The Terkko Health Hub event space sprung to life on a sunny evening last week, when a new batch of HealthX participants met for the first time. This time around, the University of Helsinki’s health and life sciences entrepreneurship pre-incubator has been redesigned to serve an even wider array of different health professionals. The fruits of this new approach were already noticeable at the kick-off, as different teams introduced their projects which spanned from asthma detection to mental health support and the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Project lead Liina Laukkanen was ecstatic to see the teams come together under the same roof: “It feels amazing to finally meet all our participants in person. Having everyone in the same place for the first time is always a magical experience, as it creates the base for the community and the work that we will do for the next few weeks.”
Teams got the chance to map out their goals for the programme, and to reflect on their strengths and what they hope to work on in the coming weeks. The team behind RecorDr—Hamsa Hassan, Bilal Dean, Mohamed Adan, Abir Hossain, and Guleed Ahmed—came to the programme to develop their AI technology solution that makes physicians’ data logging easier with real-time speech recognition. Through participating in the programme, the team hopes to create a foundational base for their project on which to build. “Making connections is one of our most important goals here—after all, as they say, your network is your net worth,” said Dean, to which Adan added: “We want to find inspiration, and quite simply, to just enjoy the journey!”
Farhana Sayeed came to the programme together with Emilie Ressouche to work on their solution BeeCraft, an app to bring handicrafts learners together in a supportive community with the goal of alleviating mental health problems and preventing burnouts. For Sayeed, the pre-incubator presents a chance to figure out her next steps professionally: “This programme feels like the best place to test the waters and see how feasible our idea is. When you’re trying to set your foot into something that you don't know anything about, having this kind of safe space to openly express your ideas and receive feedback can be immensely beneficial.”
HealthX organising team members Niklas Saris and Milla Ajakuijala can’t wait to see how the participants’ ideas develop and crystallise. “It’ll be especially exciting to meet these people later in September in our follow-up session—then we’ll concretely see the impact of the programme,” Saris said, looking at the teams mingling around him. Both he and Alakuijala found themselves in awe of the talent brewing in the room: “Even after this first night, it feels like we have an extremely bright and skilled bunch on our hands. I’m almost worried that we’ll have nothing to teach them!” Alakuijala remarked with a laugh.
HealthX will run until its final showcase on 9 June, organised together with the Circulator 2.0 circular economy pre-incubator programme. In the event, humans’ and animals’ health is met with planetary wellbeing under the theme of One Health. Check out the teams participating in HealthX, and make sure to stay tuned for more updates!
If you want to learn more about HealthX, see the programme webpage or contact project lead Liina Laukkanen at liina.laukkanen@helsinki.fi or through LinkedIn.