The Route is a 25-step methodology for the development of digital health projects.
The aim of The Route is to guide the development of digital health projects to progress by keeping clinical, technological, regulatory, market and business perspectives in balance.
For this purpose, the project development plan is divided into 5 stages, and it is established that a series of milestones, which include requirements from all 5 perspectives, must be met in order to move from one stage to the next.
The 5 stages into which the project is divided are:
- ANALYSIS: the aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of the problem to be tackled.
- IDEATION: inception of potential solutions to the problem.
- DESIGN: selecting a solution option and designing the solution concept.
- DEVELOPMENT: deployment of the solution concept into a functional product that meets expectations.
- MARKETING: defining a business plan, based on a scalable and sustainable business model, to ensure that the solution generates as much value as possible.
Combining the 5 perspectives (clinical, technological, regulatory, market and business) with the 5 stages of the project, the 25 steps of The Route methodology emerge:
Each of the 25 steps has a set of deliverables, which contribute to the balanced evolution of the project.
The Route integrates approaches from models such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Customer Development, Scrum, Agile Inception or eBiodesign.
The methodology of the The Route is detailed in the book (in Spanish) ‘La Ruta‘, using the narrative of a story that happened to Tina Almandoz, an investment analyst at a venture capital fund, who was commissioned to set up a corporate venturing programme in digital health and ended up starting her own project.
I use The Route in my mentoring of digital health projects.
Some of the mentored projects:
- Cloud-based platform for genomic analysis of information from massive DNA sequencing.
- Digital and cloud-based platform for the provision of telecare, telemonitoring and coordinated social and health care services.
- System for oral immunotherapy therapy to food.
- Remote hand, wrist and finger rehabilitation system using digital touch technology.
- Myofunctional therapy app for sleep improvement.
- App for advanced hemodynamic monitoring in anesthetized patients.
- Software for optimizing the production of blood components.
- Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) medical imaging software for estimation of excess intra-abdominal fat.
- Telemonitoring system for infarction risk in patients at high cardiovascular risk.
- Baby sleep coach system.
- System for early detection of cognitive impairment through the evaluation of psychomotor speed.