How NeedSignal works — for submitters, reviewers, managers, and expert groups.
NeedSignal is a platform for collecting, reviewing, validating, and prioritizing unmet clinical needs in orthopedic surgery. It connects surgeons and healthcare professionals with a structured clinical review and innovation process.
Every need goes through a structured workflow: submission → expert review → validation scoring → prioritization. The result is a ranked database of clinical needs that guides innovation decisions.
Anyone can submit a clinical need — no login required. You can describe a need you encounter in your practice and the system will structure it for review.
Your need enters the review queue. A manager will assign it to one or more expert reviewers. If additional information is needed, you'll receive an email with a link to update your submission.
Reviewers are expert surgeons invited by a manager to evaluate specific clinical needs. You'll receive an email invitation with a sign-in link — no password required.
Your sign-in link works on any device. You'll stay logged in for 7 days. For a new device, simply request a new sign-in link at needsignal.health/login.
Managers oversee the full workflow — from receiving submissions to assigning reviewers and moving needs through the process.
received → in review → accepted → scoring → complete. Needs can also be rejected or put on hold with info requested at any stage.
Expert groups provide the scoring that determines a need's priority. When a need is accepted by reviewers, the manager assigns it to an expert group for evaluation.
The four dimensions are weighted and combined into a priority score from 0 to 100. Scores above 70 indicate high priority needs; 40–70 medium priority; below 40 lower priority. The formula is: Incidence (30%) + Severity (30%) + Existing Solutions (20%) + Generality (20%).
All data is stored in Switzerland (Zurich) on Supabase infrastructure. Row-level security ensures each organization's data is fully isolated. Authentication uses passwordless magic links — no passwords are stored.
The platform runs on modern, cloud-native infrastructure purpose-built for this use case. Access is controlled at the database level, not just the application level.