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.