Irish health innovators win big at annual awards 2022

EIT Health-supported start-ups and healthcare innovators make headlines by winning awards in multiple categories. 

In a showcase of the finest healthcare innovations across Ireland, over 15 promising EIT Health-supported start-ups and healthcare innovators took to the stage to win accolades for their game-changing solutions in the healthcare industry. In this week’s article we spotlight several of the winners.

Awarding innovation

• Akara Robotics won the award for Best Application of AI in Healthcare at The AI Awards 2022. The same month Akara announced it has signed an MoU with Tartu University Hospital, Estonia’s largest healthcare provider and core partner of EIT Health. Akara has developed a ground-breaking platform to autonomously disinfect hospitals and healthcare settings.
• At the 2022 Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards, our partner Trinity College Dublin and EIT Health-backed ProVerum were voted winners for the People’s Choice Award. Earlier this year ProVerum raised €30 million in Series A funding for developing a novel treatment solution for patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
• At Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas 2022 showcase event, the Viewers’ Choice Award was presented to Robert Wylie of Fada Medical. Fada is developing a novel diffusion technology that can extend the wear-time of infusion-set cannulas, with a mission to improve insulin delivery for people living with type 1 diabetes.
• At InterTradeIreland’s annual Seedcorn Competition, EpiCapture won a €10,000 Special Award for best venture stemming from a university spin-out or support programme. A Wild Card finalist, EpiCapture aims to transform early diagnosis for prostate cancer with a simple, non-invasive urine test.
• At HealthTech Innovation Awards, SymPhysis Medical won the Best Indigenous Healthcare Start-up Award. Symphysis Medical aims to help patients in palliative care with a smart, patient-centric catheter-based solution for treating malignant pleural effusions (MPE).
• xWave Technologies also won at the HealthTech Innovation Awards for the Most Transformative Impact Award. xWave raised €1.3m in a seed funding round earlier this year for developing its smart radiology platform.
• Selio Medical took home the Rising Star award at the 2022 Ireland France Business Awards. Selio secured €2.5M in funding from the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) March 2022 Accelerator funding call for developing a novel platform medical device to transform lung biopsy procedures.
• At the National Startup Awards 2022, identifyHer took gold for the Early Stage Start-up category. Nua Surgical, Pumpinheart and Harmony Medical won Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively for the Medtech Start-up category.

Awarding entrepreneurship

• At the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) annual innovation awards, Niamh Donnelly, co-founder and CRO of Akara Robotics, won an accolade for Rising Innovators under the age of 35.
• Fionn Lahart and Christoph Hennersperger, founders of OneProjects, won the 2022 EY Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Awarding collaboration

• At The Irish Medtech Awards 2022, our partners over at BioInnovate Ireland won the Collaboration in Medtech Award 2022.

Awarding diversity and representation

• At The Irish Medtech Awards 2022, our partners at Medtronic Ireland took home the Best Diversity and Representation Company Initiative Award 2022.

Would you like the opportunity to learn new skills, connect with a vast network of experts, access European markets, finance and more? Get involved with EIT Health through our business acceleration programmes which will be opening for application early January 2023.

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