Another year full of achievements!

NEWSLETTER #22 - Another year full of achievements!

Another year full of achievements!

Now that 2024 has come to a close, we at Patient Innovations are reflecting on a year filled with incredible achievements, collaborations, and milestones. We're thrilled to share highlights from our journey and express our gratitude to our partners, mentors, and the passionate innovators who make our work possible.

PATIENT INNOVATION'S 10th ANNIVERSARY

This year marked a significant milestone for Patient Innovation – our 10th anniversary! It was a time to celebrate the remarkable progress we've made together, empowering patients to drive healthcare innovation, remembering the launch event which happened 10 years ago on February 7th, 2014.

Pictures from the Patient Innovation platform launch event on February 7th, 2024

In commemoration of this special occasion, Patient Innovation committed to a series of ten initiatives. These initiatives have included events, the launch of a program partnership with CMU Portugal, the release of a new brochure, and a website refresh, among others.

As we continue to celebrate our anniversary year until February 2025, we are excited to share that more surprises are on the way to honor this milestone together. Stay tuned for upcoming events and initiatives that will further our mission and celebrate our community's achievements!

6th PATIENT INNOVATION AWARDS

Another edition of the Patient Innovation Awards took place this year on October 25th at the Estoril Conferences at Nova School of Business and Economics' (Nova SBE) campus, during which 4 different innovative projects in 4 categories were awarded.

The Patient Innovation Awards recognize the impact of patients, caregivers, and collaborators who have developed innovative solutions to address health challenges. These awards celebrate individuals who have created solutions to improve their own lives, support loved ones, or even benefit people they may not know personally. Patient Innovation presented awards in four categories: Patient Innovator, Caregiver Innovator, Collaborator Innovator and Patient-Caregiver Innovators.

Four winners were selected from a pool of over 1,800 innovative solutions showcased on the Patient Innovation platform. This year's winning projects demonstrate remarkable diversity, not only in their geographical origins but also in the nature of their solutions. Representing Portugal, India, Spain and Denmark, the winners have developed a range of innovative solutions, from user-friendly mobile application to VR devices.

In the "Patient Innovator" category, the award went to Hans Jørgen Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes. The team of Mariella Pisciotta and Rafael Lanus, founders of Reality Telling, received the award in the "Caregiver Innovator" category. Arun Agarwal, founder of Janitri Innovations, was honored in the "Collaborator Innovator" category. Lastly, Beatriz Batista and Adília Oliveira were recognized with the "Patient-Caregiver Innovators" award.

Hans Jørgen Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes

Hans Jørgen Wiberg is a visually impaired Danish furniture craftsman. Through his own experience and work, Hans observed that many blind and low-vision individuals often needed occasional assistance to complete everyday tasks. The idea for Be My Eyes came to him when a blind friend shared that he used video calls to connect with family and friends for help with these tasks. This inspired Hans to envision a solution where video call technology could connect blind and low- vision individuals with a broader network of volunteers, providing assistance without having to rely solely on personal connections. As of today, the Danish company connects over 700,000 blind and low-vision users with 7.5 million volunteers and companies through live video and AI, offering its free service in more than 150 countries.

Beatriz Batista and Adília Oliveira

Until the age of 15, Beatriz lived a normal life, free from illness or major setbacks. Then, her world was turned upside down. In a matter of months, she lost 90% of her vision, her hearing, and eventually, the ability to control her limbs. Despite these overwhelming challenges, Beatriz possesses an extraordinary intellect. With a remarkable memory and a unique ability to visualize information through touch, she has excelled in her studies, having graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics from Nova SBE. Her mother and caregiver, Adília Oliveira, have been instrumental in her education, by translating information directly by writing it out onto her hands and face.

Arun Agarwal, founder of Janitri Innovations

Arun started working on his solution to avoiding preventable deaths of mothers-to-be and babies. Arun built Keyar, a non-invasive cardiotocography device that monitors a baby's heart rate in the mother’s womb and the uterine contractions of the mother-to-be. The biggest advantage of this solution is that it is cheaper, portable, non-invasive, and easy to use. Also, it allows the patient to be monitored remotely.

Mariella Pisciotta and Rafael Lanus, founders of Reality Telling

Mariella's father passed away from COVID-19 in 2020, and her family was unable to be with him during his final moments. Inspired by this experience, Mariella and Rafa founded Reality Telling, a company that uses 360°/AR/VR technology to connect isolated ICU patients with their families and known outside environments, giving them a personalized distraction before and during treatments.

Learn more

5th PATIENT INNOVATION BOOTCAMP

Our Bootcamp program continues to empower patients to become leaders in healthcare innovation. In 2024, we welcomed a diverse cohort of 10 participating teams from 11 different countries, representing a wide range of health conditions and innovative approaches. Over 4 months, the 10 teams further developed their solutions over 3 working and guiding weeks of the Bootcamp.

During the first week in Lisbon, held at Nova SBE's campus, participants had the opportunity to connect with each other and with a distinguished group of mentors, speakers, and experts. This face-to-face experience, facilitated by a partnership between Patient Innovation, Nova SBE, and Nova Medical School, was dedicated to developing and validating project ideas.

The second week transitioned online, partnering with IESE Business School and Biocat in Barcelona. This phase guided teams in developing business models for their innovative solutions.

The final week concluded in Copenhagen at Copenhagen Business School. Here, teams received support in consolidating their projects, planning for implementation, and strategies for successful dissemination.

The first day of the Copenhagen week was highlighted by a captivating presentation from Hans Jørgen Wiberg, the visionary behind Be My Eyes. He shared his inspiring story of how he conceived and developed the app and celebrated his recent achievement by receiving the Patient Innovation Award.

On the last in-person day of the Bootcamp in Copenhagen, all teams participated in the Demo Day pitch competition. Each team presented their solution within five minutes, after which a panel of judges (Susie A. Ruff, Lise Pape, Marija Sarafinovska, Pedro Oliveira, and Shibo Zhou) selected a winning team.

Big congratulations to Rezolve Medical team for winning the 2024 Demo Day pitch competition! As a result of their victory, they were invited to participate in the EIT Health Career Path event on November 28 and 29 in Budapest and received a voucher for travel and accommodation, mentorship opportunities, and invitations to pitch and join a roundtable discussion.

Now that the 5th Patient Innovation Bootcamp has concluded, we're thrilled to see that the Patient Innovation Bootcamp Alumni community continues to expand, counting now with 54 startups.

More information

PLATFORM IMPROVEMENT

The Patient Innovation's website has recently undergone an internal revamp in order to make the website more user friendly! We've streamlined searching to help users easily find the solutions they need. By simply selecting one of the six main categories and using the search function within that category, users can quickly locate the information or solutions they need.

CMU PORTUGAL PATIENT INNOVATION ACCELERATOR

In a collaborative effort, Nova SBE, Nova Medical School, CMU Portugal, and the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, with the support of FCT, the CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator was launched earlier this year. This initiative aims to drive healthcare innovation in Portugal by providing selected teams from the ongoing EIT Health-funded Patient Innovation Bootcamp with an advanced acceleration phase at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

  • Honorary mention at the TOP Health Awards

Patient Innovation received an Honorary Mention at the TOP Health Awards for standing out among the finalists and for its continuous impact at national and international level.

  • NOVA Research Impact Narratives Award 2024

Patient Innovation received one of the NOVA Research Impact Narratives Award 2024, because of its "Patient-Driven Solutions: Empowering Health Innovators” narrative.

2024 has been a year of significant achievements for Patient Innovation.

We are grateful for the support of our community and look forward to an even brighter future in 2025.

Sincerely,

The Patient Innovation Team

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