DCTx Innovation Incubator

��ֳ�’s Incubator Program 2023 – A Look Through Our Innovative Digital Health Startups

Vanco Vlastimil (��ֳ� S.A.) — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:06:12 +0000

��ֳ�’s Incubator Program 2023 – A Look Through Our Innovative Digital Health Startups

Marie-Noel Achkar, Digital Care Transformation

Vanco Vlastimi… Thu 09/11/2023 - 15:06

We are excited to share our final cohort of startups – Albus Health, Nevaro, Wisdo Health, NeuroHelp, and thymia – that have joined the ��ֳ� Digital Health Incubator Program for 2023. Each startup brings forward innovative solutions that have the potential to revolutionize the digital health landscape and bring much-needed solutions to people living with severe diseases, faster.

About The Incubator Program: A Recap

Now in its second cohort, the ��ֳ� Incubator is a 12-week, non-equity program designed for startups at any stage. Our mission is to co-create and test transformative digital health solutions for people living with severe diseases. Together with our startups, we formulate key hypotheses, set KPIs, metrics for success, and conduct tests to validate their core ideas and accelerate their time to market.

Introducing the Startups:

Albus Health
Location: Oxford, UK
About: Established in 2017, Albus Health offers a contactless multi-sensor solution for nocturnal health monitoring- in the form of a table-top, contactless device to collect data, combined with software capabilities to track and analyse various physiological, environmental metrics in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the patient's night-time health.

Nevaro
Location: Lisboa, Portugal
About: Founded in 2018, Nevaro offers a mobile app-based solution to improve mental well-being. Using gaming and physiological computing, their app helps improve mental well-being, avoid burnout, self-monitor for symptoms of illness, as well as complement psychotherapy treatments.

Wisdo Health
Location: New York City
About: Founded in 2018, Wisdo Health has crafted a social health platform that combats loneliness and enhances mental health. Their AI-powered peer support communities cater to those facing life challenges, mental health issues, and chronic conditions.

NeuroHelp
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel
About: NeuroHelp is working on the frontiers of epileptic care with Epiness™, which is a headband integrated with EEG sensors to detect night-time epileptic seizures in children through Machine and Deep Learning techniques.

thymia
Location: London
About: thymia’s digital mental health assessment tool employs AI to analyze biomarkers in video, audio, and behavioral data, providing insights into various mental health conditions.

Interested in learning more?

Keep up to date or learn more about the program at ��ֳ�-DCTx.com. For inquiries about the Program, please contact us at contact@ucb-dctx.com.

Together, let's pioneer the next era of healthcare through Digital Business Transformation.

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��ֳ�'s first Digital Health Incubator Demo Day

Chiara Vona — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 09:07:18 +0000

��ֳ�'s first Digital Health Incubator Demo Day

Thyago Ohana, Digital Care Transformation

Chiara Vona Tue 22/11/2022 - 10:07

On October 28^th, ��ֳ� held its first Digital Health Incubator Startup Pitch Day - an opportunity to highlight the learnings and achievement across the 2022 cohort of the program, as well as to see great examples of the entrepreneurship we support in order to create leading healthcare innovation.

Our day started with the Head of the DCTx Incubator Strategy, Thyago Ohana addressing how the incubator began by thinking outside of the status quo. The next generation of innovators within the healthcare technology ecosystem accepts that notion, with incubators as a key form of collaboration to drive new ways of thinking to create value for people living with severe diseases now and in the future.

Pitches were made by each of the incubated ventures, as they outlined key friction points, their unique solution and ambitions for the future.

VRx Medical, represented by Co-Founder, Paul Lafferty, deploys AR to solve chronic pain issues and increase adherence related to arthritis. The company’s vision, when working with ��ֳ�, is to provide accessible and drug-free pain relief to arthritis sufferers.

Epihunter, pitched by Founder & CEO, Tim Buckinx, enables people with brain disorders "to participate more fully in society". The company wants people to be able to plan their lives and avoid emergency visits with seizure prediction and forecasting. Tim described that one challenge of the incubator was how many different needs could be addressed with Epihunter's technology, so they needed to thoughtfully consider what problems they would prioritize.

Peak Profiling’s technology helps detect disease using the human voice. Founding partners Julia Volkening & Claudio Hasler explained that “voice can successfully serve as a biomarker”. Quantitative musicology is used to analyse many aspects of a human voice, with nine algorithms for diseases already created and a further 26 in the pipeline.

Xsensio, pitched by Founder & CEO Esmeralda Megally, has a unique ‘Lab on Skin’ wearable biosensing device that can detect minute changes in interstitial fluid, to gather real-time health data. This in turn enables doctors to be more reactive and reduce misdiagnosis of autoimmune diseases which can lead to severe illness. The team are driven to commercialising partnerships with doctors in the future, as well as bringing the tech to patient’s homes.

A jury made up of internal executive Vice Presidents of Immunology and Neurology alongside the ��ֳ� Incubator's leadership team awarded VRx Medical the Jury's Choice award, whilst the Audience’s Choice went to PeakProfiling. Both will get a 'ramp-up' session with ��ֳ� executives and the chance to continue their partnership into the future.

To sum up, Andrew Humphries from The Bakery, ��ֳ�’s Incubator innovation partner, addressed the group and outlined the key valuable output for startups who take part in the incubator collaboration. Andrew spoke to the importance of collaboration to both incremental and breakthrough innovation - something that is critical in the relationship between venture startups and ��ֳ�.

To learn more about ��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation Incubator or even submit your startup or idea to the program, visit the website www.ucb-dctx.com.

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DCTx team working hand-in-hand with Epihunter

Vanco Vlastimil (��ֳ� S.A.) — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 06:30:00 +0000

DCTx team working hand-in-hand with Epihunter

Marie-Noel Achkar, Digital Care Transformation

Vanco Vlastimi… Thu 04/08/2022 - 08:30

The Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) team at ��ֳ� is excited to be working with Epihunter in its DCTx Incubator.

Epihunter is a pioneering digital therapeutics company focused on enabling those with brain disorders to participate more fully in society. Their huge step forward towards accessibility for epilepsy-sufferers started with a question from a son to his father - "Dad, you work in digital, can you create a light that turns on when my brain switches off?".

That statement of need led to the business being founded in 2017, with the first device coming along in 2018 to help detect, log and signal silent absence seizures.

Epihunter solutions apply real-time AI to third-party wearable EEG for real-time digital interventions - reducing the conditions’ daily life impact while generating real-world data for better diagnosis, treatment and new therapies.

The company has already created, clinically validated and commercialised a beachhead for absence epilepsy in Europe & Australasia and is now setting up co-development collaborations for a future product pipeline of 13 products in epilepsy and other brain disorders.

Epihunter will work with ��ֳ�’s DCTx team to learn how digital can help create an impactful solution for patients suffering from rare forms of epilepsy and other neurological conditions.

During the program, the venture will identify with the support of real-world partners in the healthcare ecosystem, a sustainable digital health business model to scale while delivering the most benefit to patients and HCPs.

As Epihunter Founder, Tim Buckinx says, “We’re very excited to work hand-in-hand with ��ֳ� experts on current and future offerings for a deep impact on the daily lives of families with epilepsy and their clinical care pathways. The strongly aligned missions of Epihunter and ��ֳ� will come alive in the DCTx Incubator.”

To find out more about our pathway, to apply to be a part of the program and to keep updated on the latest startups taking part of the program, please visit our website on ��ֳ�-DCTx.com - alternatively, you can contact us via email on contact@ucb-dctx.com.

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Digital Care Transformation DCTx Innovation Incubator Epihunter

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Two more ventures join ��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator

Vanco Vlastimil (��ֳ� S.A.) — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:22:34 +0000

Two more ventures join ��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator

Thyago Ohana, Digital Care Transformation Immunology

Vanco Vlastimi… Thu 28/04/2022 - 11:22

Our Digital Care Transformation team is delighted to announce two new participants going into the DCTx Incubator.

We strongly believe these ventures could each have a major impact on global healthcare, and we are excited to take these steps on their journey together.

Voice technology that can act as a biomarker of disease

PeakProfiling combines voice analytics based on quantitative musicology of sound patterns with Machine Learning methods. Several clinical studies have already demonstrated that this technology can serve as a valid predictor of certain clinical conditions.

Julia Amunts of PeakProfiling “Working alongside the team of ��ֳ� will support us in validating our voice technology that can potentially act as a biomarker for a wide range of diseases. This collaboration entirely fits in our mission of developing individualised digital solutions to support the patients' journey from early diagnosis to disease monitoring.”

Delivering accessible, drug-free, digital wellness through Virtual Reality (VR) based technology

VRx Medical is an immersive digital therapeutics company founded in California by Garland Wong and Paul Lafferty. Their mission is to deliver accessible, drug-free, digital wellness through immersive VR technology.

Bringing together virtual and augmented reality to the fingertips of patients, providing a wide range of therapies that can integrate into their lifestyles.

Garland of VRx Medical comments "VRx Medical is proud and excited to work with the team at ��ֳ�. Together, we hope to optimize our digital therapeutic designed to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from chronic pain”.

To find out more about our incubator and to apply to be a part of the program, please visit our website on ��ֳ�-DCTx.com - alternatively, you can contact us via email on contact@ucb-dctx.com.

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��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator announces first ventures

Vandenbruaene Nathalie — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 09:33:18 +0000

��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator announces first ventures

Thyago Ohana, Digital Care Transformation Immunology

Vandenbruaene … Fri 18/03/2022 - 10:33

The Digital Care Transformation team at ��ֳ� are delighted to welcome our first 2 participants into the DCTx Incubator. Over the last few months we have been engaging with the global healthcare ecosystem, seeking out the best innovations from entrepreneurs and startup businesses that could have a major impact on some of the biggest challenges ��ֳ� are trying to solve.

A very warm welcome to the first 2 companies joining the DCTx Incubator:

Detecting cognitive impairment through speech
Winterlight Labs, based in Toronto, Canada, has developed a solution to analyse speech and detect subtle changes in speech patterns of patients with many neurological conditions.

Winterlight’s platform analyses both the acoustics and content of speech and language to assess progression or improvement in cognitive health and achieve more detailed measurement of a patient’s response to therapeutic interventions.

Continuous, real-time monitoring of biochemical information via skin
The miniature LAB-ON-SKIN^TM sensing platform developed by the Xsensio team in Lausanne, Switzerland, allows the detection of small changes in skin biofluids.

A non-intrusive wearable device that can help to detect and predict changes in a number of disease areas could help both clinicians and patients better manage a range of conditions and lead to better outcomes for patients.

So what will the teams actually be doing?
Now that the teams from Winterlight and Xsensio have moved into the Co-Creation and Validation stage, our expert mentors at ��ֳ� and our partner company The Bakery will be helping to co-create and then validate a clear hypothesis, one which, if proven, could make a significant impact and positively benefit patients, society and the world.

During this initial phase, we will work together in a series of workshops, helping to understand the specific benefits of the technologies developed by the startups, and which disease areas and patient journeys could see the most benefit.

At the end of Phase 1, the first group of startups will present their findings along with their ��ֳ� Champion. Those that show the biggest potential impact will then move into Phase 2, a structured 6 month partnership where we will look to help them deliver on their potential by supporting their growth plans. This could include support in creating a commercial or clinical trial, marketing and sales growth, help to secure investment or some other kind of support that will add real value.

Liam Kaufman, CEO and co-founder of Winterlight Labs, comments: “We are delighted to be working with ��ֳ� to explore how we can expand the use of our speech assessment technology in the detection and measurement of complex neurological conditions. In combining Winterlight’s expertise with ��ֳ�’s specialist knowledge and clinical and therapeutic reach, we hope to build on the opportunities for our platform to support digitized healthcare and research strategies, and ultimately make our technology an option for the monitoring of more conditions and more patients globally.”

Esmeralda Megally, CEO of Xsensio says: “We’re super-excited to be working with ��ֳ� to explore how our technology can help patients and clinicians dealing with challenging diseases both diagnose and monitor these difficult conditions better. Together we feel sure we can make a big difference to people’s quality of life.”

Will you be announcing more startups soon?
Our program is designed to be “always-on” and super flexible; Startups join the program when it is right for them. Our team are already in advanced discussion with the next group of startup so watch this space for more announcements!

As well as being flexible in terms of time, it doesn’t matter if they are very early stage or already have significant funding, our team that will work with them to achieve their specific goals, whether that is finding initial or further investment, developing or proving their technology, finding new customers or scaling into new markets. At the same time we will be solving ��ֳ�’s biggest challenges and increasing our knowledge of and access to innovative new solutions to help drive our business forward into an exciting new future.

Just a few examples of what we are looking for include innovative technologies that can help:

improve the early diagnosis of PsA/Ax-Spa patients
personalise treatment of PsO patients to slow down the progression of the disease
prevent seizures in epilepsy patients.

Where to find out more…
Check out the website ��ֳ�-DCTx.com to find out more about the challenges or to apply, and also to keep updated on the latest amazing new startups that are participating in the program. Or please drop an email to contact@ucb-dctx.com - we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

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DCTx DCTx Innovation Incubator Winterlight Xsensio

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Launch of the DCTx Innovation Incubator - Partnering in innovations that positively benefit patients, society and the world

Vandenbruaene Nathalie — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 07:52:45 +0000

Launch of the DCTx Innovation Incubator - Partnering in innovations that positively benefit patients, society and the world

Thyago Ohana, Digital Care Transformation Immunology

Vandenbruaene … Mon 14/02/2022 - 08:52

The Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) team at ��ֳ� is delighted to officially announce the launch of the DCTx Incubator. Over the last few months, we have been engaging with the global healthcare ecosystem, seeking out the best innovations from entrepreneurs and startup businesses that could have a major impact on some of the biggest challenges ��ֳ� are trying to solve.

Why is the ��ֳ� Digital Care Transformation Incubator different?
Almost every large company has some kind of accelerator or incubator. Our team looked long and hard at those that are successful - and some that have not been so successful too - and we have created a model that we feel is unique in our space, and the great news is that startups seem to love it!

Our program doesn’t seek to take equity or takeover the Intellectual Property of startups, as we don’t want to stifle their potential or the creativity of founders. We are much more concerned with creating a win-win that benefits the startup and ��ֳ� together, as well as driving real value for both patients and the planet.

With that in mind, we have also understood that a win-win is different for every startup and our incubation program should be tailored to their individual needs. Thus, once an initial problem-solution match is found, startups go into a pre-incubation phase so we can co-create an incubation roadmap that caters specifically to them. In this time, startups already receive support from business and industry mentors and expert advisors. In getting to know each other better, we increase the long-term synergy potential.

Moreover, our program is looking to solve valuable friction points for patients that have been clearly identified. Driven by this purpose of creating patient value, we are seeking to partner with startups to which we know we can add value in solving for these specific friction points.

Just a few examples of what we are looking for include innovative technologies that can help:

improve the early diagnosis of PsA/Ax-Spa patients
personalize treatment of PsO patients to slow down the progression of the disease
prevent seizures in epilepsy patients.

Our program is designed to be “always-on” and super flexible; startups can join the program when it is right for them, and it doesn’t matter if they are very early-stage or already have significant funding: we have a team that will work with them to achieve their specific goals, whether that is finding initial or further investment, developing or proving their technology, finding new customers or scaling into new markets.

At the same time, we will be solving ��ֳ�’s biggest challenges and increasing our knowledge of and access to innovative new solutions to help drive our business forward into an exciting new future.

So how does the program work?

We have officially launched our program on Valentine’s Day as a symbolic move to say: “With our incubator, we want to celebrate partnerships” – after all, no one can solve for the challenges in healthcare all alone!

We invite startups to apply to the program on our website ucb-digitalcaretransformation.com.

Following active scouting and collecting the application submitted via the website, the program starts with ventures being selected to participate in a series of “matchmaking” sessions, which are specific to the relevant area of interest (patients friction points). Those that take part will have been pre-validated by our specialist teams as having solutions with high impact potential.

The very best in each category are then chosen to take part in a 12-week long co-creation and validation process to prove their potential and align on the value of a possible partnership. This will be different for each startup of course and may involve figuring out how the new technology adds value, as well as understanding more clearly the steps involved in adopting or scaling the new technology alongside ��ֳ�.

Each Startup will be supported through this validation process by our incubation partner The Bakery , as well as having a ��ֳ� “Champion” with relevant expertise supporting their cause, and also sessions with a number of specialist mentors from around the ��ֳ� team. Additional to the valuable mentorship and guidance, each startup will receive a small amount of money to help towards their time and participation expenses.

At the end of this initial 12-week validation phase, each startup will present their findings and proposal for moving forward with ��ֳ� into a more structured partnership over the next 6 months to achieve a clearly defined set of outcomes, which could include support in creating a commercial or clinical trial, marketing and sales growth, help to secure investment or some other kind of support that will add real value for both parties.

What’s it like for a startup to work with ��ֳ�?

In the words of Bingli’s co-founder, Tom Van De Putte, this is how they describe their startup engagement with us:

“As a founding team we had lots of experience working with doctors, but going out to hospitals can be tough, especially with a disease agnostic platform like ours.

��ֳ� was one of the first big Pharma companies we had really spoken to. It was wonderfully reassuring to get positive feedback from experts who really knew how to help us to clearly identify both the value and potential of our technology.

Having a world-renowned brand in our corner creates a positive aura when we talk to both clients and investors; people understand that ��ֳ� will have done a certain about of due diligence on us and this brings great credibility.

Working together and co-creating with ��ֳ� has allowed us to develop a concrete focus and a far higher scientific knowledge of the diseases we address, which reflects really well on us as company.”

Bingli is the smartest medical interview on the planet bringing better healthcare at lower cost with more accurate results for patients and doctors. BINGLI's chatbot intelligently interviews the patient prior to the consultation so that symptoms are accurately communicated to the doctor. This leads to better quality and more time-efficient consultation and, as a result, better healthcare for patients in general.

Tom Van De Putte,
Co-Founder

Where to find out more?

Check out the website ucb-digitalcaretransformation.com to find out more about the challenges or to apply, and also to keep updated on the latest amazing new startups that are participating in the program. Or please drop an email to contact@ucb-dctx.com - we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Meet some of the leading voices of the DCTx Incubator

Colin Lake serves as the Head of Digital Care Transformation Neurology at ��ֳ�. Colin spearheads ��ֳ�’s efforts to improve the support for patients and key stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem by driving ��ֳ�’s ambitious digital agenda for Neurology. Colin has extensive experience designing and delivering digital services across a variety of industries, including over 10 years across the full spectrum of pharmaceutical processes.

Erik Janssen is the Head of DCTx Immunology at ��ֳ�. Erik is a healthcare executive with a passion for digital health, corporate innovation, making a difference by creating partnerships and most importantly by transforming how care is delivered to patients with chronic diseases in rheumatology and dermatology. Erik is also a managing director of the Bluehealth Innovation Fund and a mentor to several digital health and medtech companies.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn

Marie-Noel is the DCTx incubator project lead at ��ֳ�. Marie-Noel is the one in charge of the set-up and operationalization of the incubation program as well as supporting the daily needs of the selected startups to achieve their goals. Marie-Noel is a former digital health entrepreneur with experience as a consumer of incubation and acceleration programs. She is passionate about solving challenges in healthcare and shaping the future of health.

Connect with Marie-Noel on LinkedIn

Author

Thyago Ohana is the strategy lead for Digital Care Transformation at ��ֳ� and the head of the DCTx Incubator. Thyago is passionate about people, technology and the future – and how these things connect. He likes to call himself a “Digital go-to guy and story-teller leading positive change in healthcare one smile at a time.

Connect with Thyago on LinkedIn

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DCTx Digital Care Transformation DCTx Innovation Incubator

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DCTx Innovation Incubator

��ֳ�’s Incubator Program 2023 – A Look Through Our Innovative Digital Health Startups

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��ֳ�'s first Digital Health Incubator Demo Day

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DCTx team working hand-in-hand with Epihunter

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Two more ventures join ��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator

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��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator announces first ventures

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Launch of the DCTx Innovation Incubator - Partnering in innovations that positively benefit patients, society and the world

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DCTx Innovation Incubator

������ֳ�’s Incubator Program 2023 – A Look Through Our Innovative Digital Health Startups

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������ֳ�'s first Digital Health Incubator Demo Day

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DCTx team working hand-in-hand with Epihunter

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Two more ventures join ������ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator

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������ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator announces first ventures

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Launch of the DCTx Innovation Incubator - Partnering in innovations that positively benefit patients, society and the world

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��ֳ�’s Incubator Program 2023 – A Look Through Our Innovative Digital Health Startups

��ֳ�'s first Digital Health Incubator Demo Day

Two more ventures join ��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator

��ֳ�’s Digital Care Transformation (DCTx) Incubator announces first ventures