Disruption Insights: Make Users the Final Judges of Your Idea

Updated Nov 30, 2022 • 5 min read

Having spent more than 25 years in the field of respiratory diseases and respiratory drug delivery, Dr. Sabine Häussermann is a true medical field innovator.

She started her career researching drug delivery optimization, then moved to using digital solutions to help patients with the treatment of their respiratory diseases.

In 2017, Dr. Sabine founded VisionHealth to follow the idea of making therapy for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) more efficient by empowering patients to understand and follow the therapy guidance of their physicians.

VisionHealth’s flagship solution, the Kata® app, uses a series of intelligent algorithms to teach patients how to use their inhalation device efficiently in real-time. Sounds impressive? Read on to see what more you can learn from Sabine.

In the Disruption Insights series, we discover inspirations and insights from global innovators who shape how we live and do things today. True innovation doesn’t happen as an overnight breakthrough – it’s an ongoing process of constant trial and error done by teams and organizations who strive to solve real human problems. Sabine is one of the people who push those ideas forward, making things possible.

💼 Corporate innovation

How do you choose one idea out of one hundred?

That’s the million-dollar question. We run our ideas through a collegial evaluation process.

First, we filter, evaluate, and improve the original idea with a cross-disciplinary team. Then, we model the winner and present it to the potential users and stakeholders. They are our only judges and have the final word on the worthiness of our initial concept.

Only the users and the market can confirm which idea is the best to follow up and develop.

Dialogue with users and other stakeholders shapes the best decision.

How do you convince decision-makers to back innovative ideas?

Come to the table with hard facts and figures. We always back up an innovation with in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis because those are the arguments that speak for themselves.

One thing you’d change about your work

I would love to get more funding. We could make our product Kata® available for more patients and help them to get a grip on their chronic condition.

💪 Innovation mindset

What you love about digital acceleration

Accelerating digitally enables us to quickly find THE solution to a critical problem of millions of humans suffering every day, making our product truly useful for the society.

One personality trait that helps you at your daily job

I am very persistent and do not give up easily. Such a trait is especially useful when rolling out a pioneer product in an emerging market.

Drivers at work

People around me are my drive: I love to work with my team, my excellent colleagues keep me going. At the same time, positive feedback from patients really motivates me.

Keeping fresh perspective

It’s extremely important to stay in touch with your network and close contacts within your specialization. So, constant input from the community and patients makes it easy for me to keep a fresh perspective.