The Clinical Domain within the Healthcare Innovation Cycle

Developing an XR solution is a technological challenge. Preparing it for healthcare
is a human one.

An innovative XR solution can impress at a demonstration, win awards and attract investors. But healthcare asks a different question: Is this the answer to a real clinical need? Will it work where it matters most? The Clinical domain of the Healthcare Innovation Cycle helps answer exactly that. Within VR Health Champions, our four flagship SMEs – MEEVA, MedApp S.A., MetaSkills and dotLumen – work alongside clinicians, researchers and healthcare organisations to ensure their innovations are not only technologically advanced but also ready to support real patients and healthcare professionals.

Every innovation begins with an idea

For many start-ups, that idea quickly becomes a prototype. It solves a real problem, demonstrates impressive capabilities and shows enormous potential. Yet in healthcare, potential alone is never enough.

Rather than focusing solely on technological performance, the Clinical domain explores how innovation performs in real healthcare environments. It brings together developers, clinicians, researchers and healthcare organisations to answer one essential question: Is this solution ready to become part of clinical practice?

Within VR Health Champions, the project draws on the Healthcare Innovation Cycle as a conceptual framework, supporting four flagship SMEs in strengthening the clinical readiness of their XR solutions. It is a journey built on collaboration, continuous improvement and evidence gathered from the people who will ultimately use the technology.

“Clinical validation is not simply about confirming that a technology works. It is about understanding whether it creates value for healthcare professionals and patients in real clinical practice. This is the approach we follow throughout VR Health Champions.” – Cristiana Costa, Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN)

Technology is only the beginning

Few environments are as demanding as healthcare. Preparing an XR solution for healthcare starts long before the first clinician puts on a headset.

One important activity within the Clinical domain is ensuring that new technologies can fit into existing healthcare ecosystems, systems and clinical protocols. Hospitals rely on complex digital infrastructures, established workflows and multidisciplinary teams. Successful innovation must fit naturally into this environment, supporting healthcare professionals rather than disrupting existing practice.

For this reason, VR Health Champions supports flagship SMEs in designing integration and interoperability plans – ensuring that their XR solutions and technologies can communicate with existing healthcare systems and support professionals without adding unnecessary complexity. This work extends beyond technical compatibility. It also considers how healthcare professionals will interact with the solution, how information flows between systems and how technology can support – not complicate – clinical decision-making.

“Technology only becomes healthcare innovation when it integrates naturally into existing clinical environments. Interoperability is not simply a technical requirement – it is one of the foundations of successful adoption.” – Medtronic Portugal

Integration may seem like a highly technical topic, but its purpose is remarkably human: enabling clinicians to focus on patients rather than technology.

Learning through validation

Once the foundations have been established, innovators begin another essential stage of the journey: verification and validation.

Verification provides confidence that a solution performs consistently and reliably. Validation looks at whether it performs as intended in the context for which it was designed. How these processes are carried out depends on the individual solution, its intended use, regulatory qualification and classification, and the regulations and standards that apply to it. The pathway may therefore differ for a digital health solution, a medical device or software classified as a medical device.

Within VR Health Champions, our SMEs receive support throughout verification and validation, with the approach tailored to each solution and its specific requirements. Where appropriate, this may include testing in simulated environments that closely reflect everyday healthcare practice, involving clinicians, therapists, and other healthcare professionals and, lately, in real-world environments.

These activities can reveal insights that are difficult to identify during development alone. A workflow may be refined, an interface simplified or a feature redesigned after observing how healthcare professionals interact with the technology. Rather than relying on assumptions, innovation evolves through evidence gathered from real-world use.

“Every validation activity helps reduce uncertainty. By working together with innovators –  clinicians and healthcare organisations – we create opportunities to improve solutions before they reach everyday clinical practice.” – Coimbra University Hospital Centre (ULSC)

Validation should therefore not be seen simply as a final checkpoint before market entry. Depending on the solution and its regulatory pathway, it can be an important learning process that helps strengthen the technology throughout its development.

But no amount of laboratory testing can fully predict what happens once technology meets people. That is why the next step is perhaps the most important of all.

When innovation meets people

There is a significant difference between demonstrating technology and seeing it used by healthcare professionals in their everyday work. Clinical environments are dynamic, fast-paced and shaped by countless human interactions. What seems intuitive during development may feel entirely different in a busy rehabilitation centre, hospital ward or outpatient clinic. That is why evaluating solutions in realistic healthcare settings is such an important part of the Clinical domain.

Rather than evaluating technology in isolation, developers work alongside clinicians, patients and healthcare professionals to understand how solutions perform in realistic settings. Feedback collected during these activities often leads to improvements that would never have emerged during laboratory testing alone.

Across VR Health Champions, each flagship SME follows its own path while pursuing the same goal: creating XR solutions that respond to genuine healthcare needs.

MedApp is refining technologies that support clinicians through advanced medical visualisation and navigation.

MEEVA is developing immersive XR experiences designed to support healthcare professionals and patients in clinical settings.

In Romania, dotLumen works alongside people with visual impairments to continuously improve its assistive technology based on real-world experience.

Meanwhile, MetaSkills develops immersive XR training environments that allow healthcare professionals to build practical skills through realistic clinical scenarios.

Different technologies.

Different healthcare challenges.

One shared ambition: creating solutions that healthcare professionals can trust.

“When someone trusts you with their mobility, you better get it right. Validation happens in the real world. We build with blind users, test in real environments, and improve from what they teach us.” said Cornel Amariei, CEO & Founder at dotLumen.

People behind the progress

One of the defining characteristics of VR Health Champions is that innovation is never developed in isolation. Behind every validated solution are people willing to challenge assumptions, ask difficult questions and work together towards a common goal.

Researchers.

Clinicians.

Hospital teams.

Technology developers.

Patients.

Each perspective strengthens the final outcome.

This collaborative approach sits at the heart of VR Health Champions and reflects the broader philosophy of the Healthcare Innovation Cycle, where progress across the Clinical domain naturally complements activities taking place within the Technology, Regulatory and Market/Business domains.

“Healthcare innovation is ultimately about people. Technology is the enabler, but collaboration is what transforms promising ideas into solutions that can make a genuine difference.” – Cristiana Costa, Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN)

Innovation earns trust

Behind every successful healthcare innovation lies a journey that patients rarely see.

It is a journey of collaboration, refinement, testing and continuous learning.

By supporting flagship SMEs through integration planning, verification, in-use validation and final XR product validation, VR Health Champions helps innovators move beyond technological excellence towards something even more valuable: trust.

Trust from clinicians.

Trust from healthcare organisations.

And ultimately, trust from patients.

Because in healthcare, innovation is not defined by what technology can do. It is defined by the difference it makes when people choose to use it with confidence.