Innovation Days 2023: students tackle health challenges

In a unique hackaton full of innovative ideas and inspiration, students participated in this year's i-Days, organised by the National Documentation Centre (EKT) with the support of the University of Thessaly, as part of the successful EIT Health programme.

The i-Days are a unique event for Greece. The event, which has spread to 25 European countries, promotes innovation in health, through the active participation and education of students from academic institutions.

More than 90 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of Thessaly participated. They divided into 27 groups and, from 8 to 10 November 2023, experienced and were trained in modern practices and approaches such as Design Thinking, worked together with the mentors of the programme to address real health challenges and competed in the development and presentation of their ideas.

The thematic areas on which the students worked in this year's i-Days were based on 6 of the 9 areas of intervention of the United Nations Programme ‘Good Health and Welbeing-Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’:

1. Contagious diseases
2. Non-communicable diseases
3. Abuse
4. Road traffic
5. Sexual and reproductive health
6. Environmental health

The winner of the Greek i-Days was the Alnfinite team with the proposed solution MaMast, a breast patch that detects the risk of developing mastitis in nursing women, and alerts them through a compatible application. The team consisted of:

• Chrysi Touchtidou
• Daphne Theodorakea

2nd place went to the Tetravision team, with the solution GutFlow, a wearable device with a mobile application that monitors the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and helps sufferers make correct decisions about their diet and treatment. The team consisted of:

1. Vassiliki Nestora
2. Alcmeni Soula
3. Maria Konstantina Karakike
4. George Bais

The third prize was given to the 2Digitals team with the solution MeetAquardian, a portable device that controls water quality, in direct correlation with the UN Programme and the recent environmental disasters from floods in Thessaly. The team consisted of:

1. Evgenia Vaia Baca
2. Erofili Barkalexis

Alnfinite, the team that won first prize at the Greek i-Days with the MaMast solution, will travel to Barcelona to attend the pan-European final of EIT Health, being held 30th November -1st December 2023. There, they will compete with teams from top universities in Europe and i-Days winners from other European countries.

Honours

Last year, the winning team that emerged from the Greek Innovation Days 2022 was at the European i-Days competition of EIT Health in Vienna, where it competed with teams of students from top universities in Europe who excelled in their countries, and won second place!

The Greek students won a €1,500 prize for expert mentoring from EIT Health to develop their innovative product, and access to unique networking opportunities and new education and training opportunities.

Consultants & mentors of the Greek iDays

The team of expert consultants and mentors who supported the teams in the development of the ideas/solutions and provided specialised and targeted guidance, consisted of:

• From the EKT/EITHealth HUB: Giorgos Megas, coordinator of the EIT Health Hub, Marios Roydis, innovation consultant, Dr. Sofia Xesfingi, innovation consultant, Angelos Angelidis, coordinator of Enterprise Europe Network Hellas.
• From the University of Thessaly: Professor Georgios Stamboulis, Professor Haris Karanikas responsible for idays from the University's side, Nikos Gemelos who managed all the teams in Ms Teams and gave valuable advice, Asst. Professor Georgia Braliou, Dr. George Dafoulas, Athanasia Dampasi, Vasiliki Bribou, Nikolaos Papaevstathiou, Marios Emmanuel, Panagiotis Anagnostou, Vassilis Tsoukas, and Argyris Gogidis
• From the Institute of Entrepreneurial Development (iED) and Joist the coordinator of HealthHub, Maria Pournari
• From Roche – Hellas Mr. Ioannis Kalpakidis, and from Roche-Diagnostics Mr. Athanasios Vratimos
• From G.N. Papageorgiou: Dr. Vasiliki Holeva, Clinical Psychologist, First University Psychiatry Clinic, Dr. Nikitas Arnautoglou, Psychiatrist, First University Psychiatry Clinic, Dr. Melani Konstantinidou, Cardiologist, B Cardiology Clinic
• From the ‘Patients Association of Greece’ and the PWD empowerment network ‘Humane’: Dimitris Kontopidis, Vice President and Digital Health Officer at the ‘Patients Association of Greece’, Director of ‘Humane’
• From Omgyno: Doreen Toutikian, CEO & Cofounder

Special mentors were the members of last year's winning team of the Greek i-Days who won 2nd place in the corresponding European event, Iliana Platonas, Grigoris Karypides and Agathangelos Papadopoulos, who guided the students in their ideas and presentations.

The group of assessors consisted of Angelos Angelidis, coordinator of the Greek node Enterprise Europe Network (EKT), Professor Georgios Stamboulis (University of Thessaly), Professor Haris Karanikas (University of Thessaly), Maria Bigaki (G.N. Papageorgiou Hospital), Konstantinos Kefalakis (Roche Pharmaceuticals) and Giorgos Megas, EIT Health HUB Coordinator.

For more information, please contact EKT's innovation consultants, George Megas (megas@ekt.gr) and Marios Roidis (mroidis@ekt.gr), coordinators of i-Days and responsible for the organisation.

Special thanks to Professors George Stampoulis and Haris Karanikas, the Department of Informatics with Applications in Bioinformatics for the majority of the participants as well as the Department of Economics and the MOKE of the University of Thessaly.

About EIT Health

EIT Health is one of Europe's largest networks for innovation in health. It consists of 266 partners including leading companies, universities, research and development centrres, hospitals and institutes. Its role is to build an ecosystem that enables the future development of healthcare, offering European citizens better health and longevity. EIT Health upgrades the skills of investing in Europe's best talent and facilitating the commercialisation of innovative products/solutions within the EU. It is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. For more information, please visit: www.eithealth.eu.

The National Documentation Centre (EKT) is EIT Health's hub in Greece and coordinator of the pioneering SymbIASIS programme. Since 2017, it has given Greek start-ups the opportunity to participate in programmes, and receive funding, high-level training, consulting services and networking opportunities in the health sector.