[from left to right]
Motoki Takei, Development Planning Section1, Medical R&D Center
Masanori Enrin, General Manager, Medical R&D Center Devices R&D Group & Social Deployment Center Corporate R&D Group
Tetushiro Ohsaki, Senior Director, Open Innovation Promotion Department, Corporate R&D Group
In 2017, the company launched its Medical Development Center within the R&D division aiming to expand its business into other medical fields. The new facility is designed to research how the newly developed technologies, such as vital sensing and AI diagnostics as well as implants, can be applied to different medical fields.
Company-wide areas of interest:
- Information and Communications
- Automotive
- Environmental and Energy
- Medical and Healthcare
Medical division’s areas of interest:
- Orthopedics
- Dentistry
Corresponding department in the partnership:
- Open Innovation Promotion Department
In 2019, Kyocera restructured its vertically integrated development process and opened two innovation facilities; Minatomirai Research Center (Yokohama) and Keihanna Research Center (Kyoto Pref.). The Minatomirai Research Center focuses on system software related to telecommunications, energy infrastructure, and automobile cameras. It also includes medical software technologies such as AI, bio-sensing, and diagnostic systems. The Keihanna Research Center focuses on devices such as semiconductors, sensors, and biometric sensing devices.
Learn more about our innovation platform
The Open Innovation Promotion Department is responsible for connecting the technologies from research teams to medical use. With Plug and Play, the department made proposals on how to bring startup technologies from other industries into the medical field.
Diving into Kyocera's open innovation strategy
Kyocera’s Objectives
- Identify fitting opportunities and trends among relevant startups in health, new materials, and smart cities fields.
- Form collaborative partnerships with other established businesses on selected topics of innovation
- Learn new technologies from startups
- External interaction with large corporates and other organizations to reinforce open innovation culture within the company.
Partnership Outcomes
- Kyocera was introduced to more than 300 startups in relevant fields
- Received access to relevant, up-to-date trends in healthcare, new materials, and smart cities-related industries
- Facilitated networking and collaborative opportunities with other Plug and Play corporate partners
- Conducted webinars and in-person events focusing on specific technologies
Several projects are currently underway between startups and Kyocera through the accelerator program. Kyocera expects to expand those projects, which would not have been able to create on their own. One of the advantages of open innovation is that it can save a lot of time by supplementing different areas where startups and Kyocera have strength.
One of the success cases is a sales agreement signed by iMU and Kyocera in May 2023. Kyocera will distribute iMU’s gait analyzer in the Japanese market to quantify patients' conditions on knee osteoarthritis.
There is a need to propose appropriate treatment methods according to the progression stage using quantitative data. iMU and Kyocera met through Plug and Play Japan’s accelerator program in 2022. They share the same philosophy regarding treating knee osteoarthritis, namely the importance of an early approach and the desire to contribute to treatment from the preventive medical stage. In order to spread the use of the sales network, the two companies have agreed upon.
Kyocera's focus areas
Data collection platform
Kyocera aims to build a platform for collecting patient data through medical devices in order to understand patients better and provide doctors with useful information for treatment.
Digital devices
It takes time and money to design and build a device from scratch. Kyocera aims to collaborate in the form of implementing its core technologies into devices owned by startups.
Kyocera's collaborative innovation method
When it comes to collaboration, several key points should be considered. First and foremost, the level of evidence utilized in the product holds great importance. Collaborative efforts should prioritize products that have substantial evidence backing their claims. While having FDA approval or clearance is desirable, it's not an absolute requirement for collaboration. The availability of sufficient non-clinical data can also outweigh the need for the product to be clinically proven. And if the mechanism of the technology is well-defined or demonstrated, collaboration becomes possible, even in the absence of extensive data.
For startups, collaboration with Kyocera could take the form of new product development, technical cooperation, and production support.
- New Product Development: Implementing startup production in the orthopedic and dental fields of the Medical Division.
- Technical Cooperation: Use Kyocera's technology as part of the startup's products outside of the orthopedic and dental fields.
- Production Support: Provide startups with Kyocera's production line for mass production.
In order to realize a successful collaboration, startups need to clarify what they want to achieve. Since Kyocera has a wide variety of businesses, there’s a possibility that proposals for one field can be utilized for other applications. During initial meetings, Kyocera expected to have conversations with startups to understand "what the startup wants to do" and "what their strengths and weaknesses are.”
