Neolook Solutions, a company that uses AI to spot development issues in newborns, won the 2024 LIFE Science Innovation Award.
The LIFE Science Conference was organised at Groningen’s Forum on Tuesday by the LIFE Cooperative and was attended by representatives from the likes of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Symeres, UMCG, and the NOM. The topics discussed included the potential offered by AI for healthcare systems, how to advance the North of the Netherlands in this sector, and the LIFE Cooperative’s future plans for growth and investment.
The conference also featured a pitching contest which saw three companies, Neolook Solutions, Enatom, and Ivy Medical explain their product and their company’s goals as they tried to convince a jury of their team’s potential. In the end it was Neolook Solutions that won the award and scooped the € 5,000 award.
“As a company we choose to make a real big differenece for small, vulnerable life for parents. If we do our work right, nurses are happy, doctors are happy, hospitals are as happy. In the end if civil society says you’re doing a good job that is the highest level of recognition and I see this as a sign of recognition from civil society that we’re doing something good,” Marco D’Agata Neolook Solutions’ CEO told The Northern Times right after their win.
University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) Dean Prof. Wiro Niessen spoke about the opportunities AI offers the healthcare industry. He highlighted how AI can help develop novel therapies, ways to learn from the data developed by healthcare systems, and solutions offered by generative AI.
“Healthcare is getting more expensive, the workforce is decreasing, so we need disruptive innovation to keep quality in healthcare systems and our health up to standard,” Niessen said.
Niessen said the UMCG is already incorporating AI into its workflows. One way it does this is by using AI to help answer patients’ written questions.
Asked by an audience member about if the UMCG is also helping startups, Niessen said that while the UMCG focuses on healthcare, education and research there is is also an emphasis on innovation. He said that if people have innovative ideas there are teams within the UMCG that can help develop them.
Golden age of medicine
The president of the executive board of the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Prof. Marcel Levi, said that while lots of media coverage focuses on crises within healthcare he feels that things have never been better.
“As for problems in healthcare, the problems we have today are a result of our own success. If you had to ask different stakeholders: What is currently your biggest problem? The answer is usually the same: A staff shortage,” Levi said. He said this isn’t a problem restricted to the Netherlands but that many countries are experiencing this issue since healthcare is improving worldwide leading to better life expectancies.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Groningen General Manager Otto Jurrius described Groningen as “the Boston of the Netherlands” during a panel discussion celebrating 10 years of the LIFE Cooperative. He said that people working in this region tend to be quite humble and said they should make more of an effort to showcase their work, both within the Netherlands and beyond.
The jury for the innovation award was composed of Gerard Lenstra, Manny Wiersma, and Laura Gähler. The conference was supported by by Health~Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health, the Municipality of Groningen, Bedrijvenvereniging WEST and NV NOM.
Photo: The Northern Times
