Were All of Them Moonshots?

Were All of Them Moonshots?

Lucien Engelen 09/04/2021 3
Were All of Them Moonshots?

Last month, Facebook sent me one of those "remember?" messages. 7 years ago a crew for a National-TV documentary (VPRO Tegenlicht /backlight) followed me for a couple of weeks, depicting innovation in healthcare, challenges, opportunities and pitfalls and the work we were doing at Radboudumc.

Were All of Them Moonshots?


I visited i.e. Singularity University, with my friends Daniel KraftSam De BrouwerGunnar Trommer, Vital Connect and a snapshot of my connections overthere.
 

Were All of Them Moonshots?


A lot has happened since. Some innovations made it, some are (still) struggling and some ended up not (yet) feasible. At present more and more of the ‘innovations’ backthen came through in either their original format, or in some kind of altered version. Tangible implementation of technologies, processes and strategies are coming to life. 

 

Were All of Them Moonshots?


What also did come through is the massive change in how we look at the world of health(care), how technology boosts opportunities and that we should aim for the front end of the challenge : prevention. 

Were All of Them Moonshots?


Since then I've quit my job at Radboudumc, started to advise Deloitte as an edge fellow (not employed, non-commercial and independent) and Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam amongst others, on their health(care) innovation strategy, connecting them to my global network on- and offline.

In doing so creating an even bigger impact.

I’m proud of the engagement and the leverage to improve health(care) I get from my 800.000+ followers on LinkedIn and the 125.000+ active subscribers to my bi-weekly newsletter

Were All of Them Moonshots?


The over 100 keynotes I give across the globe each year, all have been “digitized” and turned into more in-depth interaction from my home-studio, during this pandemic bringing deeper insights.  

We need people to try to make sense of what’s ahead by combining signals of developments into a picture of the horizon, we also need groups that combine and research those into validated and tested ‘installations’, and next we need enthousiasts to implement those into a broader reality and lastly diehards to create the new normal. We all have different roles to play.

Over time I found my sweet-spot and field of expertise at the front-end of this process, and combined with my network happy to hand-over to the next part of this innovation-chain.

Looking forward to secure the current boost in innovation as the awareness some things could be done better, and the ambition to take tangible actions is here. So yes; this pandemic has a horrific impact on people, families, businesses and society, but it also had a positive impact on some other challenges. Next it showed us how healthcare would’ve looked like in 10 years from now : overflooded, shortage of skilled personell and budget and an ever incresasing group of empowered patients, families and informal care. Let’s build on them as well! 

During the visit the documentary was recorded I also visited McMoon on Moffett airfield.

Were All of Them Moonshots?
Were All of Them Moonshots?

A former McDonalds after the place was 'abandoned", turned around to a place where many of the picture of the Apollo mission where digitised, showed around (again) by the great Dennis Wingo who always passionately tells about their mission, how they found old technology in people garages to in the end digitise almost every picture of the moon taken during Apollo missions.

It sometimes (hence often) takes years before innovations become mainstream, wrote a whole book about this, but aiming for the better (if not the moon) should always be the objective.

Stay safe as let’s build back better!

Share this article

Leave your comments

Post comment as a guest

0
terms and condition.
  • Mike Rogers

    The speed of innovation amid covid-19 could be a game changer for healthcare.

  • Charlie Scheib

    Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of technologies and pushed the world faster into the future.

  • Barbara McDermott

    Insightful

Share this article

Lucien Engelen

Chief Health(care) Optimist

It is at the intersection of technology and patient empowerment, which is where Lucien Engelen (1962), director of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre REshape Center and advisor to the Board of Directors (since 2007) feels most at home. The two worlds combined into the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre and Singularity University in Silicon Valley & the Netherlands and in the Nordics, his modus operandi is always challenging, sometimes provocative but always techno-realistic. Writing on a new book that will be titled "Augmented Health(care)™ : The end of the beginning" (May 2018, Barcelone Spain) as he thinks we're at the end of an era of creating awareness, pilots, proof of concepts etc in the digital transformation of health(care). More on that on, his Linkedin Page has over 750.000 followers. He is Faculty Global Health(care) & Medecine since 2011 at Singularity University's Exponential Medicine in the US and in the Netherlands.

   
Save
Cookies user prefences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Read more
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline