Starship – Young talents creating a new era of digital health

Starship fellows met at GE ‘s site in Budapest to address current challenges of digital health

During the course, multidisciplinary teams receive education on entrepreneurial studies and develop conceptual designs addressing industrial challenges based on the Stanford Biodesign model. They do observational studies and prepare interviews in a clinical environment to identify needs and gaps in real practice. Teams prioritize needs and identify many business opportunities, out of which they elaborate ones with high market potential. In 2017 GE Healthcare provided three challenges related to the adaptation of digital health technologies.

“GE is proud to provide a nurturing environment for young talents, as I think entrepreneurs play an important role in shaping our future. GE is engaged to support young entrepreneurs in the region, and the EIT Health StarShip fellowship program provides a great platform to fulfill this goal through collaboration with the best academic sites of CEE, with the vision of creating a regional ecosystem around digital healthcare,” said Joerg Bauer, President of GE Hungary, about the program and the partnership with EIT Health.

The multidisciplinary teams will utilize their various backgrounds and working experience to address the challenges proposed by GE.

The challenges connecting to the application of digital health technologies were defined by the engineering teams of GE Hungary’s Healthcare Division, based on the needs and recommendations of clinical sites across Europe.

The three challenges are related to the needs of medical sites from across CEE connecting to the use of digital health technologies, such as:

1. new ways for hospitals to access innovative algorithms;
2. improving decision support services for critical care situations;
3. improving drug administration on clinical sites by digital labeling technologies;

Data will be collected and novel business ideas will be formulated by the teams with the support of GE’s engineering and product development teams.

Viktória Katona, Innovation Manager of Healthcare Digital, is responsible for the event. “This is the third EIT Health education program GE takes part in, with great results. EIT Health creates a community where business can connect great minds from academia and young entrepreneurs can get professional support to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills. It is very inspiring for us to work with interdisciplinary teams and to meet different approaches and perspectives for the improvement of healthcare,” she added.

The activity of the teams will result in a better understanding of current needs in medical procedures, will improve communication between academic and clinical sites, and the ideas the teams come up with will be the seed of novel startups in EIT Health.

Balázs Fürjes, Director of EIT Health InnoStars, says: “EIT Health’s unique mission is to connect different regions and market players from Europe and to connect education, research, and industry. In this cooperation, GE plays an important role by providing support to ensure that great ideas can once meet global markets. GE is a pioneer in taking the lead in these types of cooperation. Based on the success of this program, six new industrial partners intend to join this initiative next year.”

To gain a better understanding about the trends of digital health and to receive mentoring support and advice on novel technologies, the participants of the program will visit Budapest twice, in April and September, and also the final pitch of the teams will be held in Budapest, between November 6 and 9.

Dóra Búzás, StarShip Participant (right on the photo above), a bioengineering graduate from the Technical University of Budapest, is one of the bright minds participating in the program. “I joined the EIT Health StarShip program due to the outstanding perspectives it offers to learn about the entrepreneurial mindset and industry and business development. I loved that I could meet inspiring people and work in interdisciplinary teams and learn to be proactive. I feel it really supports my professional advancement and offers an opportunity to make an impact.”

Partners:

• KTH – Stockholm – Educational model
• IESE Business School – Education material (Magda Rosenmuller)
• University of Coimbra – Organizing efforts, startup creation, Innostars (Jorge Figueira)
• Medical University of Łódź – Education material