Competition for first place at InnoEvent

The mood was high among the students, and it was a difficult task for the 40 judges to choose the winners. There had to be a winner from each of the four cases:

1. Psychiatry and Diabetes
2. Smoke-free Odense
3. Prevention of weight gain in pregnant women
4. Big Data and Asthma

The high level of the solutions meant that the planned announcement of the winners was delayed, as the group of judges from case 2 on Smoke-free Odense needed extra time to find a winner among the excellent proposals.

ENTREPRENEURIAL COURSE AS AN EXTRA PRIZE

The Odense-based company Public Intelligence had also promised an entrepreneurial course for the proposed solution with the greatest business potential across the four cases. The one winner of the course was the product Fit Kit from case 3 on the prevention of weight gain in pregnant women.

Fit Kit is a toolbox with tools and period-specific training exercises for post-partum women, to ensure that the women get appropriate exercise. The judges were particularly fond of the business plan behind the solution, and the concept's good opportunities for scaling up, which the group can work on through the PreScale Up process.

And precisely the professional development and professional insight have been a significant part of the benefit from InnoEvent for the students: "I think it has been rewarding to work together across the programmes - especially because I have become aware of what skills I myself can bring to such a collaboration", says Frederikke Husum, who studies Integrated Design at SDU on a daily basis.

MORE THAN TEACHING

But it is not only the students who get new knowledge and useful experience home from InnoEvent. For the judges, InnoEvent functions as an informal network meeting in the Region of Southern Denmark's ecosystem, which focuses on the use of technology in the health sector. In the same way, Odense University Hospital (OUH) receives valuable input from companies and students. Input that can be difficult to spot when you yourself are part of workflows and issues.

InnoEvent thus makes clear the fruitful collaboration between OUH and the educational institutions, and how the entire ecosystem within health technology is built up by the strong professionalism at OUH, in Odense Municipality and at the participating companies.

After the award ceremony and before the traditional celebration with bubbles and cake, Kim Brixen, Chief Medical Officer at OUH, was able to put an end to the official part of InnoEvent: "I would like to end this innovative week by looking forward to next year, when we will focus on inviting the patients in close to the development to an even higher degree. And then I would really like to ask to be allowed to participate again next year," he said enthusiastically.