15 innovative healthcare start-ups receive 2019 EIT Health Headstart support

EIT Health InnoStars has chosen the winners of the EIT Health Headstart support for 2019.

The 15 winning start-ups will receive support in the form of funding to bring their innovations to the market.

Addressing challenges such as heart disease, Parkinson’s, geriatric care and molecular diagnoses, these projects come from Italy, Poland, Portugal, Greece and elsewhere in Europe. What they have in common is the goal to improve healthcare for all of us.

The EIT Health Headstart Programme is created to support these early-stage start-ups and SMEs in developing their new products and services. EIT Health Headstart winners are provided funding of up to EUR 50 000, and the companies work on their product or service launch project with the support of the EIT Health regional manager, so that they can access local and EIT Health connections.

It is very exciting to support start-ups with a passion to further develop innovative solutions and products that can improve health for European citizens and result in the creation of new jobs and economic growth.

Nuno Viegas, EIT Health InnoStars Business Creation Manager and Regional Manager Portugal

Meet the Headstart winners chosen by EIT Health InnoStars

Allelica is a research spin-off founded by scientists from the University of Oxford and the Sapienza University of Rome. They created a genetic test called Cardioscore for genomic risk prediction of coronary artery disease.

Biomedicallab is an Italian start-up that founded PD-Watch. The PD-Watch (Parkinson's Disease Watch) is a wearable device to be used to support the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in subjects at risk, to monitor the time course of this disease and to quantify the therapeutic effects of the current treatment plan.

BIORIDIS is a biotech company founded in Bologna, Italy in 2016 that is working to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve technical performance in biomedical R&D and molecular diagnostics. The company’s objective is the development, production and marketing of innovative kits for nucleic acid (DNA, RNA) analysis for biomedical R&D and molecular diagnostics application, especially for small RNAs (e.g. microRNAs).

BrainScan Sp. z o. o. is a Polish start-up using artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of interpretations of Brain CT Scans. The company provides automatic search for similar computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in large data sets. It searches for medical cases that are similar to a given scan or region of interest.

Delox was created as a spin-off in the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal (FCUL) in June 2018. The company designs and develops a new generation of bio-decontamination devices to fight all types of microorganisms. Completely based on proprietary technology, the solution offers automatic bio-decontamination for everyone, everywhere.

Ergobyte Informatics S.A. was founded in 2002 in Greece with the core business of designing, developing and delivering integrated IT solutions. The company offers Galen Reasoner, an automated system for medication recommendation and crosscheck.

MERITPOSITION LDA is a Portuguese start-up that created GericarePro. GericarePro is a specialized software to support the management and health care in Geriatrics, Palliative and Continuing Care Units.

Mindlenses Professional, from Italy, provides a project for cognitive rehabilitation. Mindlenses is a complete combination of cognitive stimulation, digital rehabilitation and digitalised user management. It includes a user management platform, a tablet for carrying out digital evaluation and cognitive exercises.

MOODIKA S.r.l., from Italy, offers smartDONOR, an application created designed to improve the blood donation system. The solution enables SMART donors and operators, to make the activity of donors more efficient and aware and to support operators in optimising the promotion of the culture of blood donation.

MyHabeats is a smartphone application designed especially for post obesity surgery patients. Created by a company from Greece, the solution is a behavioural vaccine to maximise adherence to post surgery guidelines and a digital tool to build healthy eating habits and make lifestyle changes.

Plusimple is examining new standards, service designs and business models in the digital health sector. It is the first communication and engagement platform in healthcare for associations, professionals and structures, providing a simple path and complete support for all of their activities. The start-up comes from Italy.

RIATLAS SRL is an innovative start-up founded as a spin-off of the University of Salerno, Italy, developing advanced data analysis tools for 'added value' clinical applications. Their product OncoSmart is a digital application for patients with cancer.

SensoriumLab is a Polish company that offers a user-friendly and non-invasive diagnostic system for assessment of pleural effusion (water on lungs). The device makes it possible to monitor patients remotely, and the monitoring can even be handled by non-professionals.

SkinSoul is a Portuguese start-up offering improved skin cancer diagnosis that takes advantage of artificial intelligence. The company was founded by Sofia Couto de Rocha – a practicing doctor and active researcher in the field of dermatology. With SkinSoul she saves lives with an AI skin cancer diagnosis.

Wisify - Tech Solutions, Lda is a Portuguese company that offers Lipowise – a smart and accurate tool for localised, low-cost and fast body fat screening, combining a state-of-the-art wireless skinfold calliper with a powerful cloud platform.

About the EIT Health Headstart programme

The EIT Health Headstart programme is designed to help start-ups and SMEs develop their healthcare innovations faster and better. The programme provides early-stage healthcare companies and SME's with non-dilutive funding to:

• Support the next steps towards the market and shorten time-to-market for innovative products and services. 
• Verify the need of the product or service, and the benefit of the product or service for users, customers, health care providers and also for EIT Health Partners. 
• Increase the possibility of attracting further private investment.