AI MedTech Founders

How to translate your research into a startup

(© Films for Reel for ARTORG Center & Center for AI in Medicine)

When: 8 March 2023, 14.00-17.30h
Where: Auditorium Felix Frey, sitem-insel, Freiburgstrasse 3

AI Medtech Founders
Time Subject Speaker
14.00h Welcome Stavroula Mougiakakou, ARTORG Center
14.05h Introduction to Entrepreneurial Support @UniBE Stefanie Dobitz, Innovation Office / Isabelle Hahn, Entrepreneurship Center
14.20h Medtech Entrepreneur I Ronja Müller-Bruhn, CEO STIMIT
14.40h Medtech Entrepreneur II Fredrick Johnson Joseph, Founder and CEO SurgeonsLab
15.00h Medtech Entrepreneur III

Renu Ann Joseph, Lead Data Scientist, QuantumBasel

15.20h Medtech Entrepreneur IV Johan Lundin, Founder and Board Member Aiforia Technologies
15.40h Coffee & "Meet the Founders"
16.20h Support for the Entrepreneurial Journey in Bern Christian Lundsgaard, Head of Startup Program, be-advanced
16.30h The Power of Networking

Prisca Quadroni, Women Experts in AI

16.50h Panel Discussion Ronja Müller-Bruhn, Fredrick Johnson Joseph, Renu Ann Joseph, Johan Lundin, Prisca Quadroni
Moderation: Monika Kugemann
17.25h Closing Inti Zlobec, Institute of Tissue Medicine and Pathology
17.30h Networking Apéro

Stefanie Dobitz

Stefanie is Innovation & Startup Advisor for Health, Medicine, and LifeSciences at the University of Bern and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. She supports researchers & students on the first steps of their entrepreneurial journey. Prior joining the University of Bern, Stefanie led an international sales team for a Swiss CDMO, wherein she supported the pharma and biotech industry in drug development, medical devices, as well as cosmetics. She earned her doctoral thesis from ETH Zurich on tumor targeting and holds a CAS in innovation management.

The Innovation Office promotes a dynamic culture of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking at the University of Bern and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. It support students, researchers, and faculty members in translating ideas, research, and inventions into innovations; Strengthening the University’s role in creating value through knowledge for society and economy.

Isabelle Hahn

Isabelle is Co-Lead of the Outreach activities of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Bern. She acts as the project manager of several Innosuisse events and courses offered by the Entrepreneurship Center. Before joining the Entrepreneurship Center, Isabelle worked at the Mobiliar in the Innovation and Corporate Foresight team and she wrote a doctoral thesis on innovation and knowledge management at the University of Bern.

The Entrepreneurship Center has been acting at the interface between research and practice, supporting (future) entrepreneurs in Bern for more than ten years. Particularly it offers a START-UP TRAINING in the form of courses and events for people interested in entrepreneurship, a start-up competition STAGE UP, as well as a CAS (certificate of advanced studies) in Entrepreneurship.

Ronja Müller-Bruhn

Ronja Müller-Bruhn is CEO and founder of STIMIT AG, a MedTech start-up that is set to revolutionize intensive care units. She has obtained a diploma in Medical Engineering in Germany and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has served as Research Senior Engineer and later as Marketing Manager Hightech Product Launches at Zimmer Biomet before driving entrepreneurship initiatives at the University of Basel. Since 2018 she is CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the startup STIMIT AG, and since October 2021, she is committee member of the Swiss MedTech Day.

STIMIT develops non-invasive technologies, initially with the goal of stimulating the diaphragm - our "breathing pump" - to maintain its function even during ventilation. Ronja Müller-Bruhn studied medical technology and earned an MBA in Vienna, worked at Zimmer Biomet in international roles and built entrepreneurship programs at the University of Basel. Today, STIMIT's funding is solid, revolutionary clinical data is about to be published, and in a successful M&A deal, Draeger has secured a majority stake in STIMIT AG.

Fredrick Johnson Joseph

Fredrick Johnson Joseph has studied Biomedical Engineering in India followed by Medical Systems Engineering at the Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Germany and has been a postgraduate researcher at the University of Heidelberg in Germany before pursuing a PhD at the Image Guided Therapy lab of the ARTORG Center of Biomedical Engineering Research of the University of Bern. Dr. Joseph has been schooled in Accounting and Finance from Harvard Business School and is Founder and CEO of the startup SurgeonsLab AG. His translational research has been supported by VentureLab, the Innosuisse InnoBooster program and the Gebert Rüf Stiftung.

SurgeonsLab develops and produces realistic, patient-specific models and simulations for training microsurgical procedures and microvascular interventions and validating new medical devices. SurgeonsLab won several awards and grants, including Venture Kick, and the AIT competition for Swiss and Indian science startups.

Renu Ann Joseph

Dr. Renu Ann Joseph is an economist turned entrepreneur, who is currently the lead Data Scientist for QuantumBasel. A health economist by training, she has experience in different industries - financial services, insurance and reinsurance - working with universities, governments, corporates and in innovation. In the past 5 years, she has spun out 3 ventures - in insurtech, data science and a podcast. Her insurtech, Luminant Analytics is focused on improving insurance pricing for the long-ailing trucking insurance line in the US by using external data analytics. Her Data Science & AI center of excellence helps companies that are not primarily driven, to use data more effectively using AI and Data science techniques and education. Her passion for fostering Diversity in Innovation led her to co-create and co-host, Innovation UnderCover, that highlights the unheard voices of innovation.

In her most recent role, she is helping to build and launch Switzerland´s first commercial quantum computing center, QuantumBasel nested within an Industry 4.0 park called uptownBasel in Arlesheim. The privately funded industry park has a vision of bringing the Nobel prize to Basel in lifesciences / medtech with the mission of reducing animal testing in drug discovery and development.

Johan Lundin

Johan Lundin, MD, PhD is a Professor of Medical Technology at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden and a Research Director and Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a medical doctor by training and has dedicated most of his career to cancer research. His overall research aims are to study the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) for improvement of diagnostics and care of the individual patient. In addition to the research, Dr. Lundin has together with his co-workers developed technologies for diagnostic decision support, for example cloud-based and mobile solutions that allow the diagnostic process to be performed using AI-supported analysis in both high- and low-resource settings.

Prof. Lundin is founder of Aiforia Technologies, a spin-off company of FIMM developing medical image-based AI. Aiforia has grown rapidly and has currently more than 5,000 users in 50+ countries and was publicly listed on NASDAQ Helsinki in 2021.

Christian Lundsgaard

Christian has always been passionate about bringing the right people and ideas together and contributing to entrepreneurial people and teams unleashing their potential. For this mission, he applies his creative, holistic and strategic thinking for startups just as much as his empathy and curiosity for the people behind them. After many years in the Swiss startup ecosystem as a connector, builder and sparring partner, he took over the responsibility for the startup program at be-advanced in 2022. In this capacity Christian accompanies aspiring entrepreneurs on their journey and is invested in their long-term success.

be-advanced is supporting all kinds of entrepreneurs in the canton of Berne with offerings ranging from founder counseling, startup business coaching, entrepreneurial seminars or networking. Enabled by the location promotion of the canton of Berne, be-advanced is able to offer its services free of charge to (upcoming) entrepreneurs with a relationship to the canton (i.e. Bernese founders, researchers at a Bernese university etc.). be-advanced puts people first and wants to contribute to a thriving, innovative canton.

Prisca Quadroni

Prisca Quadroni is a lawyer and founding Partner of AI Legal & Strategy Consulting, a consulting firm that helps companies in identifying and realize opportunities offered by AI and other innovative technologies considering practical aspects such as strategy, legal landscape, and human impact. She acts as legal expert for SwissMedtech, where she is spearheading an initiative aimed at changing existing regulation to allow the inclusion of new medical technologies in the Swiss medical reimbursement system. Prisca is also engaged in the academic sector, co-leading and teaching different programs at Swiss universities, such as ETH, HSLU and SUPSI. Finally, she supports and leads associations that aim to educate the public on AI and foster the engagement and visibility of women in this field.

At Women Experts in AI, Prisca Quadroni is the President and Head of Regulatory. Women Experts in AI (WE AI) is a Swiss association that aims to increase visibility of female AI experts, provide education to empower women to become AI experts, organize relevant events and decrease the gender gap in the field. WE AI engage in discussions with regulatory authorities and promote best practices within its industry or field, provide educational resources and opportunities to members and support schools in their efforts to educate individuals and foster a supportive community by promoting role models and building a network of industry professionals. It advocates for principled and responsible use of AI.

Registration

The venue has a limited seating capacity. Please register here to reserve your seat. We will also use this information for catering planning. Thank you.

Looking forward to welcoming you!

This event is hosted at the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, sitem-insel, on the ground floor.

Ready to start your own business?

Medical technology and artificial intelligence applications in medicine have a high potential to be transformative of digitalized healthcare. But how to convert your idea for a product or service into a successful business case? And: Is it harder for women to become a founder in a STEM field than for men?

This afternoon will not only introduce you to a toolbox of entrepreneurial support available at the University of Bern but will also connect you to MedTech entrepreneurs who have already forged their way into this competitive market.

Be inspired by young and experienced entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds who will share their stories, challenges and achievements! 
Connect with leaders in the field, your personal contacts to get your business ideas rolling and other like-minded young researchers!

This event is part of the "Women who start up" series of the University of Bern.
Organizers are the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research and the Center for AI in Medicine, under whose initiative "Diversity for AI in Medicine" the event also runs.
All genders welcome!

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