Innovative Digital Health Solutions Showcased at the HIMSS24 Europe Startup Pitchfest Competition

The healthcare industry has always been an incubator for entrepreneurs seeking to create technological advancements to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. Just as finding the next great medical science breakthrough is the lifelong goal of many doctors and researchers, developing the next lifesaving medical device is the dream of many entrepreneurs. 

Creating a process, product, or treatment that will help reform the healthcare industry is difficult enough. Still, an entrepreneur needs far more than a good idea to build a paradigm-shifting innovation. Access to capital, lack of visibility, and limited exposure to advisors and investors are just a few of the challenges that can threaten the viability of even the best ideas and solutions.  

To help provide valuable access, exposure, and funding for entrepreneurs, HIMSS created the Startup Pitchfest – a pan-European competition to find the best innovations in healthcare technology. This second annual edition of the final round of the competition will take place at the 2024 HIMSS European Conference & Exhibition. 

Among the most anticipated events at HIMSSEU24, the Startup Pitchfest Final Round will feature six finalists presenting their groundbreaking ideas in front of a panel of esteemed judges and industry experts. Startup Pitchfest offers a platform for emerging startups to demonstrate their solutions to genuinely validated, intractable problems faced by health systems and providers.  

Startup Pitchfest was developed in partnership with EIT Health, which helped design and implement the contest.  

Each finalist was selected through a shortlisting process comprised of a panel of seven healthcare experts from across Europe. Each entry was scored by two different reviewers against an agreed set of criteria. 

This year, the competition features three distinct categories, each representing critical areas in healthcare innovation: Delivering Next Generation Clinical Decision Support, Revolutionising Workflows with Automation, and Shaping the Future of Care Beyond Hospital Walls. Two finalists were selected for each category. 

Here are the six finalists selected to compete in the HIMSSEU24 Startup Pitchfest: 

Category: Delivering Next-Generation Clinical Decision Support 

• Corsano - Corsano’s remote smart bracelet delivers real-time, continuous monitoring of up to 9 vital signs simultaneously and can be shared as raw data for AI development or visualized in their vital-sign dashboard. It is EU CE MDR and FDA certified.

• VentriJect - VentriJect’s core technology, Seismofit®, is harnessing the power of digital technology to redefine cardiorespiratory fitness assessment, employing sophisticated algorithms to make VO2-max measurements faster and more accessible.  

Category: Revolutionising Workflows with Automation 

• Briya - The Briya platform empowers organizations and researchers to drive impactful research initiatives using swift and secure data exchange from healthcare to use AI/ML tools efficiently, improve patient care outcomes, and advance medical knowledge. 

• SPRYT - Spryt’s Asa leverages AI to allow patients to book, manage, and pay for appointments via WhatsApp anytime and interact as they would with a human receptionist –enabling medical admins to focus on underserved patients and other tasks. 

Category: Shaping the Future of Care Beyond Hospital Walls 

• Avegen - Avegen has built and launched 18 digital health products for solutions that enable patient self-management or improve outpatient management efficiency, all deployed on HealthMachine®, their modular digital health platform for major pharma, research institutes, and healthcare providers worldwide. 

• StethoMe - StethoMe’s home-smart stethoscope is the only respiratory medical device that returns immediate information about detected abnormal sounds characteristic of diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and asthma flare-ups, among others. 

Startup Pitchfest provides a stage for innovative startups to showcase their solutions and serves as an opportunity for collaboration and partnership opportunities within the European healthcare ecosystem. One winner will be selected from each category, who will obtain brand visibility, mentorship, opportunities to work with venture capitalists, and access to a vast network of resources within the European digital health ecosystem. 

As the finalists present their visionary ideas, the 2024 HIMSS European Conference & Exhibition continues highlighting innovation and shaping the future of healthcare delivery in Europe.