GE5 announced winner of the StarShip 2018 programme

An excellent need-driven innovation tool for athletes won at the flagship programme

The StarShip final stage of training and pitch competition took place in Budapest on 8 November.

The six teams of talented young healthcare entrepreneurs worked on real-life challenges provided by companies.

They examined the needs of patients and clinicians, worked on solutions and presented their findings.

It was a great opportunity to have an external view on contemporary healthcare challenges. The winning team – GE5, provided excellent need-driven innovation for athletes. Sports injuries are a common problem. During the 2017/18 football season, clubs in the Premier League paid € 248M in salaries to injured players.

In seven months we conducted 72 interviews, among which athletes, sports physiotherapists, clinicians and representatives of FIFA were included as well. We found out that there is a common need between stakeholders to reduce the amount of non-contact injuries among elite athletes in order to reduce the enormous costs for sports clubs and reduce the amount of missed games for the athletes.

By taking part in the StarShip programme, the winning team developed the GE5 Risk Scale – an algorithm-based injury risk assessment tool which holistically takes into consideration the data from mental health to physical characteristics and visualises it in a way which supports the creation of more personalised injury prevention programmes.

StarShip is an EIT Health educational initiative conducted in collaboration with the leading European health industry partners – led by the University of Coimbra, IESE Business School, the RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) and Instituto Pedro Nunes, along with six partnering companies.

The participants had an opportunity to be involved in science innovation and to co-work with innovators in multidisciplinary teams. The fellowship programme lasts one year. During this time, members learn how to find solutions to the industry challenges and examine unknown needs in the healthcare context.

One of the challenges was prepared by the EIT Health InnoStars Partner – Glintt: “The Concept of Healthy Living for Diabetic Patients.” The team which embraced this project mainly focused on the market introduction of an innovative and viable solution for early foot ulcer detection. The representatives of the team visited the Glintt headquarters, with the opportunity to share their thoughts on the current Portuguese health context as well as one of the biggest Portuguese hospitals.