How Hospitals Can Turn Clinical Expertise into Revenue with a Consulting Unit. Interview with Denny Chakkalakal, Head of Operations at CEED

CEED is Charité’s dedicated MedTech consultancy. Its mission is to support medical technology manufacturers and startups in developing innovations that truly work in clinical practice from a medical, regulatory, and operational perspective. In this interview, Denny explains how CEED helps translate clinical expertise into scalable solutions and accelerate time to market, while offering structured access to Charité’s infrastructure and professionals.

Enjoy the interview!

R2GConnect: What does CEED do?

Denny: CEED is the MedTech consultancy of Charité. We support medical technology manufacturers, including startups, in developing innovations that are truly viable in a clinical setting: medically, regulatorily, and operationally. In other words, we bring clinical expertise, usability knowledge, and regulatory know-how into the development process in a structured way. Through CEED, companies can also organize usability testing, clinical studies, or real-world data analyses. Our goal is to support the entire journey from idea and prototype to market entry. Startups, in particular, benefit from their proximity to Charité, which allows them to test product ideas early and receive valuable regulatory feedback.

R2GConnect: When did you launch, and what were your goals?

Denny: We officially launched in early 2023, but the idea was born back in 2019, together with colleagues at Charité. From the beginning, our goal was to make Charité’s vast clinical expertise and infrastructure accessible not only internally but also to support external innovation. We aimed to build a structure that gives startups and SMEs quick, organized access to clinical environments. Our mission is to improve medical technology and accelerate the long and complex path from development to market access. Startups, in particular, face significant challenges due to a lack of established processes and networks.

At the same time, we wanted to give our colleagues at Charité a way to contribute their expertise to innovation projects easily and efficiently. We had seen too often how motivated employees would start innovation collaborations, only to be overwhelmed by the complex processes of a large hospital. We aimed to build up the necessary process knowledge from contract management to data protection within CEED, so our colleagues can focus on their expertise, and we help ensure projects run smoothly with external partners.

R2GConnect: How many employees do you have, and what do they bring to the table?

Denny: We currently have about 10 people in our core team, with diverse backgrounds including medicine, regulatory & clinical affairs, usability & human factors, finance, quality, and project management. Our strength lies in this mix of expertise and professional experience, especially in the MedTech and clinical sectors. We all share the ambition of developing solutions that are not only strategic but also practically viable.

R2GConnect: Who are your target clients, and what is your unique value proposition?

Denny: We work with startups, mid-sized companies, and large manufacturers in the MedTech and digital health sectors. Our unique value proposition is clear: structured access to the clinic, to real user perspectives, and to the regulatory framework, all from a single source. We also speak both languages: the language of industry and the language of the clinic. That might sound trivial, but it’s often the critical factor in determining whether a project succeeds or fails.

R2GConnect: How do you work with Charité colleagues?

Denny: Always on a project basis, but very closely. We involve clinical experts from Charité as needed: doctors, nurses, IT, procurement, researchers, etc. This happens in a structured format through tests, panels, interviews, workshops, or studies. We handle the organization, coordination, and follow-up. The key point: the clinic doesn’t just provide opinions, it provides real expertise. And we make sure that this input is meaningfully integrated into the product development process.

R2GConnect: What challenges have you faced in building a consultancy from within a hospital?

Denny: Many. Primarily legal and organizational ones. Hospitals are not set up to provide consulting services to external clients. There are often no suitable contracts, resources, or internal processes. That’s why we knew from the start: if we want to do this seriously, we need a dedicated structure, with entrepreneurial flexibility but closely connected to Charité.

We’ve already created practical solutions to many of the common challenges companies, especially startups, face when trying to work with Charité, such as the often time-consuming contract groundwork.

R2GConnect: Why did you choose to establish a separate legal entity?

Denny: Because it wouldn’t have worked any other way. We wanted to be fast, flexible, and deliver clear value, without being slowed down by administrative processes or fundamental policy discussions. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Charité, we are organizationally independent but professionally well-connected. We’ve combined that with two framework agreements, one with the faculty and one with the clinic, which has proven to be the ideal setup.

R2GConnect: How do you develop your service offerings?

Denny: Very pragmatically, we start with real projects. If something works well and there’s repeated demand, we turn it into a standardized service format. We always design our services from the user’s perspective: what does a company truly need to reach market readiness faster, more safely, and with regulatory compliance?

R2GConnect: Do you collaborate with other service providers?

Denny: Yes, regularly. For example, in areas like market access & reimbursement, or when it comes to data protection, the AI Act, or health data governance. We have a strong network of partners we trust and bring in depending on project needs.

R2GConnect: How do you market your services, and what are the main challenges?

Denny: Right now, mostly through networks, platforms like R2GConnect, events, direct outreach, or via projects where Charité staff ask us for support. The biggest challenge is visibility. Many companies don’t even know if CEED exists or that it’s possible to collaborate with Charité in this way. But once we start the conversation, most quickly realize the value we bring.

R2GConnect: Thank you for this insightful and interesting conversation, Denny.

In addition to the interview, CEED also offers exclusive special offers / deals on R2GConnect to help HealthTech teams navigate certification and usability challenges. Explore and claim one of the following tailored opportunities:

• AI-Medical Device Classification Package – Navigate MDR & AI Act Compliance
• MDR Classification Assessment
• Expert-Driven Clinical Usability Testing – Optimize Real-World Product Performance – Free 1-hour consultation

R2GConnect is the partnership builder platform by Research2Guidance, a Berlin-based leading analyst and consulting company for the digital health industry. With over 8,700 HealthTech companies in the community, it’s one of the largest networks in the global HealthTech industry. Since 2010, we’ve been helping startups and healthcare organizations connect and collaborate.