Since autumn 2023, the Future Health Lab has been driving joint solutions for urgent challenges of the public healthcare system in Austria. How? By bringing a broad group of stakeholders together in innovation projects – focusing on the needs of users (patients and healthcare providers), coming together in the neutral space of the innovation centre, engaging in eye-level cooperation. Like never before. 

Some of the guiding topics so far have been: the improvement of care for people with chronic diseases, the modernisation of pathways through the public healthcare system, the shaping of personal health – through increased health literacy, innovation of health in the workplace, target group-specific prevention & screening, and more. Innovation projects are grouped into programmes and finally strategic focus areas – “Health Missions” – to set priorities, combine forces (pooling resources and experiences) and ensure results. Solutions are tested in real-life settings and digital tools integrated. 

The Future Health Lab provides the infrastructure, the innovation management toolkit and the framework conditions for successful collaboration across sectors and organisations. Public institutions, representatives of the health professions, leading companies, innovators, research institutions and patient organisations are all part of the Future Health Lab community; they are the ones filling its innovation processes with life. They agree that it takes work beyond one’s own organisation to break through complexity and offer citizens the best possible care – all while taking pressure off the system. 

The Future Health Lab rests on a close collaboration with its strategic partners –  the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Austrian Health Insurance Fund – and is operated together with Impact Hub Vienna.