As a member of the Procure4Health Community, Atrys, shares with us the road they have followed to consolidate their position as a reference in oncology and molecular medicine diagnosis and treatment in Portugal.

Atrys, 360º medical company is a multinational company dedicated to preventive and precision medicine and a leader in the healthcare diagnosis and treatment excellence. They provide individualized therapy for patients, with a commitment to technological innovation. At Atrys they pursue a global mission that drives them to push the boundaries of medical innovation. Their more than 2,500 specialized professionals work in a network, in 8 different countries, in 419 healthcare centers and diagnostic and research laboratories, combining their expertise, and creating synergies. Their professionals are from different nationalities and various professional backgrounds. More than 90% of them have a healthcare background. Their growth in recent years has led them to be present in Europe and Latin America under the Atrys brand and under other brands, whose talent they have been incorporating into the company. In Portugal, Atrys is a reference in oncology and molecular medicine, diagnosis and treatment.

Would you like to learn more about Atrys, our private healthcare procurer, and their experience in the field of Innovation Procurement?

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Organisation name: Atrys Portugal – Centro Médico Avançado, S.A.

Name and Surname of the person answering these questions: José Miguel Araújo

Job position in the organisation of the person answering these questions: CBDO – Chief Business Development Officer

1. What is the experience of your organisation, working on the procurement of innovation?

Atrys is a multinational organization that is very innovative for its clients, with cutting-edge treatments and the use of renowned diagnostic approaches. Upstream, with its partners and suppliers, Atrys is always trying to find the best solutions and sometimes those that don’t yet exist or are relevant in the market. However, the truth is that we did not have in our scope, at least in such a clear way and which is still being structured, this reality of, given a problem/opportunity, challenging the market in order to jointly find a viable and sustainable solution. Considering the above, we can only consider ourselves to be dedicated apprentices with occasional experience.

It is also worth mentioning that Atrys is the only private company among the founding members of Procure4Health and therefore has limited experience in public procurement, despite the experience of some of the team members, as we will see below.

2. Based on your experience, what are the benefits of procuring innovation in the healthcare sector?

I have been working in the health sector since 2009 and have always had a more or less direct connection to procurement. First in the public sector, and for the last five years in the private sector.

During the years in the public sector, I effectively carried out a very large number of public tenders, always within the framework of national legislation and current European directives. When I came to the private sector, the challenge remained, no longer with the obligatory formalities that exist in the public sector, but always with the same concern. For this reason, whenever we talk at Procure4Health about “public procurement in health” I always challenge everyone to think about “health procurement”, because health is not public or private, it is health, nothing more. At the end of both chains is the citizen, whom we can only hope to serve well.

Although I have been in healthcare for all these years, the truth is that this topic of innovation, with the level of structure with which we are approaching it in Procure4Health, has never been part of my reality. It is true that I have analysed, structured, and developed solutions with suppliers to problems that healthcare professionals have reported to me. But never in a consistent way, as my peers at Procure4Health make me understand today.

The truth is that before, whenever I thought about innovation or was presented with it by a supplier, the first thought was: it is going to be too expensive, and the institution will not be able to afford it. This reality has changed in the private sector, in the sense that whenever you present a Business Plan in which the value is there, they allow you to move forward.

But structuring innovation as we see it applied in Procure4Health is a new challenge today and one that we really want to develop in the future and sustain better and better.

3. Not everything must have been a bed of roses, what challenges have you faced when procuring innovation?

As mentioned before, whenever we thought about innovation in the public sector, the first concern was how much it might cost and whether the gains would more than compensate for the level of investment.

Later, the challenge became to properly support the realization of something innovative, with figures that would allow the investment to go ahead, as well as listing the advantages for patients and professionals.

The next challenge will be to structure innovation as a fundamental element of our procurement strategy and part of a well-defined process, and only after seeing it as possible to achieve, to outline a sustained plan that can support it.

At the same time, it will be challenging to think about developing all this at the same time in a network or with others, such as the Procure4Health community, where I think the real added value will lie.

4. How was the experience co-creating with innovative suppliers so far?

Whenever something unstructured was done, as I see it today at PCP or PPI level, it was always in a one-to-one relationship, between the interested party, the organization I was in, and a supplier who could develop the solution.

When it could be done, in the public sector, in order to comply with what was defined in the procurement area, we launched a public tender in the hope that others would be able to respond to what was required, efficiently and at a competitive cost.

Whenever we are, even in a less well-structured way, working on something that can change people’s lives, whether patients or professionals, for the better, there is an enormous sense of satisfaction. Whatever your role is in the group that is looking for or developing something innovative.

5. As an organisation less experienced in innovation procurement, what do you expect to get from the Procure4Health Community?

With Atrys’ participation in the Procure4Health Community, I hope to be able to make changes on two levels: internally and externally.

Internally, I intend to rethink the existing procurement strategy, consistently incorporating innovation, adapting the work plans over the next few years to this new reality, always with a clear and sustained expectation of creating value within the organization. Also, to encourage the organization’s participation in further projects promoted by the EU, in different domains, which offer similar advantages as Procure4Health.

Externally, by taking part in a European project of this scale, I hope to be able to continue to be part of this Community, actively participating in it. Not only during the time allotted for the project, but also after its completion. The extent of my participation will certainly involve: (i) informing my peers, in Portugal and abroad, whether private or public, of the advantages of belonging to this Community; (ii) collaborating in future PPI, PCP and OMC projects, to which I can add value; (iii) developing partnerships with organizations that share the same areas of interest; (iv) suggesting the development of new dimensions of information construction and sharing that I think could exist and be explored; (v) collaborating in other procurement projects that provide knowledge, experience and the sharing of interests.