URGO Mentorship Program: First edition

French Network Partner, URGO Group, picks Irish start-up that screens for diabetic ulcers

Bluedrop Medical, an Irish start-up developing a device that can predict the formation of a diabetic foot ulcer, a major complication of diabetes, has been named the winner of the URGO Mentorship Programme, which is organised by URGO Group, an EIT Health France Partner.

For one year, URGO Group will support Bluedrop Medical on matters such as marketing, intellectual property, clinical trials, scale up and market launch. Last June, URGO Group launched the tailor-made mentoring programme to help start-ups in medical technology to increase their chances of success to develop and market their innovations. Nearly 50 French and European start-ups responded to the call for applications in 2017.

In October, six pre-selected start-ups presented their project to a panel of experts at a “Demo Day”, at the head office of URGO Group in Paris, France. At the end of this day, three innovative start-ups were chosen for a final three-month “Give and Take” phase, during which finalists were able to enjoy initial support from URGO Group. URGO Group was able to further explore how it could support development of the future winner’s project by analysing its technology and business model.

Reducing the burden of diabetic foot ulcers could improve lives and save healthcare systems from high costs.

The innovation developed by Bluedrop Medical could prevent hundreds of thousands of amputations each year thanks to a simple daily scan of the patient’s foot, performed with a home-based device and analysed by an advanced algorithm capable of detecting abnormalities.

It would only take a few seconds each day to detect this chronic wound, which is one of the most complicated to heal.

About Diabetic Foot Ulcers:

• 19 to 34% of diabetic patients will suffer from a diabetic foot ulcer at least once in their lifetime
• With one amputation every 20 seconds, diabetes is the world’s leading cause of amputation
• Within the diabetic population in France, 9000 people are affected each year
• Up to 70% of patients could die within five years after an amputation

These alarming figures convey a real public health issue, both for patients, for whom this could be life threatening, and for health systems which have to bear the costs.

Until now, no local treatment, available for all health professionals, in hospitals and in private practices had proven to be effective in treating these wounds.

In 2018, URGO Group’s medical division, Urgo Medical, made a major step in treating diabetic foot ulcer, with the announcement of the results of its comparative clinical trial, EXPLORER – the first trial that demonstrates the efficacy of addressing the healing of this pathology.

This trial was published in the LANCET Diabetes & Endocrinology, one of the most well-known medical and scientific reviews in the world.

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For further enquiries contact:

Albane Pariset, albane.pariset@eithealth.eu