🎉 A glimpse at 10 Years of Innovation: Patient Innovation's 10th Anniversary Surprises! 🎉

It’s hard to believe that 11 years ago, Patient Innovation began as a simple idea: a space for patients to share their innovations. Today, we look back on a decade of growth, transformation, and global impact. Over the past year, we've celebrated our 10th anniversary by reflecting on how far we've come and how much we've achieved as a thriving international community. From a research project to a global platform, we've spent the last 10 years connecting patients, fostering collaboration, and driving healthcare innovation. To mark this special milestone, we organized 10 exciting activities that celebrated our journey and the power of patient-driven innovation. These celebrations continue to inspire and connect people from all around the world, and we’re excited to see what the next chapter holds!

1. New Brochure

To start the commemoration, Patient Innovation launched a new brochure. This brochure showcases the journey and mission of Patient Innovation, offering a comprehensive overview of our work and impact over the past decade.

2. CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator

A significant milestone in Portugal's healthcare innovation landscape was achieved with the launch of the CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator, a collaboration between Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), Nova Medical School (NMS), and the CMU Portugal Program, generously sponsored by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

This agreement signing solidified a powerful partnership aimed at advancing healthcare solutions and fostering entrepreneurship. The accelerator builds on the success of the Patient Innovation Bootcamp, funded by EIT Health and held in Lisbon, Barcelona, and Copenhagen, and extends to multiple phases of support for selected bootcamp alumni teams.

A key moment of the program took place with an immersive experience at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, hosted by Project Olympus and AlphaLab. During this phase, the teams participated in expert-led sessions, received tailored mentorship, and connected with leading industry professionals.

The CMU Portugal Patient Innovation Accelerator will continue to provide support until June 2025, helping patient-driven innovations grow and expanding opportunities for international collaboration.

3. Patient Innovation Bootcamp and Worthmed collaboration results event

The “Collaboration for Health Innovation - Patient Innovation Bootcamp and Worthmed ongoing journey" session was a highlight of the Value for Health CoLAB's "Digital Innovation for High-Value in Healthcare" event.

Attendees gained a valuable insight into the ongoing collaborative journey between Worthmed and two of our esteemed Patient Innovation Bootcamp alumni teams, Exercogs and Scan4MyHealth. The session provided a valuable platform to explore the tangible impact of these partnerships and the innovative strides being made in healthcare. We were thrilled to share these success stories, demonstrating the power of collaboration in driving meaningful change within the healthcare landscape. These stories reflect not only the success of current efforts but also the promising direction of continued collaboration.

4. Patient Innovation Bootcamp teams

10 exceptional teams were selected to participate in the Patient Innovation Bootcamp 2024! Last year's cohort was truly global, with representatives from 11 countries, showcasing the breadth of innovation within the patient-led healthcare space: AdvIsory Doctor, Biolibrary, Eiligo Shower Systems, Evelina AI, Humanai, Healostic, HealTrack, PD Move, Pillbie, and Rezolve Medical.

Over five months, these remarkable teams embarked on an intensive acceleration program, meticulously designed to empower them in implementing and scaling their groundbreaking solutions, each developed to address a unique health condition. We look forward to witnessing their progress and the positive impact they will undoubtedly make over the next years!

5. Digital Health Portugal

Patient Innovation participated in the XI Digital Health Portugal Meetup at Instituto Pedro Nunes, as Executive Director Maria João Jacinto presented 'The Citizen as an Active Agent of Innovation and Communication with Health Systems.' This session highlighted four patient and caregiver-led startups: PeerCare Connect, eBreathie, Exercogs, and Careceiver, and explored how citizens are revolutionizing healthcare!

6. 6th Patient innovation awards

For the second consecutive year the Patient Innovation Awards took place at the Estoril Conferences, celebrating the remarkable efforts of patients, caregivers, and collaborators who developed practical and impactful solutions to improve lives.

The 6th Patient Innovation Awards recognized 4 different projects in 4 different categories: Hans Jørgen Wiberg for his project Be my Eyes (Patient Innovator), Mariella Pisciotta & Rafa Lanus for their project Reality Telling (Caregiver Innovator), Arun Agarwal for his project Janitri (Collaborator Innovator), and Beatriz Batista and Adília Oliveira for their remarkable journey studying at Nova SBE, where Beatriz overcame significant physical challenges with her extraordinary intellect and the dedicated support of her mother, Adília, who facilitated her learning through touch (Patient-Caregiver innovator).