Sammeli Liikkanen
The Power of Open Innovation and Ecosystem Collaboration in Digital Health
Healthcare innovation is accelerating—but its biggest leaps now happen between organizations, not inside them. As data, AI, and connected devices converge, open innovation turns formerly isolated efforts into shared, scalable problem-solving across pharma, MedTech, biotech, academia, startups, and regulators. Breaking down silos lowers cost, increases agility, and speeds responses to unmet needs—especially in data-rich, digital health domains.
Open innovation and ecosystem collaboration are reshaping digital health, enabling breakthroughs that would be unattainable within traditional silos.
Complex diseases, rising R&D costs, and fast-moving technologies make lone-wolf models obsolete. Open ecosystems pool capabilities—accessing external AI, real-world data, and specialized tools; sharing risk; and compressing time-to-market. In practice, that looks like oncology data collaborations (e.g., Flatiron), device ecosystems in diabetes that integrate CGMs and pumps with startup innovation, and corporate platforms that co-develop and scale digital solutions (e.g., Novartis Biome, Bayer G4A). The flywheel turns as shared code, FAIR data, and pre-competitive methods invite broader participation—illustrated by open releases like AlphaFold that unlock downstream discovery.
When Ecosystems Outperform Enterprises:
How Openness Compounds Value
What you’ll learn
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How open innovation works in digital health—and why it reduces cost, increases agility, and speeds responses to unmet needs
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How code and data sharing (incl. FAIR principles) accelerate progress, with AlphaFold as a concrete example
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Which ecosystem roles and collaboration models matter—from hubs and public-private partnerships to venture and corporate platforms
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What leading programs demonstrate the model in action, including Novartis Biome, Medtronic’s diabetes ecosystem, and Bayer’s G4A
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Which challenges leaders must navigate next—culture, data rights (GDPR), and ecosystem sustainability—and how policy can enable scale
Sammeli Liikkanen is Director of Digital Medicine at Orion Pharma, where he spearheads the digitization of oncology and pain R&D through data, advanced data science, AI-driven platforms, and novel digital endpoints. He leads Orion’s Research Ecosystem project, building strategic public-private collaborations and scalable data infrastructures. As a member of the Research Council of Finland’s Strategic Research Council, he also promotes impactful, data-centric research in Finland.
About the Author
Sammeli Liikkanen, PhD, eMBA
