specialists from the university medical center. With the resulting outcome of the various (pre)clinical studies and feedback from the end‐users, the industrial endoscopic device partner is then able to further optimize the already commercially available laparoscopic fluorescence imaging apparatus (including both hardware and software), the industrial fluorescence contrast partner is helped with preclinical validation of its fluorophore towards future clinical application. The investigations on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy form an early stage of discovering useful endogenous contrasts for selective tissue‐enhancement. This work was conducted as part of the van ‘t Hoff Program for Medical Photonics. This shared research program, coordinated by TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research), was named after Van ‘t Hoff, a famous Dutch chemist and winner of the first Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1901. The program is designed to be an innovation eco‐system 194 in which multiple parties work together to make new knowledge applicable more quickly. It is focused upon Photonics in Medicine, because Photonics is regarded as a so‐called Key Enabling Technology2. The European Union also regards developments in scanning, sensing and imaging of crucial importance for medical and healthcare activities to keep competitive and create new markets3. For “discovery‐phase” research the following issues applies: Complex and expensive research is needed to solve critical issues; Multiple applications by different parties can be expected (all based on the same knowledge base), especially if these parties also have comparable research questions; Simultaneous implementation of these applications increases the chance of success of the individual applications, and the synergetic effect is greater than the sum of its parts, thereby enhancing the societal impact and efficiency. The aforementioned research program combines these points by bringing together key stakeholders to create an innovation ecosystem, ranging from research organizations to equipment and product manufacturers, from hospitals to foundations (see Figure 1). The van ‘t Hoff Program: an innovation ecosystem consisting of research organizations, medical industry, key opinion clinicians from leading hospitals and foundations. This approach matches with the EU Council conclusions on innovation in the medical device sector: encourage better consideration of the needs of patients and healthcare professionals in the design process of medical devices and promote early dialogue between manufacturers, scientific and clinical experts, competent authorities and, where appropriate, notified bodies regarding ‘new products’ in particular, and their classification4.
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