Design Health Barcelona celebrates first graduating class in healthcare innovation
d·HEALTH fellows made the first public presentation of their projects
The Design Health Barcelona (d·HEALTH Barcelona) program celebrated yesterday the graduation of its inaugural batch of Fellows. The twelve graduates are equipped with innovation and entrepreneurship skills to invent, develop and commercialize innovative medical devices to address present day healthcare needs.
In its first edition, d·HEALTH Barcelona has identified nearly 1,200 new ideas and business opportunities for hospitals, research centers and R & D companies in Catalonia.
During the event, held in the auditorium of Barcelona Science Park, the three teams of fellows presented to attendees the needs they have chosen and the innovative solutions they are working on: ACTÚA, an online platform to make Barcelona the first cardioprotected city in the world; KOCCON, a helmet to protect prematures from excessive noise and USMIMA, a device for combating constipation in patients with spinal cord injuries.
Three Catalan reference hospitals –Hospital Clínic, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Institut Gutmann– have collaborated in the first edition of d·HEALTH Barcelona program and all of them have committed to participate in the second edition. The program has been supported by institutions like the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de la Recerca (AGAUR) and the Health Universitat de Barcelona Campus (HUBc) and companies like Accenture and Sanofi.
Biocat is currently evaluating the applications received to form the second batch of Fellows. These new twelve recipients will get a grant that covers up to 25% of tuition and will begin their eight-months training in September.