The high tech and MedTech industry is responsible for a large part of our economic growth, and therefore of our prosperity. It is now well known that this hardware-dominated world cannot do without software expertise, but good process control, reliability and project management are at least as important. Holland Innovative (HI) helps the high-tech and Medtech industry with this, both in projects on location and through training. In a series of articles, we show how. Today: Lisette van Steinvoren.
If legislation and regulations have a decisive influence anywhere, it is in the medical industry. Not a single medical device or any new form of therapy can be put into practice without years of extensive research and continuous review of laws and regulations. After 5 years of advising and helping Holland Innovative’s customers on this theme, Lisette van Steinvoren can call herself an expert in this field.
Lisette works at the HI-branch in Enschede, where she has been building up her expertise on this theme in recent years. Her task is roughly to split into two parts: on the one hand, as a project manager, she carries out assignments for HI customers in the field of medical technology; on the other hand, together with fellow director of HI Ivo Aarninkhof, Lisette has built up the team of medical specialists in the Enschede and Eindhoven offices.
“As far as the first part is concerned, you have to see it largely as integral project management”, says Lisette. “Think of managing and supervising a team of engineers around a specific question or challenge. Because of our expertise in that area, legislation and regulations always play a major role and the great thing is that HI has integrated both areas of expertise in the position of the MedTech project manager.”
Lisette studied technical physics and followed up with a Master in Business Administration. “My driving force is mainly in technology. More specifically: technology that matters. In other words: not the superficial gadgets but the really relevant developments that benefit society.” That attitude first brought her to Essent and RWE, where she was allowed to focus on sustainability issues as an innovation manager. Just when she got the feeling that she was moving a little too much away from the heart of technology, HI challenged her with the opportunity of a job in medical technology. “I had already met Ivo during my graduation project for Philips in Shanghai and he told me about the plans in this area at HI. That was at exactly the right time for me and it was also an opportunity to get back as close as possible to the product and the technology behind it.”
Initially, Enschede was the only place within HI for medical assignments, but now this is also happening from Eindhoven. And soon perhaps in more places. Lisette: “It could well be a good idea to create an extra support centre in the West of the country, or in Groningen where a lot of beautiful things are happening in this area. In any case, we want to make a national coverage possible in one way or another.”
Lisette gets her energy mainly from her contribution to essential innovations. “Take a company like Encapson, which can use their ultrasonic needles to bring about a huge improvement in the treatment of, for example, scoliosis patients. Or look at Sigmascreening, which has optimised the screening of women for breast cancer. Both companies were able to take new steps thanks to our project management. How cool is that?”
In addition to concrete project management, Lisette and her team have also developed training courses on legislation and regulations in the MedTech sector. In these courses, Lisette and her team are partly working together with Twente University. “This shows how crucial our knowledge can be for everyone in our industry. We really play an essential role in this, especially when you know that we always combine knowledge sharing with the actual implementation of it in practice.”
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