SHS Smarter Healthcare Booster Program reveals the winners

Since October 2019, the Swiss Healthcare Startups (SHS) with the support of Engagement Migros and Swissnex Francisco has been looking for the most outstanding companies that would participate in the inaugural Smarter Healthcare Booster Program. From 5-16 October 2020, two selected winners will travel to the Silicon Valley where they will explore the Bay Area’s vibrant health-tech innovation ecosystem, get access to SHS' network of mentors and partners, gain visibility as well as secure financial support to bring their company's to the next level.

Having excelled throughout the rigorous application process, two medtech startups have secured a ticket to San Francisco. They are:

Neurosoft Bioelectronics from Geneva is developing SOFT ECoG, a soft and elastic implantable electrode that can be used to record from and stimulate the surface of the brain. Existing clinical neural implants are stiff and rigid which presents a mechanical mismatch compared to the soft and curved tissues they interface with, thereby constraining the physiological motion dynamics of the nervous system. Neurosofts' product, engineered from thin-film materials addresses this issue.  

Altoida, a Luzern based startup is leveraging virtual reality to develop a digital biomarker platform that allows for detecting Alzheimer’s disease up to five years in advance before it onsets. The product analyzes visuospatial and executive function during complex activities of daily living through a battery of three tests that ask patients to hide and seek virtual objects in a physical space. Having detected the possibility of having Alzheimer's, the patients can commence with treatment much earlier. The solution is currently being used in clinics across the US, Europe and Brazil.

(Press release)