The 2013 EU SME eHealth Competition first prizes have been awarded to:
Champion category: UK Preventive Medicine (UK), develops a solution for prevention, early detection and management of chronic condition.
Promise category: BrainControl (Italy), grants disabled people the ability to control objects with their minds.
Mrs. Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, handed the first prizes. Mrs Kroes thanked the winners for their inspiring ideas, and “for proving once again that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are best placed to show us new ways of doing things“.
In this edition, there were two Categories: Champions (SMEs with turnover more than 0.5 M€), and Promises (with less).
The other prizes went to:
2nd Prize Champion: Vivago (Finland): their tool VivagoGlobal calls for help even when you can’t. It creates data for preventive care, reduces costs and boosts quality.
3rd Prize Champion: Medisana AG (Germany) develops a free, medically-certified app that manages blood pressure, blood glucose, weight and temperature from your mobile.
2nd Prize Promise: Biovotion (Switzerland) offers continuous, non-invasive, wearable concepts for accurate physiological monitoring embedded into mHealth.
3rd Prize Promise: Sense Observation Systems (The Netherlands) develops a personal health assistant that is context aware to improve cognitive behavioural therapy for mental care.
The objective of the SME eHealth Competition is to support the business success of European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by giving them visibility together with marketing opportunities to attract customers, partners and external capital. Winners receive also cash prizes, mentoring and free tickets to events.
Daintel, winner of the 2012 edition, had declared: “Winning the Competition has been a turning point for us. We went from being a national champion in Denmark to a potential small multinational. The prize has generated a visibility in international markets that we could not otherwise have achieved - in Portuguese and Spanish speaking media alone we had more than 15 articles within the first month.“
In the 2013 edition, 212 SMEs registered (more than double than last year), and 127 submitted a two page summary explaining the innovation and potential impact of their solutions. Based on this information, 15 companies were selected for the Final.
During the Final, the SMEs had 5 minutes each to explain their solution in front of a Jury of international eHealth stakeholders and sponsors: Jean Marc Bourez (Sanofi), Emma Garde (Sanofi), Julien Martel (Alere), Christian Kloss (Alere), Jari Renko (Helsinki Uusimaa Hospital Group), Javier Quiles (SERGAS), Katrin Geyskens (Capricorn Venture Partners), MadisTiik (Finnish innovation fund ), Marko Kilk (North Estonia Medical Centre), Steven Zuanella (BUPA) and Vishal Gulati (Radiant Capital).
The Competition has been sponsored by SANOFI, a global integrated Healthcare leader focused on patients´ needs; and ALERE, a connected Health company that gives people the tools to confidently manage their own health.
Besides, 18 associations across Europe have provided support by promoting, contacting and selecting the finalists: Agoria (BE), Biopeople (DK), bioPmed (IT), Biopeople (DK), Culminatum (FI), DI ITEK (DK), Estonian HealthTech (EE), European Connected Health Alliance (EU), eVIA (ES), health start up (EU), Health2con (EU), ICS (IE), Latvian IT Cluster (LV), platinnEs (FR), Stichting Digitalezorg (NL), TicSalut (ES) and WelfareTech Region (DK) and ZENIT GmbH (Germany).
The Competition is organized by TICBioMed, a Spanish eHealth association, with the endorsement of the Health and Wellbeing Unit of DG CONNECT of the European Commission.
For more information, please visit: eHealth SME Competition
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The 2013 EU SME eHealth Competition first prizes have been awarded to: Champion category: UK Preventive Medicine (UK), develops a solution for prevention,...
