Successful completion of InnoDiaCare – the EIT Health Summer School on Digital Innovation in Diabetes Care

Campus project developed in partnership with CLOSE Innovation Project

On 28 August-1 September, 2017, the second part of InnoDiaCare – the EIT Health Summer School on Digital Innovation in Diabetes Care – was held at the Cologne Cluster of Excellence in Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD) at the University of Cologne under the coordination of Dr. Pauline Schumacher.

InnoDiaCare Part 2 was opened by a key note lecture presenting an overview on the “Cluster of Excellence: Cellular Stress responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD) and the multidimensional challenges globally faced by aging societies. It became clear that there are multifaceted interactions between ageing and diabetes which are highly susceptible to innovative solutions from the digital sector. Project Manager, navigator, head of translational platform, monitoring, safety and data management also gave insights into clinical trials together.

During the event an international group of 23 students from different faculties collaborated with mentors from pharmaceutical companies, healthcare, research, and business consulting in elaborating the diverse perspectives on current challenges in diabetes management and the value proposition of digital products and services.

Supported by partners associated with the EIT Health Knowledge and Innovation Community including: EURICE, Profil GmbH, IESE Business School, the Medical University of Łódź, Bayer AG, Roche Pharma, Miltenyi Biotech GmbH, and Cologne University, the students were guided to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude when continuing to develop their very own solutions directed at people with diabetes.

Adopting cutting edge knowledge about the protection of Intellectual Property, the design of clinical trials, and the diversity of aging traits as well as delving into new collaboration schemes greatly supported the students when refining their business cases and pr esenting them during a business plan competition at the end of the Summer School. Different social activities including a marvellous ship tour on the Rhine helped to even increase creativity and team spirit.

Five interdisciplinary groups of students were trained on collaboration skills as well as project and business development. The results were impressive and presented to a jury composed of people from the CLOSE project (Prof. Dr. Magda Rosenmöller and Prof. Dr. Freimut Schliess), Medical University of Lodz (Agnieszka Szadkowska MD, PhD) and the University of Cologne (Dr. Pauline Schumacher). The business projects were evaluated along the lines of innovative potential, business conception and implementation, team culture, and impact generation. The first winning group – the SweetBelly team which is going to develop a digital diabetes management support specifically targeting pregnant women – was awarded a prize of 4 000€ and the runner up with a prize of 2 000€.

InnoDiaCare was initiated by the Medical University of Łódź in cooperation with Air Liquide Sante Internatinational, IESE Business School, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Profil GmbH, the University of Cologne and EURICE European Research and Project Office GmbH. InnoDiaCare is partnering with the CLOSE EIT Health Innovation Project, which is going to implement an Artificial Pancreas-based product and service package for the improvement of chronic care of severely ill people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Together with EIT Health Campus and Accelerator the CLOSE partnership will guarantee a sustainable follow-up of the student’s most excellent business ideas at the crossroads of patients, healthcare professionals and physicians. The partnership with the CLOSE EIT Health Innovation Project makes InnoDiaCare an example for a cross-pillar cooperation within EIT Health.

Τhere was 21 students who was registered and participated in Cologne (and one additional).

To learn more about this Campus Summer School click here