4 transformative projects in mental health, winners of the Innovation Contest
Four innovative projects with great development potential have been winners of the Mental Health Innovation Day of the TECSAM Network: Medea Mind, Accessible, ICURA and Parental APP.
ICURA and Parental APP are the winners of the “Innovative and Disruptive Ideas” category, while Medea Mind and Accexible have been awarded the first and second prize, respectively, in the “Digital Solutions for Mental Health” category, the DKV Challenge, and the “Digital Solutions for Mental Health” category
Innovation in mental health at the service of people has reached its peak with the nomination of the 4 winners of the 1st TECSAM Network Mental Health Innovation Contest. In a day featuring the most disruptive technology, Medea Mind, Accexible, ICURA and Parental APP were the winners of this contest, which took place at the Barcelona Health Hub, headquarters of DKV Innolab, the Network’s main partner and host of the Awards Day of the Innovation Contest.
The four technological projects have been awarded as a result of their inspiring proposals, scientifically based and with high potential for development and acceleration in the market with the aim of tackling the great problems and challenges posed by mental health.
The winners of the “Innovative and disruptive ideas” category, the ICURA (I3PT) and Parental APP (Parc Sant Joan de Déu (PSSJD)) projects, will receive personalized mentoring, worth €7,500 (first prize) and €3,000 (second prize) , depending on the needs and objectives of their projects.
The winner of the “Digital Solutions for Mental Health” category (DKV Challenge), Medea Mind, has been awarded a pilot test, valued at €15,000, to enter DKV’s digital solutions ecosystem; and in the case of the second prize, Accexible will be able to access a mentoring programme run by the DKV team (worth €8,000).
DKV Innolab hosted the pitches and awards ceremony, where a total of 10 finalists (5 per category) had the opportunity to give voice to their mental health projects in pitch format before an Evaluation Committee made up of 7 professionals from different areas within the mental health innovation ecosystem.
The members of the jury: Xavier Trabado Farré (spokesperson at Fundació Salut Mental de Catalunya), Marta Sánchez Bret (cluster manager at Clúster de Salut Mental Catalunya), Joan Grasas (Entrepreneurship Lead at EIT Health), Barbara Noailles (Medical Advisor and Clinical Management at DKV), Ricardo Barbosa Blanco (Technician in design and research in Digital Health at DKV), Josep Maria Haro (coordinator of the TECSAM Network) and Judit López Luque (Innovation Unit Coordinator & Promotion at TECSAM Network), have been in charge of evaluating, studying the different proposals and, finally, selecting the most innovative projects.
Winners of the category “Innovative and disruptive ideas”
The first prize was awarded to ICURA, a project coordinated by the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT) and defended by Ismael Ávila and Marta Godoy, which proposes the creation of a digital platform for the telematic monitoring and management of emotional and cognitive sequelae related to post-intensive care syndrome.
On the other hand, Parental Psych APP, the proposal that has won the second prize, is a project born in the heart of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (PSSJD) and the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD), defended by Luciana Díaz Cutraro and Susana Ochoa, based on the creation of a mobile application aimed at the early detection of psychosis and the management of bonding strategies between young people and parents to prevent the onset or worsening of psychotic symptoms.
These two initiatives will have access to personalised consultancy services from agencies specialising in intellectual property, definition of the business model, analysis of the target market and market entry strategies, feasibility and technological scalability studies, regulatory studies, among others, according to the needs of each project to be accelerated.
Winners of the category “Digital Solutions for Mental Health”
The solution proposed by Medea Mind, by Sara Zangri and Guillermo Rodríguez, has won the first prize in this second category, co-designed and financed by DKV Innolab. It is a solution for the early detection of mental health problems through a personalised algorithm that identifies the optimal treatment needed by each user based on three fundamental pillars:
The second prize went to Accexible, with Carla Zaldua Aguirre, a solution for the monitoring and early detection of depression through intelligent voice analysis (natural language processing and the user’s vocal biomarkers).
About the Innovation Contest
Faced with the need to respond to the challenges posed by mental health, the TECSAM Network – the first R+D+i network for mental health and new technologies in Catalonia – launched the 1st Mental Health Innovation Contest with the collaboration of DKV Innolab and the Clúster de Salut Mental Catalunya.
The aim of the TECSAM Network’s first Mental Health Innovation Contest was to identify, support and bring to the market potential innovative ideas, solutions and projects that address different social problems (early detection and prevention in mental health, quality of life, ageing and loneliness, suicide, mental health and women, etc.).
The four winning projects will have the opportunity to present their projects to the public on Tuesday 25 October at the Mental Health Innovation Day, where the most disruptive mental health solutions generated by the TECSAM Network’s research groups will be showcased. Together with our members, the winners of the competition will be able to make contact with the main stakeholders in the field of innovation in mental health and with potential investors. Register here (Limited places).
