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academics lack incentives to pursue research with social and   Hong Kong’s gerontech ecosystem has become more integrated,
               economic impact; we will discuss how to improve this issue   as represented by the more solidified funnel under “Present” in
               in Section 5.2. The third relates to the exhausting medical   the figure. This has enabled more end-users to access and use
               device registration process, which obtained a score of -0.23.   gerontech, represented by the increase in spheres reaching the
               This gap refers to how medical devices can require additional   demand-side and the increase in number of users. The growth in
               certification—involving time-consuming registration—that   supply has also organically increased the demand for gerontech,
               non-medical devices do not require (OHKF, 2017, June). We   with more end-users being willing to try and purchase gerontech.
               will discuss how to improve this issue in Section 1.3.    While these are positive signs, we believe more can be done
                                                                         to further grow the gerontech ecosystem. We will describe
               However, majority of the gaps only saw little improvement,
                                                                         these key levers and their corresponding recommendations.
               with 18 of the 24 gaps scoring between 0–0.5. Moreover, there
               were numerous gaps where ≥ 20% of  respondents indicated   One area of need is further differentiation between different
               that they did not know or had no opinion (highlighted in red   market players and their corresponding market needs. For
               colour in Figure 5), specifically those related to different forms of   example, on the supply-side, companies of different sizes have
               collaboration and technical support for supply-side organisations.   different needs; also, local companies have different needs
                                                                         compared to international ones. On the demand-side, there is
               Put together, our survey findings suggest that there remain
                                                                         a need to distinguish between elderly and PwDs who live in the
               many areas within Hong Kong’s gerontech ecosystem that
                                                                         community versus those in residential settings.
               still do not receive adequate support or attention. These
               areas of insufficiency serve the basis of how we identified the   Another area of need is more strategic planning on how to
               key levers that will help mobilise and enhance Hong Kong’s   increase and better facilitate the flow of gerontech products
               gerontech ecosystem in the coming years.                  and services from supply-side to demand-side. This is because
                                                                         we expect more suppliers and end-users within the local gerontech
               Figure 7 represents the overall storyline and structure of
                                                                         ecosystem in the coming years, which will result in a higher volume
               our report. In 2017, when we first published our report,
                                                                         of gerontech products flowing from supply-side to demand-side,
               Hong Kong’s gerontech ecosystem was very fragmented,
                                                                         which in turn requires more strategic planning on how to facilitate
               represented by the funnel with several cracks. In addition to there
                                                                         and accommodate that increased flow. The increase in quantity
               not being many supply-side players, there were few gerontech
                                                                         and flow is represented by the enlarged supply side box, increased
               products and services—represented by the spheres—available
                                                                         number of demand-side users, increased number of spheres
               on the market, and these products were not reaching target users
                                                                         flowing through the funnel, and expansion of the funnel’s mouth.
               due to lack of support connecting supply-side with demand-side.
                                                                         The facets of strategic planning required for ecosystem facilitation
                                                                         and development are depicted by the three sub-categories of
               Due to all the improvements in initiatives from the past few years,
                                                                         “Infrastructure”, “Investment”, and “Talent”.
               we have seen an increase in the number of supply-side players.
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