Last July, the L’Hospitalet City Council launched the Sinergia Innova program with the aim of connecting key agents of innovation in the city’s health sector and generating synergies between the industry and the knowledge centers of the territory.

Within the framework of this community and through different workshops, 10 challenges in the field of health were identified, which received innovative proposals from companies and startups in the sector and 3 have been selected to continue with the accompaniment:

• How could we facilitate the rehabilitation of patients with facial paralysis based on mirror therapy and new technologies? led by IDIBELL.
• How to improve the experience of the patient and the general population by personalizing food and physical activity? coordinated by the Bellvitge University Hospital.
• How could we establish standard criteria to help health professionals decide how to implement artificial intelligence systems? launched by the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.

Currently, thanks to the support of the City Council, a technical assistance of the selected proposals is being carried out together with the organization responsible for the challenge to adjust the solution to the needs of the center and make a work plan for its implementation.

Regarding the challenge launched by IDIBELL on how to facilitate the rehabilitation of patients with facial paralysis based on mirror therapy and new technologies, by Núria Montesinos, researcher at IDIBELL and physiotherapist at Bellvitge University Hospital, the company selected to provide a solution has been PULSO, a company of the Evidenze Group.

All the parties involved are highly motivated to carry out the projects and emphasize that open innovation communities allow the launching of collaborative initiatives that can result in very interesting and impactful proposals in the world of health and contribute to generate value to the society.

Sinergia Innova

Sinergia Innova is an open innovation community promoted by the L’Hospitalet City Council to promote collaboration between research and health centers and emerging companies in the territory with a high degree of innovation in the biomedical sector. This initiative has been carried out within the operation “Dynamization of the LH health ecosystem” of the Territorial Specialization and Competitiveness Project (PECT) “L’Hospitalet, innovative health ecosystem”, co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development of the European Union within the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 and by the Barcelona Provincial Council through the Support Line for the granting of subsidies to local entities selected by the ERDF Operational Program 2014-2020 within the framework of the Plan “Redes of Local Governments 2016-2019 “.

The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).