HealthChain Gains Momentum and Announces the Onboarding of Five New European Regions to Boost their Innovation Ecosystems
The five so-called ‘Mirror Regions’ will implement the demand-driven co-creation approach proposed by HealthChain.
HealthChain has successfully completed the recruitment of Mirror Regions, yielding incredibly positive results. Thirteen European regions, representing six different nationalities, expressed their interest to join the partnership, which now accounts for ten European regions.
The five selected Mirror Regions will receive tailored training and financial support for implementing the HealthChain approach, aimed at strengthening healthcare innovation ecosystems in Europe. Each region comprises a supporter, who leads and dynamises the ecosystem, and a Challenger, a healthcare organisation with an innovation challenge to be solved in co-creation with an SME. The Solvers will be selected through an open call procedure, to be launched later this year.
Meet the 5 selected Mirror Regions!
With diverse expertise and backgrounds, these regions are driving the digital health transformation forward.
- Flanders (Belgium)
An ecosystem supporter, MEDVIA, an industry-driven network, has teamed up with AZ Groeninge, a General Hospital in Kortrijk, to jointly solve the MoveBuddy challenge. The MoveBuddy challenge aims to motivate obese children (aged 6-12, EOSS-P2/3) by providing a tool that promotes long-term physical activity. This tool will be seamlessly integrated into electronic patient records for efficient use.
- Dytiki Elláda (Greece)
The region is led by DOCTORSHELLO, a patient-centric healthcare ecosystem supporter, in collaboration with the General Hospital of Pyrgos, a leading healthcare facility in Greece. Their challenge TRIME focuses on implementing multi-stage monitoring triage at home for cardiovascular patients.
- North-West Romania
FreshBlood, an NGO dedicated to supporting healthcare projects in the local and national ecosystem, has partnered with Medisprof Cancer Center, an oncology hospital in Transylvania. The AITRIS challenge seeks an Automated Imagery Tool for diagnostic and Stadialisation purposes, aiding radiologists in providing radiology results in RECIST form for evaluation by medical oncologists, thus guiding treatment decisions.
- Navarra (Spain)
Navarrabiomed, a reputable public biomedical research center, has partnered with the renowned University Hospital of Navarra. The OPER-ART challenge aims to tackle the uncertainties in radiotherapy by developing custom-designed, patient-specific devices. Their objective is to create a system for personalized generation of 3D molds tailored to each patient’s morphology, aiming for advancements in healthcare without undue hype.
- Castilla y León (Spain)
INTRAS, an experienced non-profit organization providing integrated care in mental health in collaboration with Los Montalvos Hospital, a reference healthcare center in the Castilla y León health system. They will tackle the IMOTION challenge, to develop a virtual assistant for voice-activated emotional state recognition in palliative care patients. The goal is to detect the emotional state of palliative care patients, enabling healthcare professionals to incorporate it into interventions and enhance psychological support for patients.
A Community of Practice will be launched in 2024
HealthChain does not stop here. In order to achieve the mission of boosting healthcare innovation ecosystems in Europe, a Community of Practice (CoP) will be launched later this year.
The CoP will serve as a collaborative space where like-minded individuals and organizations come together to share resources, exchange ideas, and discuss best practices in the healthcare innovation sector.
While participation in the CoP does not include funding support, it offers an excellent opportunity for networking, knowledge-sharing, and learning from others in the HealthChain community.
About HealthChain
HealthChain is a project cofunded by the European Union through the Interregional Innovation Investment instrument (I3) aiming to develop digital health solutions that will improve the quality of healthcare services, through a model that is demand-driven, co-creative, geared to adoption and ecosystem-enabled. HealthChain builds up on top of five founding regional ecosystems: Murcia (Spain), Centro (Portugal), Western (Slovenia), Primorsko-Goranska (Croatia) and East Netherlands (The Netherlands).
