The winners of the first ‘neurotechprize’ have been announced by EIT Health, part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a branch of the European Union, and Biogen.
First place was awarded to French start-up company, Five Lives, with second place going to Dutch start-up, Neurocast.
The competition, launched in late 2021, was created to help accelerate the identification of tech solutions to address the Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although there is currently no cure for AD, early diagnosis and treatment can play a part in slowing disease progression and managing symptoms.
The winners were announced at a ceremony in Stuttgart, Germany at the MedtecLIVE conference. The companies will each receive 100,000 and 50,000 euros, respectively.
“We’re very proud to announce the winners of our first ‘neurotechprize’. Many congratulations to Five Lives and Neurocast who showed relentless commitment to the prevention and detection of AD,” said Jean-Marc Bourez, interim CEO, EIT Health.
After working for ten weeks while being mentoring by a group from EIT Health and Biogen, the teams pitched their concepts to an independent group of experts including leading neurologists, patient representatives, start-up leaders and payers.
For its entry, Fives Lives created a mobile app to help older people monitor their brain health through a clinically-approved risk assessment. By providing lifestyle advice based on individual dementia risk level, supported by positive messaging and an interactive experience, this could help to reduce the risk of future dementia through lifestyle improvements.
Neurocast’s entry utilised smartphones and other everyday digital interactions to enable doctors and researchers to passively measure individual patients. By monitoring each patient’s performance in day-to-day life, medical professionals are able to proactively action changes.
“The variety of solutions submitted by the various start-ups was unbelievable. It was hard to choose a winner. But we are happy to announce two exciting winners: Five Lives and Neurocast. With our experienced partner, EIT Health, we are proud to support the winners to realise solutions that promise to reduce the individual risk of future AD through lifestyle improvements and, for those affected, to make the diagnosis of AD easier,” said Dr Thorsten Lambertus, head of neurotechlab at Biogen.