Clinical Doctors on Translation: 'What We Consider Cutting-Edge Is Already Outdated'

Regardless of whether friends in the sci-tech innovation community are aware of it, even amidst a fervent entrepreneurial environment, hospitals and medical professionals, as well as universities and researchers, are beginning to integrate medicine with engineering to jointly explore and practice Chinese innovation.However, numerous translational projects still fail to garner responses from investors and the market.

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After summarizing his investment activities over the past year, an angel investor realized that the word he uttered most frequently was “No!” The reasons for declining investments varied, including excessively high company valuations, incomplete team structures, and unreasonable equity ownership frameworks.

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“For the project itself, we prefer to invest in early-stage projects with clear and sufficient application scenarios that truly meet clinical and market needs,” said an investor specializing in early-stage healthcare investments.

Indeed, the inability to identify clinical needs that align with market demands largely results in a low proportion of scientific and technological achievements with translational value. Over time, this leads to a severe disconnect between the innovation chain and the industrial chain, making it increasingly difficult to establish a demand-driven model for the translation of scientific and technological achievements. A clinician candidly stated: ““Some peers mistakenly believe their techniques are cutting-edge, when in fact they have long become obsolete.”

The translation of medical research achievements is a "spiral upward" process, with the earliest innovative ideas originating from the accumulation of clinical doctors in practice.

Academician Ge Junbo stated in an interview, “I am simply a clinician, hoping to identify issues in clinical practice and help resolve them for patients.” This also underscores the “front-end” position of clinicians in the translation of scientific research achievements.

“Starting with the identification of clinical needs, as the translation of scientific research achievements aims to address clinical problems and meet patient needs.”If clinical needs are not accurately grasped, the effectiveness of translating scientific research achievements into practical applications will be significantly compromised or even fail..” said Liu Hongying, Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) in the Department of Pancreatic Surgery at West China Hospital of Sichuan University.----------i-----i-

“From daily work, to daily work.”Collection and mining of clinical needs mainly stem from our daily work..” Miao Chuanwang, an attending physician at Shandong Cancer Hospital, also shared his insights with Chengguo Bureau.

However, identifying and pinpointing problems from daily practice is by no means an easy task. Uncovering clinical needs is a complex process that requires multidimensional data and information. It demands that clinicians employ various methods to acquire and analyze data, thereby gaining a comprehensive and accurate understanding of clinical needs. This enables more adaptive innovation and the development of products that better align with these needs.----------i-----i-

First is observation. By observing patients’ symptoms, disease progression, and treatment outcomes, one can understand their needs for medications or medical devices. Second is communication. Engaging in dialogue with patients, physician colleagues, and nursing staff serves two purposes: gaining insight into patients’ conditions, pain points, and needs, and understanding physicians’ and nurses’ perspectives and recommendations on existing medical care technologies and therapeutic tools. Third is self-directed learning and synthesis. “Academic journals and databases are valuable sources for uncovering clinical needs. These databases contain extensive records of case studies and research; by analyzing and statistically evaluating this data, we can identify significant clinical needs and issues,” stated Liu Hongying.----------i-----i-

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Furthermore, during the process of identifying and collecting clinical needs, clinicians must pay particular attention to the novelty of knowledge and keep pace with the latest research advancements. In simple terms, when uncovering clinical needs, clinicians should not only tailor their approach to the patient’s actual condition—avoiding the imposition of existing treatment protocols—but also take a multifaceted perspective, considering patient needs from various angles alongside broader trends in medical development.一一一一一一一一一i一一一一一i一

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When physicians articulate clinical pain points, these needs may intersect with non-clinical or non-basic medical disciplines, such as materials science and information technology. Once clinicians express their requirements, research teams can transform these insights into tangible products. Successful development and market launch of such innovations can yield substantial profits. Consequently, many investors view this as a promising opportunity worth pursuing.

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However, the prerequisite is that these clinical needs can truly address unmet market gaps.----------i----------

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The first step in integrating medicine and engineering is to identify the right entry point, namely, selecting the direction for research topics. The criterion for selection is application value—the needs arising from medical practice.一一一一一一一一一i一一一一一i一

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But in reality, many times,Clinical needs identified by clinicians are insufficient to sustain a company or a business model,This type of demand is also referred to as pseudo-demand.一一一一一一一一一i一一一一一i

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So-called "pseudo-demand" refers to situations where current supply does not align with users’ true needs, meaning the product fails to address their core pain points. Pseudo-demand typically results in either an inability to attract a sufficient user base or users’ unwillingness to use the product frequently or pay for it. For example, when patients express concerns about medical devices being too rigid, clinicians may seek to manufacture these devices using softer materials. Although such materials are available on the market, high production costs or marginal improvements in performance compared to existing devices may hinder commercialization.

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Projects similar to the aforementioned examples are ubiquitous in real-world scenarios. So, how can one distinguish between genuine and spurious needs?----------i-----i-----------i-----i-

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On the one hand,Assessing Feasibility Under Existing Conditions“, whether a product can be developed. The success of translating scientific research achievements into practical applications first requires the launch of a mature product as proof. If existing technical conditions are not taken into account, the team may spend considerable time and resources developing an impractical product or technology. Meanwhile, ‘constraints related to cost, technology, regulations, and the market can all impact the realization of clinical needs. Only by taking these factors into consideration can the feasibility of meeting clinical needs be determined,’ explained Liu Hongying.”

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However, from the perspective of technological R&D, “interdisciplinary gaps are as vast as mountains.” Clinicians often lack the time and opportunities to bridge these gaps. Due to their heavy workloads, they may not have sufficient time to communicate and collaborate with experts in other fields, leading them to remain deeply immersed in their own specialties. Therefore,Industry insiders have stated that clinicians tend to become immersed in their own world., which is not without merit.

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On the other hand, it isAssess its marketability, whether the market truly needs the product. The ultimate goal of translating scientific research achievements is to apply these outcomes to the market. Therefore, before commercializing research findings, clinicians must assess their market value to ensure that the product or technology meets market demands and creates commercial value.----------i-----i-一一一一一一一一一i一一一一一i一

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If scientific research outcomes fail to meet market demands or if the market does not require the product, the translation of these outcomes will not achieve commercial value, which also means that the investment in the research project will be in vain.

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However, the market is not a familiar domain for clinicians. Most of them lack sufficient market awareness, and their translational projects often fail to align with market demands, ultimately resulting in little to no interest from potential stakeholders.

What is even more disheartening is that, according to Hou Jun, a researcher in the Department of Cardiology at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Jiaotong University/Chengdu Third People's Hospital,In the early stages, there were virtually no specialized institutions or platforms to evaluate the translational value of clinical needs identified by physicians.。

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How to Break the Deadlock?----------i----------i-----------i-----i------i-----i-

Let us shift our perspective to the corporate side. As a critical factor in innovation translation, enterprises play an indispensable role in the medical-engineering collaboration ecosystem. It is frequently emphasized within the industry that companies can translate scientific achievements into commercially viable medical products by identifying unmet clinical needs, defining product positioning, conducting R&D and marketing, and collaborating with clinicians.----------i-----i-

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For profit-driven enterprises, they not only place great emphasis on market-oriented requirements but also establish robust engineering teams. A CEO of a medical device innovation company introduced to VCBeat that the engineering team mainly consists of four parts: the project team, the R&D engineer team, the design translation team, and the supply chain and manufacturing team. These teams help the company start from the demand side, control product definition, and produce scalable, reliable products.

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To elaborate further, the first role that enterprises play in the medical-engineering integration system is to identify potential clinical needs.

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By analyzing data on market trends, consumer feedback, and medical records, companies can uncover latent, unmet healthcare needs. For instance, through the analysis of health insurance data, companies can identify conditions with a large patient population but no effective treatment options.----------i----------i

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Not only analyzing static data, the company also engages in in-depth communications with clinicians to understand the challenges they encounter in their daily practice and identify the functional or technical support they require; through on-site or online surveys, it gathers information on customers’ usage of existing products, identifies shortcomings, and determines areas for improvement; and it exchanges insights with partners to learn from their experiences and recommendations......

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In fact, by employing a combination of methods to uncover clinical needs, companies can effectively identify genuine demands. Once the product’s indications and competitive advantages are defined, these serve as the foundation for subsequent research and development as well as market promotion.

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Only by truly understanding and mastering the methodology of “medical-engineering integration” can innovation hold value and scientific and technological achievements be translated into practical applications.----------i-----i-

The so-called integration of medicine and engineering means that the combination should start from the very beginning of innovation. The most important aspect is to integrate another often overlooked element—business. In fact, “"Integration of Medicine and Engineering" entails the convergence of "medicine, engineering, and business.", namely clinicians, engineering teams, and commercial innovation enterprises.

From the outset of a project, one must consider its model for commercial translation; otherwise, most patents and scientific achievements will fail to be successfully translated. In other words, only research outcomes initiated with commercial objectives in mind have the potential for translation, which differs from merely identifying clinical needs.一一一一一一一一一i一一一一一i一

Orange Fruit Bureau analyzes the excavation and identification of clinical needs. Ultimately, it aims to demonstrate that medical professionals, industry, and commerce must collaborate before project initiation, with all three parties jointly identifying clinically relevant needs with market value. After identifying these needs, the engineering team should assess manufacturing feasibility and develop products with technical barriers and advantages. Innovative enterprises must simultaneously evaluate and establish capabilities to meet “Advantageous Technologies Addressing Customers' Latent Needs“Commercial value and business model of the product. Clinicians, as both the initial proponents and end users, evaluate and validate the product’s clinical and technical advantages, as well as its commercial value and applications.”i i same i i same

This may well be the true significance of integrating medicine and engineering. In conjunction with the business roles discussed earlier, clinicians—supported by engineering teams and innovative enterprises—complete the restructuring that fuses medicine, industry, and commerce, thereby breaking through the self-defined “advanced” paradigm and translating their efforts into genuinely cutting-edge, high-value projects.