EIT Health opens applications for women’s health and digital therapeutics ideas – Med-Tech Innovation

EIT Health has announced its 2020 Wild Card is open for applications for teams and individuals, inviting health innovators to submit proposals in the areas of womens health and digital therapeutics.

Now in its third year and with four start-ups already launched, the Wild Card programme seeks to support promising teams and turn their ideas into businesses. Wild Card will first create and then invest up to 2 million into two ventures.

Each year the Wild Card programme selects two challenges which represent a pressing health issue for European citizens. For 2020 the first challenge set to Europes health innovation community is Womens Health.Innovators are urged to devise cost-effective, technology-driven solutions to provide specialised care for women.

Commenting on the womens health challenge, Jorge Fernndez Garca, EIT Healthdirector of innovation said: Addressing womens healthcare is vital. A historical female underrepresentation in research has led to womens health issues being overlooked or underserved. In Europe, its estimated that women spendalmost 12 years of their life in illhealth, they are more likely to developadverse reactions to medication,and cardiovascular disease, traditionally considered as a threat to men, is the greatest mortality risk for women in Europe alongside cancer.Womens health is rich territory for Europes health innovators, we look forward to supporting breakthroughs that can make a real impact here.

The second challenge is digital therapeutics, which asks innovations toharness the power of digital solutions to prevent, manage and treat medical conditions or disease.

Commenting on the digital therapeutics challenge, Fernndez Garca, said: Were looking for innovators who can create digital therapeutic solutions that enhance the delivery and quality of care. Although its a relatively new field, its an area that holds great promise to deliver breakthroughs in therapy areas where medicine has so far struggled, as well as tackling the challenge of shifting healthcare towards a more preventative rather than reactive approach. Were looking for innovation that can show a distinct and measurable benefit for patients and healthcare systems.

The most promising applicants will attend a hackathon to build or complement their team and write their business plan. Up to six teams will then be selected to progress to a 10week Business Model Validation phase.

Entries for the 2020 Wild Card close on 9February 2020. Information onhow to apply can be found athttps://wildcard.eithealth.eu/.

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EIT Health opens applications for women's health and digital therapeutics ideas - Med-Tech Innovation