The European Patient Digital Health Awards Winners

The Best Digital Health Solutions Recognized by Patients

In an award ceremony on the 23^rd of September, the European Patient Digital Health Awards (PDHA), organised by MSD in partnership with Digital Health Academy and Allied for Startups, announced the winners of the competition. The initiative bolstered the vital role of healthcare innovation at the rapidly evolving intersection of technology and science for both patients and providers.

From more than 60 applications submitted from across 18 European countries, a judging panel of patient representatives and startup entrepreneurs, identified the four winners for this edition.

• Category 1: Digital Prevention and Diagnostics, Mental Health, and Social Support: Biel Smartgaze – Spain: Helps people with low vision by providing them glasses creating an enhanced version of reality based on AI technology and virtual reality.
• Category 2: New Ways to Interact with Healthcare Teams and Providers: Legit Health – Spain: Device for doctors and patients based on computer vision and deep-learning algorithms which permits the detection of skin conditions.
• Category 3: Disease Monitoring and Therapeutics: MEGi – Croatia: Digital healthcare assistant that supports patients with hypertension, providing diagnosis and chronic care 24/7, and alerting the doctor if patients require attention. 
• Category 4: Returning to Care – in the context of COVID: Patients Experience Platform (PEP) – UK: Automatically identifies and gathers online patient feedback relating to the quality of patient care across the healthcare sector.

Speaking about the initiative, the partners of the event said:

"We are proud to support this first ever European Patient Digital Health Award. It’s a celebration of the best of the best in digital innovation and targeted solutions that help patients access quality healthcare solutions", said Mr. Deepak Khanna, President of MSD in Europe and Canada."By creating a bridge between the patient community and the startup ecosystem, the European Patient Digital Health Award initiative creates the space needed to address the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation of health and care. It helps develop a common vision of what needs to be done to bring digital innovations closer to people, ensuring that the digital and access gaps get smaller, not wider".

Benedikt Blomeyer, Director of EU Policy, Allied for Startups said: At Allied for Startups, we are thrilled to be partners of the Patient Digital Health Awards first ever European edition. It is a unique opportunity to spotlight some of the best digital health innovations, improving the health and quality of life of patients and carers.

We are not the same as we were before. Just think that today there are more than 350,000 digital health apps available, of which only 90,000 existed in 2020¹. If we are able to fully grasp the potential unleashed in this phase, we can give life to a new healthcare: digital, proximity, personalized, and with more space for prevention, said Cristina Cenci and Antonietta Pannella, Founding Partners, Digital Health Academy.

The Patient Digital Health Awards alongside its partners, MSD, Allied for Startups and Digital Health Academy, will continue to support and shine a light on digital health innovations that improve patient’s lives.