaged in strategically important development projects for new techniques in the same way as it was say ten, fifteen years ago.”
Action MedTech Sweden – Key Measures for Growing the Medical Device Industry in Sweden has been produced by consultancy organisation McKinsey at the request of KTH and in association with Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital. Chalmers University of Technology and the Sahlgrenska Academy have also contributed to the report. Its conclusions are based on some fifty interviews and four workshops with Swedish entrepreneurs, scientists, clinicians and financiers, an international benchmarking study and data from previous studies and reports.
The objective of the report was to identify what needs to be done to generate industrial growth with the cooperation of the academic and healthcare sectors. Its conclusions include the following:
- Technical and medical faculties should identify and run joint research projects with development potential.
- The health authorities and university hospitals should create incentives for doctors and other healthcare personnel for conducting research in the medtech field, while identifying the development needs of everyday clinical practice.
- Universities and the health authorities should cooperate more closely with industry on different key areas, such as the establishment of common professorships and education programmes.
- The government should release more financial resources for long-term needs-based research projects in the medtech field.
“It’s important to emphasise that the analysis is not only relevant to the Stockholm region but to the country as a whole,” says senior lecturer Bo Norrman, who works at Karolinska Institutet’s Bioentrepreneurship Unit. “If we want medical technology to contribute to the Swedish economy and to human health in the future, we have to act now.”
The CTMH is a joint centre set up by Karolinska Institutet, KTH and the Stockholm County Council.
For further information, contact:
Bertil Guve, director CTMH
Tel: +46 (0)70-764 97 35
Email: bertil.guve@kth.se
Bo Norrman, senior lecturer Karolinska Institutet
Tel: +46 (0)8-52483825 or +46 (0)70-3710949
Email: bo.norrman@ki.se
Lars Kihlström, senior physician Karolinska University Hospital
Tel: +46 (0)73-6251801
Email: lars.kihlstrom@karolinska.se
Magnus Myrén