On 4-5 October 2017, Dr. Claudia Schacht from LINQ management GmbH moderated the 2nd Annual Symposium of EIT Health Germany which was hosted by AbbVie Germany in Ludwigshafen (day 1) and Roche Diagnostics GmbH in Mannheim (day 2). This symposium brought together EU officials, representatives of business and academia, and start-ups from the healthcare sector under the focus of “data, digital health and connectivity”:
- Speakers from AbbVie, University of Cologne, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and Roche presented project examples highlighting how digital innovations could create value for patients and healthcare systems.
- Interactive break-out sessions on data analytics (led by Prof. Wolfgang Petrich, Roche Diabetes Care GmbH), data privacy (Dr. Ioannis Tarnanas, ETH Zürich) and harmonized ethical requirements (Dr. Claudia Schacht, LINQ management) provided room to discuss challenges and opportunities of “Real World Data in Healthcare”.
- Keynote speeches held by Manuel Irun Molina, KIC Officer of EIT Health from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and by Horst Krämer, Programme Officer of DG CONNECT from the European Commission, explained the EIT’s perspective on connectivity and gave an insight into current EU developments in the field, such as the new EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Public Consultation on Health and Care in the Digital Single Market.
- 18 start-ups pitched their innovative healthcare solutions and had the opportunity to further discuss their business ideas with other participants during matchmaking sessions, giving the second day a high degree of entrepreneurial spirit.
Altogether, the event showed the potential of EIT Health to “connect the dots” by bringing the right organizations together and support them in developing new healthcare solutions.
