Bringing innovations up to speed in the healthcare sector
Collaboration between healthcare providers and industry does not start early enough, and they tend to operate in a fragmented manner. Better cooperation and coordination are required to meet healthcare providers’ and end-users’ needs.
Joining forces to reduce innovation lag in healthcare
The EU-funded Cross4Health(opens in new window) consortium supported innovative SME-led projects that are leveraging technology and know-how from aerospace, energy, and creative industries sectors to the benefit of healthcare applications. “Cooperation between different sectors not only reduces research fragmentation, but also innovation lag, the time it takes to bring a product or service to the market,” emphasises Sergio Ferreira, Cross4Health coordinator. Cross4Health launched two open calls and acceleration programmes, supporting over 60 SMEs to bring their innovative solutions closer to the market. It also fostered idea generation and collaboration among European companies by organising various competition events, hackathons(opens in new window), Open Innovation Spaces, workshops and webinars. Cross4Health worked closely with healthcare stakeholders to identify the actual needs of the sector before planning events and opening the calls for projects. This played a crucial role in incentivising SMEs to participate and drawing concrete advancements from these exercises as there was a good alignment with needs on the ground.
Cross4Health success stories
Cross4Health took into consideration the technological, financial and human resource risks and supported a variety of projects across different disciplines. The supported projects addressed specific healthcare challenges by developing a range of solutions, such as new diagnostic products and self-monitoring tools. All projects reported significant industry, network, knowledge and financial achievements as a result of the acceleration programmes. Successful project example is the EyeCheck System which uses a cloud-based platform for remote diagnosis of eye conditions through pictures taken at a local optician. Also, the VR biomarker(opens in new window) device uses quantitative neurophysiology and virtual reality (VR) to facilitate psycho physiological assessment, while Virtual Recovery(opens in new window) offers a VR experience to achieve recovery. StrokeAI(opens in new window) integrates electrocardiogram data and artificial intelligence to assess stroke risk, while the G ECGms(opens in new window) solution monitors cardiac activity in real time. The SNIPE(opens in new window) point-of-care device remotely monitors patients with liver diseases by detecting C-reactive protein and ammonia in the blood. Another rapid diagnostic test, the SeptiBell(opens in new window), identifies bacterial infections in the blood and helps physicians on sepsis management. Additional Cross4Health innovations include the babyndex(opens in new window), the first digital saliva test that can predict ovulation, and the iWalkU(opens in new window) online exoskeleton that can both diagnose and register motion. The Adamo(opens in new window) robotic arm offers highly articulated physiotherapy treatment. Cross4Health supported the development of various remote monitoring devices, such as the ePrev(opens in new window) for identifying epileptic triggers and predicting seizures, and the PREDISPARK(opens in new window) that remotely monitors the rehabilitation efforts of Parkinson’s disease patients. The physioplux Trainer(opens in new window) service helps patients execute physiotherapy exercises at home, while the KineActiv(opens in new window) solution allows injury rehabilitation through active therapy. Additional rehabilitation solutions were developed such as Remo(opens in new window) and ReHand(opens in new window). Environmental monitoring for respiratory diseases was addressed through sensors that measure air pollution myBUTTERFLY(opens in new window), or combine it with personalised breath analysis FeNOmino(opens in new window). “Overall, the great achievements of the supported projects is clear proof of the success of Cross4Health. We hope that SMEs will use this experience to unlock their full innovation potential,” concludes Ferreira.
