BOOM Summit highlights digitization in healthcare

The inaugural BOOM Summit passes its baptism of fire, providing an open forum for the 500 participants from all over Europe that congregated in the event hall at Messe Basel. The two-day healthcare conference welcomes international speakers to discuss the challenges facing the healthcare sector, as well as Kaspar Sutter – Governing Councilor of the canton of Basel-Stadt with responsibility for economic policy – who took the opportunity to highlight the advantages of Basel as a life sciences location. Furthermore, Swiss startup aiEndoscopic emerges as the winner of the event’s Innovation Showcase competition, out of the twelve strong startups that took part.

Healthcare costs are rising, the digitalization of the healthcare system is making slow progress, and investment in startups dealing with healthcare technologies is falling. At BOOM Summit, around 500 experts, entrepreneurs, patients, investors, and political decision-makers discuss the digital solutions that can address these challenges, sharing their knowledge of innovative technologies across the two days of talks. The participants agreed that the innovations that can bring about change in the healthcare sector primarily come from startups and are not driven by multinational corporations. However, as soon as it comes to further developing innovative projects, making products ready for the market, and successfully commercializing them, cooperation between startups and life sciences companies is indispensable. Key insights from the conference include that there is still a lot of room for improvement in this area, and that the many players involved in the healthcare sector need to pull together to realize changes in the system.

Kaspar Sutter used his appearance in front of an international audience of experts to promote Basel as a life sciences location. Kaspar commented that "great ideas start small" when referring to the strong increase in startups that have settled in Basel, not least due to the presence of the major pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novartis.

The BOOM Summit ended with the announcement of the winner of the Innovation Showcase competition, in which 12 healthtech and medtech startups took part. Swiss medtech startup aiEndoscopic – which uses artificial intelligence to support complex endoscopic procedures – won and was awarded 7,000 Swiss francs. Second and third places went to Polish startup CliniNote and InSilicoTrials from Italy, respectively, which are both currently supported by the DayOne Health 4.0 accelerator. The organizing team behind the event – DayOne, Kenes Group and MCH Group – has announced that a second edition of the health conference will follow next year.

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