Author: Zoé Anderson

At the EIT Health Summit 2024, held on April 18th and 19^th in Rotterdam, the WorkInHealth Foundation showcased a dynamic range of initiatives designed to empower individuals and bridge talent gaps in the health sector. The booth featured initiatives like TalenForce, Skills Sync, and the Pact for Skills, each aimed at connecting talent with opportunities and enhancing skills through training and partnerships. 

A standout event, the Career Fair, spiked a great interest among our attendees. The last edition was organised shortly after the Summit, on May 22^nd and 23^rd, and will return in 2025 for a new edition. Click here to find out about the next edition! As it is free for participants, this move aims to broaden accessibility and empower more individuals to explore exciting career opportunities in the health sector from wherever they are. 

The Future Health HERo initiative was a major draw at the Summit, focusing on empowering and celebrating female leaders in health. Through mentorship, networking, and advocacy, the initiative shone a spotlight on women’s achievements and roles in healthcare. “This initiative not only honours existing leaders but also inspires the next generation of women to aspire and achieve leadership roles in health” explained Urška Bux, Senior Programme Manager at WorkInHealth Foundation. 

Highlighting the Summit’s spirit, Luca Perego remarked, “I’m here today at the EIT Health Summit, an amazing opportunity to also showcase what the European Union is doing for young women who want to really expose their talent”. Carmen Pauline Rios Benton also added, “Leaders should see technology as an opportunity to embrace change rather than be left behind because they see it as a threat!” Her participation underscored the Summit’s theme by wearing Future Health HERo fashion onstage, declaring, “YOUR VOICE MATTERS!” to young women in healthcare. 

The Foundation distributed 30 t-shirts and 10 jumpers featuring empowering messages, which were enthusiastically received by attendees. These messages not only fostered dialogue but also visibly demonstrated the community’s support for female leadership in health. 

Liana Shvachiy, a freelancer with the WorkInHealth Foundation, reflected on the event’s success, stating, “The response from the summit participants was extremely positive, showing a real appreciation for what we’re doing and a desire to be part of it”. 

As the WorkInHealth Foundation looks forward to its upcoming Career Fair, the enthusiasm and collaborative proposals generated at the EIT Health Summit promise a bright future for the initiatives and their participants. 

For more details on the Career Fair, Future Health HERo initiative, or to register, please visit our website. 

On 28 and 29 November 2024, the EIT Health Career Path event took place in Budapest, bringing together participants across various EIT Health programmes to celebrate their achievements and inspire their future growth in health innovation. 

Across the two-days in Budapest, graduates from the EIT Health Labelled Programmes, the i-Days finalists from 25 different European cities, the Women Entrepreneurship Bootcamp winning teams, and the EIT Health Innovators Community were able to participate in workshops and talks tailored towards building skills and knowledge surrounding the healthcare field.

The WorkInHealth Foundation had the opportunity to lead the Future Skills of Future Leaders workshop dedicated to promoting soft skills for women in the health sector. WorkInHealth Foundation Senior Program Manager Urška Bux along with Radio Embassy CEO Lenja Faraguna explored the world of skills development for women in the healthcare industry, similarly, promoting WorkInHealth Foundation’s FutureHealthHERo initiative. Young women in the health field are often overlooked and WorkInHealth Foundation knows this, which is why we created FutureHealthHERo, whose mission is to encourage leadership among women in the healthcare field. This programme further supports our objective of closing the skills gap within the sector to further the growth and sustainability of its future. 

We were also delighted to present our recent report on “Addressing skills needs in the European health sector”, co-written with the European Investment Fund. This report discusses the current skills gap within the healthcare field and the urgent need to address it in order to promote innovation and sustainability while also offering attainable solutions to these challenges. The report explores that through four main axes – anticipate, attract, train, and match – the goal of closing the skills gap can be achieved. 

During the event, our partner Amazon Web Services (AWS) joined in on the celebration of young talent by gifting Cloud Credits to the winners of the i-Days competition which brings together students from all academic areas to compete in teams to tackle real-life health challenges posed by EIT Health, local organizations, private corporations or start-ups. This year, JA Cyprus from Nicosia won the competition with their solution for efficient nasogastric tube catheter placement in patients. Their solution uses a built-in pH sensor whihc is activated by capillary actions to provide visual confirmation through acuity readings when the catheter reaches the stomamch, making insertion more reliable and painless. Find out more about the partnership between AWS and the WorkInHealth Foundation here.  

WorkInHealth Foundation is grateful to have been part of the EIT Health Career Path event this year and for the opportunity to further promote our mission of addressing and closing the skills gap in the health sector in order to enrich the image of the sector to attract talent! With every event, we aim to accelerate the future of healthcare. 

On June 6th 2024, WorkInHealth Foundation had the opportunity to take part in the health.tech 2024 Conference in Munich at the International Congress Center Messe (ICM). health.tech, whose founding partners are Roche and EIT Health, is Europe’s leading platform for sharing key insights and opportunities, facilitating cross-industry collaboration, and providing the space for high-level networking and innovative growth in the healthcare technology ecosystem. WorkInHealth Foundation hosted two specialized sessions, highlighting our commitment towards building essential skills amongst healthcare professionals and promoting female leadership in the healthcare sector. 

What WorkInHealth Foundation Was Up To 

During the event, we had the opportunity to host and take part in two talks on central subjects relevant to our mission. Our two sessions, Empowering Women Innovators: Leading the Charge in Healthcare Entrepreneurship and Unlocking Tomorrow’s Potential: Essential Skills Insights, provided the space to discuss the critical importance of addressing skill gaps in the health industry and encouraging women entrepreneurship and highlighting remarkable women in the health sector. 

The Empowering Innovators: Women Leading the Charge in Healthcare Entrepreneurship session, hosted by Urška Bux, highlighted the significant contributions of women in the health technology field and addressed the barriers that women entrepreneurs face in the industry. The talk also explored technology’s role in enhancing women’s position in healthcare. 

We were also delighted to announce the 2024 winner of the Agnès Guerraz Prize during this session. Created in 2023 to honor the memory of the renowned AI researcher, this prize rewards women healthcare entrepreneurs from the EIT Health Women Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and celebrates health innovation and encourages female pioneers in the health sector. Our 2024 winner, CC Diagnostics represented by Quality Assurance Manager Ilinka Stanciu, developed early-stage cervical cancer diagnostics based on novel epigenetic markers. They were awarded a €10,000 grant from EIT Health and $15,000 in AWS Cloud Credits from our partner Amazon Web Services. 

The Unlocking Tomorrow’s Potential: Essential Skills Insights from European Investment Fund and WorkInHealth Foundation session, hosted by both Urška Bux and Jérôme Fabiano, explored the ever-changing landscape of healthcare startups and investment strategies, diving into the current patterns that are shaping the future of the field, which are discussed in the recent report jointly released by WorkInHealth Foundation and the European Investment Fund. The talk specifically focused on the two entities’ collaboration, using insights from the report to guide the session and provide concrete solutions for closing the skills and talent gaps in the sector as well as strategic guidance for startups and investors in the healthcare market. 

Our Personal Mission 

As an exchange platform for players in the healthcare sector, the 2024 health.tech conference offered a unique opportunity to network and create new connections that strive to benefit professionals, graduates, researchers, partners, and industries alike. 

In WorkInHealth Foundation’s relation to the founding partners of the conference, the shared goal between our initiator EIT Health and Roche is to shape and accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare. More information about the shared interests of the two entities is available in our exclusive interview between Roche General Manager Eva McLellan, and Urška Bux, Senior Program Manager at EIT Health and WorkInHealth Foundation. 

Additionally, we had the opportunity to further promote our FutureHealthHERo initiative, which further supports the transformation of women into strong leaders within the healthcare field, encouraging them to practice self-motivation and develop leadership as a skill accessible by all. 

By participating in conferences like these and promoting initiatives that encourage collaboration and innovation within the health sector, we at WorkInHealth Foundation can continue to push our mission of closing the skills gap within healthcare and promote a sustainable industry for the future of the field.