The IiSGM consolidates the holding of a business creation event driven by healthcare innovation
The Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM) has organised the III Jornada de Emprendimiento Sanitario, a space to foster the creation of companies that drive projects arising from research in the healthcare field. To this end, it brings together the various agents involved in the creation and financing of start-ups and innovative projects aimed at improving patients’ lives. Sponsored by the Unidad de Apoyo a la Innovación del IiSGM, the event has become a benchmark in healthcare entrepreneurship driven directly from a hospital centre.
Among the main conclusions, the crucial role played by hospitals as centres of innovation was emphasised. In this regard, in recent years the IiSGM has promoted four successful spin-off company cases that have developed a therapy to prevent transplant rejection, created innovative medical devices for arrhythmias and ostomies, or discovered new drugs.
The opening ceremony was conducted by the Director General of Research and Teaching of the Consejería de Sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid, Inmaculada Ibáñez, the Managing Director of the Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Sonia García San José, the Scientific Director of the IiSGM, Ismael Buño, and the Director of the Unidad de Apoyo a la Innovación del IiSGM, Manuel Desco.
For her part, the Director of the Fundación de Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Gregorio Marañón (FIBHGM), Teresa Fernández, was responsible for closing the event.
III Jornada de Emprendimiento Sanitario
The aim of this event was to connect professionals and entrepreneurs in the sector seeking funding and collaboration opportunities. As part of the discussion panels, the various mechanisms and instruments available, both in the public and private sectors, for financing healthcare innovation projects were shared.
Another aspect addressed at the event was the need for public-private collaboration to foster entrepreneurship, since the idea comes from the Public Administration and is promoted in its initial stages; from that point onwards, private contributions of resources and management tools are currently needed to turn the idea into reality and ensure that it benefits society, something channelled through the creation of spin-offs.
These events provide a meeting point for the various actors involved in this process. That is why they have highlighted the necessary professional support provided by hospitals’ Innovation Support Units. “The creator of an innovation does not necessarily have to know how to manage their project through to completion. The Support Units have experts in patents and in how to secure funding, and only with their help can an initiative ultimately become viable,” explained Dr Desco. “If these Innovation Units collaborate with one another to share resources, support for entrepreneurs will be much more efficient,” he emphasised.
The programme of the event organised at Marañón was a great success, with a high attendance rate, both in person and online. Through presentations and round-table discussions, experiences were also shared and the main challenges facing healthcare spin-offs were highlighted.
The event demonstrated the interest that healthcare entrepreneurship generates within the clinical ecosystem, with this type of meeting being essential for promoting the transfer of innovation to the productive fabric, helping to improve patients’ health and quality of life.
The event received the support of GENESIS Biomed, HOFFMANN EITLE, Dinamiza Aceleradora de la Investigación en Salud and the Plataforma ITEMAS (Plataforma ISCIII de Dinamización e innovación de las capacidades industriales del SNS y su transferencia efectiva al sector productivo), which worked alongside the FIBHGM as an instrument for promoting, managing and developing research.