Austrian Life Science Day 2024 Focused on Health Data
At the 2nd Austrian Life Science Day, the focus was on health data and its utilization for medical innovations and improved patient care.
On June 4th, the Austrian Life Science Day was held for the second time on behalf of aws (Life Science Austria) and FFG. This year's event was organized by the Styrian Life Science Cluster Human.technology Styria at the Medical University of Graz. The central theme was one of the most important future topics for life sciences, namely health data and its potential applications. In presentations, panels, short lectures, and B2B sessions, stakeholders from medicine, research, and business engaged in intensive exchanges.
Milestone “European Health Data Space”
Developing new drugs and therapies requires comprehensive data on diseases, patients, and treatment outcomes. Although the potential of this data in healthcare is particularly high, it has been extremely difficult for all involved to obtain and utilize suitable data material until now. The introduction of the EHDS (European Health Data Space) represents a significant step towards improved healthcare and medical innovations in Europe. The emerging common European data space is crucial for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical technology companies in Austria and across Europe.
Austrian Life Science Day a Resounding Success for the Second Time
Health data also plays a critical role in developing medical devices, helping to understand and optimize the needs of users and patients. Furthermore, it supports decision-making for physicians, enabling more efficient use of resources, thereby improving patient care. Additionally, health data forms the basis for scientific studies and research projects that investigate solutions to health challenges. Companies specializing in the analysis and processing of health data thus make an indispensable contribution to sustainably supporting and continuously improving health systems.
This year's keynote highlighted the Finnish approach as a pioneer in the use of health data within Europe. Start-ups such as aitologic, Predicting Health, and NORGANOID presented themselves to an interested professional audience, providing insights into their visionary use of health data. Projects ranged from AI-supported solutions for early disease detection to AI-based predictions of disease progression and data-driven development and production of organoid models from stem cells.
The 2nd Austrian Life Science Day 2024 was organized by aws (Life Science Austria) and FFG in collaboration with the Styrian Life Science Cluster Human.technology Styria. The event took place at the Medical University of Graz. The English-language event was supported by funds from the aws program LISA – International Location Marketing, FFG, WKO, ICS, as well as CANCOM Austria and Roche Diagnostics. Additionally, LISAvienna, MTC Medical Technology Cluster, ecoplus. Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH, Innovation Salzburg, and the Life Sciences Cluster of the Standortagentur Tirol were event partners.
All photos of the event can be found at this link.
Presentations
- Petri Lehto: Leveraging health data for healthcare improvement and Life Science growth – the Finnish experience
- Georg Göbel: EHDS and Research Data at Austrian Medical Universities Strategies , Concepts and Challenges
- Regina Weinmüller Founding, Growing& Internationalising with federal funding by aws
- Eva-Maria Strassl: ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Austria’s Internationalisation and Innovation Agency
- Elisabeth Palfner Austrian Business Agency –INVEST & WORK in AUSTRIA
- Corinna Wilken: AUSTRIAN LIFE SCIENCES PROGRAMME 2024-2026 & FURTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AT FFG
