14.9.23
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We are looking for cutting edge solutions for ophthalmology patients!
The Challenge is closed for submissions.
View winner and finalists below.
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Roche, Start-Up Nation Central & Beilinson Hospital share a common vision of providing enhanced digital health solutions that will significantly improve retina patients’ lives and support their caregivers by enabling monitoring, enhancing patient support, and optimizing screening & diagnosis.
The Roche for a Better Future Ophthalmology Innovation Challenge & Pilot Program is a groundbreaking platform that will enable you to conduct a real-life pilot in Beilinson Hospital to test your solution. You will enjoy full support, including access to a multidisciplinary team of leading experts that will assess your solution, a comprehensive mentorship package, a fast-track for submission to the Helsinki Committee and global exposure.
Notal Vision is a commercial stage patient-centric digital healthcare provider of remote monitoring services that extends age-related macular degeneration (AMD) monitoring from the clinic to the home, providing eye care professionals with remote diagnostic tools to support their patient care. With a proven approach to home-based, self-operated diagnostics, AI-enabled data analysis, and patient engagement services, Notal Vision helps to preserve patients’ vision long-term. The Home OCT pipeline platform developed at the company’s Tel Aviv Technology Center will support personalized treatment by monitoring disease activity and treatment response remotely reducing office visits burden on patients and caregivers and promote therapy adherence.
AEYE Health is a venture-backed digital health startup that develops AI algorithms for autonomous interpretation of fundus images for various ocular and systemic conditions. Its flagship product, AEYE DS is an FDA cleared algorithm for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy.
Its products put the power of retinal screenings in the hands of primary care physicians which enables early detection for the prevention of vision threatening complications.
BioT Medical, a leader in cloud-powered medical devices, has partnered with Zilia, a medical technology company specializing in non-invasive ocular biomarker measurement. This strategic alliance combines BioT’s expertise in connecting devices with healthcare systems and Zilia’s advanced ocular oximetry technology. Aimed at revolutionizing retinal disease management and patient care, the partnership focuses on early detection, personalized treatment, and continuous monitoring. By integrating spectroscopy, imaging, artificial intelligence, and seamless data communication, this collaboration seeks to enhance healthcare delivery, making it more efficient, accessible, and tailored to individual needs in the field of ophthalmology.
GistMD is an AI-based patient education and engagement platform that empowers patients and drives adherence along their care journey.
By providing personalized content and behavioral change tools, GistMD manages to achieve patient activation which leads to improved health outcomes. Personalization is achieved in multiple dimensions, such as Language, gender, age, culture, medical background, medication, behavioral and more.
GistMD is deployed in numerous healthcare centers and hospitals and showing evidence-based results of improved adherence, improved operational efficiency, reduced staff burnout, and improved patient satisfaction rates.
The CASMIP Laboratory at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Hadassah University Medical Center have jointly developed a novel AI-based solution for the accurate diagnosis of Inherited Retinal Dystrophies based on optical images. The solution, based on novel methods for deep learning image processing, will assist in the early diagnosis of patients and in the screening prior to genetic testing. It will also support the diagnosis in locations where genetic testing is unavailable or is not routinely performed. The technology holds promise for the diagnosis of other types of retinal diseases.
XOLTAR develops AI companions that emulate the one-on-one interactions nurses have with patients, guiding individuals in maintaining the healthy habits necessary to manage their medical conditions. XOLTAR implements evidence-based protocols through free-guided conversations conducted over telehealth calls. These conversations are truthful, grounded, and aligned, yet provide a seamless and free-flowing patient experience. This staff augmentation solution enhances support teams with AI companions capable of acting as co-pilots. They replicate support protocols, connect to the CRM, and seamlessly extend the support staff, while generating unparalleled insights from the extensive video data produced during these conversations, all at an unlimited scale and with 24/7 accessibility at a marginal cost.
XOLTAR develops AI companions that emulate the one-on-one interactions nurses have with patients, guiding individuals in maintaining the healthy habits necessary to manage their medical conditions. XOLTAR implements evidence-based protocols through free-guided conversations conducted over telehealth calls. These conversations are truthful, grounded, and aligned, yet provide a seamless and free-flowing patient experience. This staff augmentation solution enhances support teams with AI companions capable of acting as co-pilots. They replicate support protocols, connect to the CRM, and seamlessly extend the support staff, while generating unparalleled insights from the extensive video data produced during these conversations, all at an unlimited scale and with 24/7 accessibility at a marginal cost.
(VAT included, subject to the program’s Official Rules)
Areas of focus:
For example: Remote monitoring of visual acuity or OCT in retinal patients, Insights generation - analyze patient data (text, imaging) to predict progression of retina diseases
For example: Disease management optimization, Patient adherence to treatment regime, Patient awareness
For example: Screening patients with high risk for retina diseases, Diagnosis of retina diseases
Finalists notification
Finalists Pitch to Advisory Committee
Global showcase event with the finalists. View recording!
Retinal diseases are a major cause of visual impairment and blindness, especially among older individuals and diabetic patients. The prevalence of those diseases is increasing due to aging populations and the global rise in diabetes. There is a growing need for better treatments and enhanced digital health solutions to support patients in preserving their vision so that they can witness the most precious moments in life with their loved ones.
Digital health may offer promising solutions to reduce clinic visits, improve treatment adherence, enable personalized care and optimize the management of retinal diseases, leading to better patient outcomes, reduced healthcare burden and enhanced well being.
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FAQ
The Roche for a Better Future Ophthalmology Innovation Challenge & Pilot Program is a groundbreaking platform that will enable you to conduct a real-life pilot in Beilinson Hospital to test your solution. You will enjoy full support, including access to a multidisciplinary team of leading experts that will assess your solution, a comprehensive mentorship package, a fast-track for submission to the Helsinki Committee and global exposure.
We are looking for digital health solutions that will significantly improve retina patients’ lives and support their caregivers by enabling monitoring, enhancing patient support, and optimizing screening & diagnosis.
This challenge is not equity nor investment focused.
Privately held companies formed and registered under the laws of Israel with a company ID (חפ), or technology transfer offices/entities of non-profit and/or governmental entities (such as universities, hospitals and sick funds) (“TTO/s”), which develop a project/solution as defined by the Challenge and who have applied for patent protection underlying the technology subject of such project/solution.
We welcome solutions with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5 and above.
English will be the official language.
The challenge will have both online and physical/hybrid presence, which will be communicated in advance.
For the meeting with the Advisory Committee, one person will be required to pitch the startup and solution. It is important to have a team member that can address all questions from the Advisory Committee members.
For the mentoring meetings, we advise at least two team members of your startup, one business-oriented and another more tech-oriented to be able to cover all types of conversations in the 1-on-1 sessions.
If your startup is pre-selected after the online applications, you’ll be invited to:
If your startup is the winner, you will have the opportunity to implement a one-of-a-kind real-life pilot in Rabin Medical Center, with a fast track for submission to the Helsinki Committee.
You will receive a comprehensive mentorship package, by leading experts from the clinical and business development worlds including:
In addition you will receive 50,000 NIS for piloting preparation and up to 150,000 NIS for conducting a pilot at the retinal department, Rabin Medical Center.
The selection process will be managed by an Advisory Committee consisted of retinal medical experts, and representatives of Rabin Medical Center, Israel Innovation Authority, Roche global team, academia and venture capital. The committee will be focusing on ,the quality of your founding team, interest area fit, runway, does your solution address a real need, maturity and timeline, novelty & effectiveness and general impression, its compatibility to be performed at Rabin Medical Center.
Yes, definitely. You can apply with as many solutions you believe would fit and benefit the program. Each startup will require its own application.
Roche Pharmaceuticals (Israel) Ltd. All rights reserved © 2022
Roche Pharmaceuticals (Israel) Ltd. All rights reserved © 2023