Latest advances on the healthcare industry: EIC Accelerator success stories
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives on many levels: not only in health-related issues but also socially or economically. Beyond that, one of its effects is that we may have thought about the healthcare sector’s importance at some point.
A strong healthcare system committed to continuous improvement generates a direct consequence in patients’ lives and our ability to face threats like the one we have been experiencing since 2020.
For this reason, those companies and projects that encourage health progress are receiving an increasingly significant social and institutional support. It is not surprising that health is indirectly present in one of the Horizon Europe missions and that R&D is one of the main responsible for developing the COVID-19 vaccines.
At Evolution, we believe that if we invest our time in supporting initiatives that contribute to improving health, we invest in a better quality of life for all of us.
Below, we have compiled five of our clients’ initiatives related to the healthcare sector. All these projects have a high degree of innovation in common, and have been funded through the competitive EIC Accelerator programme. Even though they aim to achieve different goals, all of them have a shared purpose: to improve citizens’ health.
Picterus: fighting against childhood jaundice
Did you know that jaundice causes death in about 114,000 newborns every year globally? To alleviate this situation, Picterus has developed a low-cost and straightforward method to detect jaundice by taking a picture with a smartphone.
In this way, Picterus aims to achieve a significant impact, especially in low-and middle-income countries.
SamanTree Medical SA and breast cancer
SamanTree Medical SA, which is a spin-off of the Swiss EPFL university, has developed HistologTM, a scanner that allows visualising in real-time cancer cells when performing a surgical resection.
HistologTM ensures a better intervention since the preservation of healthy breast tissue is easier while providing complete tumour removal.
Aspivix: for better gynaecological interventions
Using tenaculum causes painful IUD insertion for 84% of women in gynaecological procedures. In a considerable percentage, it also can even lead to injuries and bleeding.
Aspivix has developed a device that prevents the problems caused by these instruments to improve this situation, making the IUD procedure simple and painless.
How can Positrigo detect Alzheimer’s?
Alzheimer’s is one of our society’s most severe problems due to our increased life expectancy. PET tests can detect this disease, but this kind of scanners have a high cost.
The start-up Positrigo is aware of this situation and has developed NeuroLF. Thanks to its reduced price and size, this scanner enables a better standardisation of this type of tests which would imply a more significant number of Alzheimer’s detected cases every year.
Pregnolia and the prevention of premature births
Premature births are still an unsolved problem that affects nearly 15 million babies a year. It is not always possible to determine the cause of this problem, but this has not been an issue for the Swiss company Pregnolia to find a viable solution.
By examining the cervix, we may detect premature births. Under this premise, Pregnolia has designed a device that can measure cervical tissue stiffness simply and effectively, guaranteeing better prevention.
And you? Is your project going to revolutionise the healthcare industry? Would you want to get funding that makes your initiative boost and improve lives? We want to help you!