Science-Based Technological Transfer as a Key Tool in Public Health

Only a small portion of all the projects that are funded with public grants reaches the market, due to a gap known as “Death Valley” between the public and private source of resources. Know Hub Chile (KH) is a non-profit organization founded to transform scientific research results into goods and services available to the market and for the benefit of society. When the Covid-19 emergency reached Chile, the organization launched the “KH Bridge” a program of proof-of-concept and selected three technologies able to support hospitals in solving their needs. The first one was a smart shift planning platform of medical staff for reducing the virus spreading probability; the second solution aimed to assess the use of masks, and counting capacity and physical distance of patients by using video camera analytic technology in real-time; and the third project selected was an innovative design of personal protection equipment made with copper nanoparticles. All these solutions were piloted and validated into public hospitals for three months with a USD 25.000 budget. The KH Bridge experience has shown that the pandemic scenario has been an opportunity to validate university technologies in real environments and in shorter time frames, contributing to public health operations.