The second edition of the Health Pioneers event takes place at Vienna’s BioCenter on October 10.  This is a chapter event of the esteemed Pioneers startup organization, pioneers.io. The event showcases digital and exponential medical technologies that impact and transform the individual and public health cycle.  

The lineup of international speakers has been confirmed for the event.  Amongst them is Professor Siegfried Meryn of the Medical University of Vienna, the driving force behind many preventative healthcare initiatives and the General Secretary of the International Society of Men’s Health.  

The event happens to coincide with World Mental Health Day – fitting insofar as it will host guest speaker and psychotherapist, Benjamin Fry.  The founder of NeuralSolution will speak about groundbreaking emotional and mental health treatment.

Verena Kretschmann – Head of European Operations at Medicus – will take part in the Open Innovation panel discussion at the event. Medicus provides an Artificial Intelligence-based platform that converts health data into easy to understand medical insights and actionable recommendations.

Open Innovation

The Open Innovation panel discussion is at the heart of the event’s values.  It facilitates the bringing together of both innovators and decision makers from the pharma, biotech, insurance and public health sectors.  

Many previous participants have gone on to progress their projects significantly.  Urska Srsen, the co-founder of Bellabeat, pitched in front of a Pioneers audience in 2013.  She and her smart jewellery company have gone on to become leaders in the field of Women’s health.  She will attend this year’s event and talk about how a greater emphasis on aesthetically appealing health tracking devices for women may be utilized to bring more understanding to the topic of their health.

AI remains incredibly relevant in new technology generally but to no lesser degree in terms of the health sector.  With that in mind, visitors to Health Pioneers can look forward to a keynote speech by Sameer Trikha, co-founder of AI software company Visulytix.  His company provides a solution which helps detect a range of diseases through retina analysis.  Additionally, the technology provides clinical decision support for the detection of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.  It also provides insights into Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

3D bioprinting is also incredibly relevant within the space.  One of the most influential people in this area is Melanie Matheu, CEO and co-founder of Prellis Biologics.  The primary focus of her keynote will be on laser based tech that can create functional human tissues and organs, with applications including organ transplants, drug discovery and toxicology testing.

Balder Onarheim will demonstrate how neurostimulation can make individuals more productive and creative.  Balder is the co-founder and CEO of PlatoScience – which has developed the world’s first headset to support brain training and enhance cognitive performance.   

Various startups from 50 seed stage to Series A will be present – taking part in workshops.  These include Finish smart pill tracker solution Popit, Hungarian innovators Healcloud and oncology-related startups, CytoSwitch and MicroQuin.