Launch of Santander X Global Health Challenge for startups dealing with healthcare solutions
Santander Group and the Oxentia Foundation have launched the Santander X Global Challenge | Innovation in Healthcare. It is aimed at startups and scaleups that provide solutions in the area of healthcare. The six winning projects will receive prizes worth EUR 120,000 and access to the Santander X 100 global community and connect to Fintech Station, Santander’s open innovation area.
The Santander X Global Challenge | Innovation in Healthcare is aimed at startups and scaleups from 11 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, Spain, UK, USA and Uruguay that provide innovative solutions for caring for patients, reducing costs and improving the efficiency of healthcare. Applications will remain open until 11 July at www.santanderx.com.
The solutions submitted by challenge participants should focus on three key areas:
- Technology and automation: Innovations that support the effectiveness and advances of health professionals like operational function systems that save costs, resources and reduce medical errors, development of medical devices, wearables, the use of robotics and virtual reality for medical training and remote surgical procedures.
- Operational efficiency: Innovative solutions that track and analyse the healthcare industry and can help governments, companies and other stakeholders make strategic and operational decisions. Businesses that improve hospital operations, electronic record management systems for more efficient documentation and management, data analysis to optimize resource allocation and personnel planning.
- Patient care: Solutions focused on patient-centred care to offer you a comfortable and efficient experience from start to finish. Solutions that allow better patient care from home diagnosis and monitoring to virtual appointments, autonomous medication dispensary, simplified treatment plans, personalized medicine.
It is key for the well-being and progress of people and societies that our health systems keep up with the technological revolutions that are already happening in many areas. By doing so, we bolster our support for entrepreneurship as a driver of change and provide visibility to a sector where innovation has the capacity for profound transformation.
The competition jury, which will include representatives from the Santander Group (including from the CIB area) and other organisations, will select and announce six winners. Prizes with a total value of EUR 120,000 will be awarded as follows: EUR 30,000 for the three winning startups (EUR 10,000 each) and EUR 90,000 for the three winning scaleups (EUR 30,000 each). The winners will receive access to the Santander X 100, a global community of Santander X’s most outstanding companies and to the Fintech Station, the Santander Group’s Open innovation area.
Healthcare is an area where innovation has the most catching up to do. We are witnessing a major technological change that could particularly affect the personalisation of healthcare services. Technologies that enable the aggregation and analysis of big data are opening up new opportunities to support healthcare services to help patients faster and better. The proliferation of AI applications can lead to more efficient management of resources, resulting in lower expenses for both patients and healthcare systems.
Banco Santander rolls out several initiatives to help people and businesses enhance their future prospects. Through Santander X, we support entrepreneurial projects, startups, scaleups and SMEs to create opportunities, consolidate and grow. We offer them the training, advice and resources needed to move forward and scale up their business.
For details of the competition, visit: https://www.santanderx.com/en/sites/innovation-healthcare.html.
