Join the Market Readiness Program of OostNL

Do you know who your early adopters are? Do you know if your solution is the best solution for the problem they are experiencing? These are the questions we work with in the Market Readiness Programme which starts November 26, with the aim of finding your early adopters within a specific customer segment, to whom you can sell your product at the same price and through the same sales channel.

What we do
The Market Readiness Program is a part-time, ten-week programme in which you test all your customer assumptions. It is a process of learning how to have effective customer conversations in order to learn to think from their perspective. You will have weekly customer meetings to focus on your early adopters within a specific customer segment so you can successfully prepare for a market entry. If after 6 weeks you have identified a customer problem worth solving, then in the remaining weeks you will work on your product and business model and gathering commitment from your first customer.

What you can expect
Every week for ten weeks a practical workshop will take place. Besides these meetings, much is expected of you. Each week, you will work independently on activities aimed at customer meetings, while being coached by a business developer. During the programme, you will have very intensive discussions with potential customers in order to test and optimise your solution. You will follow the programme together with a maximum of eleven other entrepreneurs. By regularly sharing your progress and providing each other with feedback, you will learn from each other’s mistakes and successes. These are intensive and instructive weeks!

Who?
Ambitious East Netherlands startups that are about to enter the market or have just entered the market and have the ambition to grow consistently.

More information and sign up (in Dutch)

SocialTech Startup Network Series by Yes!Delft!

It’s almost time! YES!Delft is organizing the SocialTech Startup Network Series together with the Municipality of The Hague and Innovation Quarter. After this program you will be investor-ready for the Innovation Quarter fund IQCapital and you will have access to a large network of potential partners in social care.

Domain: SocialTech

Technological innovation in the social domain is not straightforward, but it is becoming increasingly relevant for a healthy and resilient society. That is why YES!Delft decided to step in, build a dedicated ecosystem and offer support to startups that develop promising products or services. Think of solutions for mental resilience and a healthy lifestyle, youth care, care for the elderly, care for the disabled but also the purchase of care by the municipality.

Program: Startup Network Series

The network series are a part-time program of 6 weeks in which you map out the market, make connections with funds, experts and key stakeholders. On top of that, you have the chance to win a pilot with the municipality of The Hague. The minimum requirement is that a startup has at least 2 committed founders.

Does your startup offer a solution to the above mentioned challenges? Then this is your chance to discover your market opportunities in the social domain!

Want to know more about this program? Mail to YES!Delft startup scout: cailin@yesdelft.nl.

New start-up Patholyt will bring AI research into pathology diagnostics

Patholyt is on a mission to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in pathology diagnostics and improve the chances of cancer patients worldwide. Patholyt is a spin-off from Radboudumc, a frontrunner in computational pathology research.

Pathology is pivotal in the diagnostic process of many diseases such as cancer. For more than 100 years pathologists have been using the optical microscope for tissue examination. The field of pathology is now challenged by the world’s shortage of pathologists, and the growing requirements for efficiency and consistent quality.

Challenge: Sepsis

Radboudumc is looking for innovative solutions in the treatment of blood poisoning. Check out the challenge or subscribe your pitch in our recently launched Health Challenge Hub.

One in five people worldwide dies of sepsis (bloodpoisoning), caused by all kinds of infections. A major challenge in being able to treat sepsis better lies in recognizing it: to be able to deliver immediately the right care and be able afterwards to evaluate care and results. In our Health Challenge Hub we bring together current and future challenges of healthcare professionals and the innovative solutions of entrepreneurs with expertise in the field of Digital Health.

Challenge: Luchtbrug (or Airlift)

Radboudumc is looking for an entrepreneurial partner to further develop and grow their platform for online asthma care: Luchtbrug (or Airlift).

Check out the challenge or subscribe your pitch in our recently launched Health Challenge Hub.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children. The regular check-up visits at asthma clinics is a burden and disruptive in the lives of children and their parents. That’s why care providers at Radboudumc have developed a platform for online asthma care in children over the age of 10 years: the “Luchtbrug”. As the use of the platform is growing, Radboudumc is looking for an entrepreneur to take the next step with.
Together they want to increasing the reliability and safety of the platform and explore opportunities for (international) upscaling and /or expansion to other diseases.

In our Health Challenge Hub we bring together current and future challenges of healthcare professionals and the innovative solutions of entrepreneurs with expertise in the field of Digital Health

Follow the Nijmegen pathway to entrepreneurship in Health and High Tech!

The Nijmegen area is the hotspot of innovation in Health and High Tech. Entrepreneurs and researchers are developing their innovation and growing their business, supported by a strong ecosystem. Over the past four years, this already led to many great results. For the next years we want to build upon this foundation to further accelerate ofinnovative entrepreneurship for the region to grow the regional economy and create a societal impact.

Together with our partners and, most importantly, the entrepreneurs in our network. Follow this pathway and discover the journey of entrepreneurs through our ecosystem. Explore how input becomes output, and the way we eventually reached our most important objective: 570 new jobs in Health and High Tech. Let’s continue this journey together!

Download the Nijmegen pathway as pdf file

AI for Life: Computational pathology

The subject of this broadcast is computational pathology. Artificial Intelligence to support the radiologist has of course been around for a long time and is starting to be introduced more and more into daily operational processes. Think of software for scanning and analysing lung scans to detect cancer. But the use of AI in pathology has some additional challenges. For instance, pathologists are not always used to a digital workflow yet, and they use a microscope more often than smart software. In addition, the costs of implementing a digital workflow are high. Yet AI offers great opportunities to improve the quality of tissue research and make the process more efficient. The speakers in this podcast aim to make great strides in implementing and supporting the digital workflow for pathologists in the coming years.

We do so with:

– Katrien Grundberg, head pathology department Radboudumc;
– Jeroen van der Laak, researcher computational pathology at Radboudumc
– and Patrick de Boer, co-founder of patholyt, a start-up based on knowledge developed at Radboudumc.

Listen the podcast.

Saving lives with a pump in the heart

Start-up CardiacBooster is developing a small but powerful pump that can pump blood through the groin of a patient’s heart. The device helps cardiologists in the critical phase shortly after a heart attack. A heart attack damages the heart muscle. In some patients (about 5 percent) this results in less blood being pumped around the body. The result is that organs receive too little blood. This can cause them to function less well. Sometimes, this can even be so bad the patient dies as a result.

Kind of balloon
“Our device works like a balloon that can suck in and push out blood,” says Daniël van Dort, inventor of the technology and Chief Science Officer and co-founder of CardiacBooster, a spin-off of the Radboudumc in Nijmegen. “You improve the strength of the heart with this pump and can pump more blood around.” People with a severe infarction for example, relatively often suffer kidney damage, requiring dialysis. By using the device, this kidney damage can be limited. This significantly improves the quality of life of these patients.

Simple insertion
There are other devices that can pump the patient’s blood. But they are relatively large for the amount of blood they can pump. “Unique to our device is that it is easily inserted into patients’ hearts via the groin,” says Van Dort.
The pump can be used there immediately. It can also be used preventively in patients who have a poor heart function and who have to undergo surgery. Van Dort: “You can prevent someone from going off the deep end and suffering damage to their organs because not enough blood is pumped around during the operation.”

Idea book
As a medical student, Van Dort was already fascinated by the workings of the heart. “In the lecture hall, I kept a notebook of ideas in which I wrote down medical problems that I wanted to solve. For example, during my studies I learned that people with a heart attack are given medication to limit the consequences. I found that fascinating: you are trying to solve a mechanical problem, a heart that is not working properly, with a lubricant. Couldn’t you make the heart work better? After my studies, I started to work on this. It literally happened at the kitchen table. So now, five prototypes later, we have a device that can tackle the mechanical problem much better. In addition to his work for CardiacBooster, Van Dort works as a researcher at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Radboudumc.

Best Startup
CardiacBooster was founded in 2018. Florian Ludwig from Thuja Capital hooked up as CEO. To develop the product, CardiacBooster received a financial injection from Thuja, the Radboudumc and the RedMedTech Discovery Fund in recent years. This is a fund for innovative start-ups in Life Sciences & Health in Gelderland. In 2019, CardiacBooster was named one of the ten best scientific start-ups in the Netherlands. The company is based at the Novio Tech Campus in Nijmegen.

First study in humans
At the moment, the pump is still being studied in laboratory animals. If all goes well, the first study in humans will take place next year. There are already ten people working at CardiacBooster and the company is looking for further funding. “I know a lot about how the heart works and how to make the blood pump around better. But if you really want to understand how it works, it takes a lot of time and money to research.” By 2023, CardiacBooster hopes to bring this innovation to the market, once approved.

The copywright of this article lies with Innoavtions Origin.

Slides and recording Briskr ‘Trends & developments in the medical sector in China’

We organized the Briskr workshop’ Trends & developments in the medical sector in China: business opportunities for the Netherlands on May 31. This session interactively addressed the Chinese demand for Dutch products and technology and highlighted steps Dutch companies can take in order to do business with China.

Judith van de Bovenkamp, OostNL, kicked off this meeting on the trends and developments in the medical sector in China. She explained how Go4export can support you in doing business abroad. For example export vouchers are available for entrepreneurs, you can participate in a trade mission or visit an international fair. Judiths tip: Learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs and make use of the international network. this way, you can prepare yourself well in doing business with China.

The second speaker was Nico Schiettekatte, from the Dutch Embassy. He informed us that the ministry can support entrepreneurs who want to do business with China in sectors such as pharma, medical devices & health. And he gave an overview of facts and figures in medical markets. The ministry can help you in finding reliable contacts, partners and events (from contact to contract!). There are several offices of the Dutch government in China to help you on the spot.

In the final part, Reinout van Malenstein, HFG IP Firm Shanghai explained us that it is necessary to register your IP. There are some important things you have to know to protect your trademark in China. There are differences between trademarks and patents in Europa and in China. You need to register it also in China, otherwise you do not have any protection. Even if you do not (yet) have any trade in China, you have to register in China. As European rights will not work in China.

We closed this workshop with a Q&A and online networking. This is the first in a series of workshops on doing business (far) abroad. More countries/dates will be communicated shortly.

Presentation Judith van de Bovenkamp, Project Manager International, Oost NL

Presentation Nico Schiettekatte, attaché Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport

The recording will follow soon.

Recording Briskr new MDR for medical devices

The MDR workshop took place yesterday. Anja Wiersma from Mi-ce was the speaker who informed the participants about the impact of the new MDR for medical devices. She led us through the major and relevant changes on regulations for medical devices and IVD Products.

Topics like MDR timelines and Changes to classification were covered. And at the request of the attendees Anja got into depth on the following three topics: Clinical evaluation process: (What is enough data? How to gather the data?), Post Market Surveillance process (including PMS plan, PSURs, PMCF) and Eudamed/UDI.

It was a very diverse group of participants, from app developers to suppliers and manufacturers of medical devices. As all participants have to deal with these changes in their organisation and how they each have to be compliant in their own way with the new MDR regulations. We thank Anja for this very informative session!

If you were unable to attend, you can view the workshop with a great deal of practical information about the new MDR here.