Health innovation and entrepreneurship are increasingly essential for addressing the mounting challenges of global healthcare systems. This paper presents a hybrid, project-based learning model implemented in the HM Munich University of Applied Sciences (Health Entrepreneurship Seminar. Drawing inspiration from the Lean Startup methodology, the course integrates interdisciplinary teaching teams, a flipped classroom approach, structured coaching, and active industry engagement. Data collected over eight iterations involving 307 students demonstrate that this approach enhances student engagement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and practical problem-solving skills. Nonetheless, challenges such as high workload intensity, team formation dynamics, and limited post-course venture continuation remain. These findings contribute to refining entrepreneurship education in highly regulated sectors like healthcare.

We are at a pivotal moment. The future of healthcare innovation can no longer be defined solely by technological advancement or institutional efficiency. While digital tools, therapies and platforms continue to evolve, they must be embedded within a broader transformation, one that places the human experience at the centre of how we design, deliver and evaluate care. This patient-centred renaissance calls for the integration of both horizontal and vertical forms of knowledge: connecting services across the care continuum. From the literature and our experience, an unexpected byproduct of co-production with patients in health innovation and care delivery is a reduction in complaints, litigation and a significant increase in treatment compliance.¹⁹ This results in a reduction in misdiagnosis,²⁰ over investigation and treatment, giving a reduction in costs in the overall healthcare economy. Empowering patients as innovators is not a symbolic gesture. It is a practical imperative if we are to create pathways that are not only clinically effective but also meaningful and responsive. Fragmented systems that overwhelm or disorient must give way to cohesive and compassionate journeys, designed with and for the people they are meant to serve. This is a call to rethink not only what we innovate, but how and with whom. Let us commit to building systems that honour not just the science of healing, but the individuals we treat. In doing so, we move closer to a future where innovation and empathy are no longer treated as separate domains, but as interdependent pillars of truly transformative care.