Big companies rely on the success of something known as innovation labs – rooms in which new ideas are initiated and put into practice. This way, they try to inject a bit of Silicon Valley and the start-up mentality into corporate structures, which can be rather static in very large companies.

Roche, too, has recognised the value these labs can add. Part of the digital revolution that is going on worldwide, innovation labs have now been set up by the regional IT departments at several sites. The largest are the labs in Kaiseraugst, San Francisco and Warsaw.

On entering the lab in Kaiseraugst, you immediately notice that this isn’t a “normal” meeting room: normal chairs are replaced by colourful seating and standing cubes, and digital walls, a projector and high tables challenge people to adopt a new method of working. You automatically get the feeling that there is no place for fixed structures and processes here.

The intention behind the lab is both to encourage the exchange of ideas between IT and the other functions and promote cooperation within the various IT departments.

A new option offered by the room in Kaiseraugst is rapid prototyping. With this technique, a prototype such as an app can be developed live and tested simultaneously. This is a concept with a future.

For Alain, it is also important that the lab does not stand alone but is part of a larger trend in the Northwestern Switzerland region: the . This hub is an initiative launched by healthcare experts in the life science industry and research, the canton of Basel-Stadt and. The objective of “Day One” is to enhance cooperation between the various disciplines and stakeholders in the healthcare sector so that Basel can continue to hold its own as a location in the future. The lab in Kaiseraugst fits in with this scheme perfectly.

The IT department has a particularly important role to play in the field of personalised medicine: