The online platform is hosting the second edition of their awards
2nd Patient Innovation Awards at Web Summit
The online platform Patient Innovation, where patients and caregivers around the world connect to share and create solutions to cope with a health-related issue, has once again distinguished the best solutions of its community. The 2nd Patient Innovation Awards took place on November 10 th , as part of Lisbon’s 2016 Web Summit.
The ceremony was presented by Manuel Heitor, Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and featured international figures connected to the project, such as Patient Innovation’s Advisory Board that include two Nobel laureates. The founders, Pedro Oliveira and Helena Canhão, were also among the 31 Portuguese speakers of the Web Summit, presenting both at the awards ceremony and at the Patient Innovation Forum, that took place on Wednesday, November 9 th .
Seven innovative projects were distinguished after being evaluated by an international jury of experts in the fields of research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and health. The Patient Innovation awards are divided into three project categories: solutions designed by patients, by caregivers and by collaborators. Some of the winning innovations of this second edition were a system to aid blind people to be more independent; folding wheels for wheelchairs and a photo camera support that can be used by tetraplegic patients. But this year, the majority of solutions are digital technologies using smartphones and computers: a sensor that warns caretakers that a patient is wandering when they are not supposed to (such as Alzheimer patients), a sensor that detects the level of a ostomy bag, another sensor to accurately verify the location and schedule of a patient such as an autistic person, and finally, a video game that makes treatment part of a game, where motions become part of the story unfolding.
The Patient Innovation platform is an outcome of the “The Role of ‘User Innovators’ in the Development of Telecom Products and Services” project and it is currently developed by the “TEIPL: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy Lab” Entrepreneurial Research Initiative, offered by the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program and funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
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