Jorge Juan Fernández: “In the future, it will be easier to create a job than to find one”

Biocat presented the Design Health Barcelona (d·HEALTH Barcelona) program at a conference held at the BizBarcelona entrepreneurship fair. At the same time, Biocat brought the program to the public at their permanent booth in the exhibitors’ area.

Jorge Juan Fernández, academic director of the program, led the session presenting the results of the first edition of d·HEALTH Barcelona. As Fernández explained, the program was highly productive because “the fellows identified nearly 1,200 new ideas and business opportunities for hospitals, research centers and medical technology companies in Catalonia.” The Biocat booth provided information on the program to many young people who were very interested.

Jorge Juan Fernández’s conference focused on the importance of hospitals as fertile ground for medical innovation. “In the future, it will be easier to create a job than to find one,” says Fernández. Fellow Markus Wilhelms shared his personal experience in the session: “In d·HEALTH, we were faced with something new every day. That makes you grow and also feel good, because you're part of the process of helping people.”

The 12 fellows from the first edition of d·HEALTH Barcelona have developed three large projects: an online platform to make Barcelona the first cardio-protected city in the world, a method to reduce excessive noise in neonatal units, and a system to fight constipation in patients with spinal cord injuries.

Registration for the 2014-2015 edition of Design Health Barcelona is open through 11 July. Anyone interested should sign up here. Biocat offers scholarships covering up to 25% of registration fees for fellows in the second edition of the program, which will begin in September.