A new medical innovation centre in Brussels

Brussels will soon have a new Centre for Medical Innovation in Hospitals (CMIH), which is excellent news both for the people of Brussels and for our companies. There is a glaring lack of bridges between the world of entrepreneurship and the hospital environment.

Life-saving innovations

“The identification of needs must come from the people on the ground, who are most in touch with patients and their reality,” explains Renaud Witmer. He is the CEO of the Brussels University Hospital (HUB), which includes the Erasmus Hospital, the Jules Bordet Institute and the Queen Fabiola University Children’s Hospital (HUDERF), and will soon host this pilot project. The new Medical Innovation Centre will allow entrepreneurs to develop, test and deploy their solutions within the hospital, resulting in faster, patient- and hospital-friendly innovations that save lives.

“This is an excellent example of how the economy can be an accelerator for societal change, with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of care and the well-being of citizens,” adds Isabelle Grippa, Managing Director of hub.brussels.

hub.brussels and lifetech.brussels

The project, supported by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), was launched at the initiative of hub.brussels and its lifetech.brussels cluster. Five Brussels institutions responded to the call for applications and the dossier of the Brussels University Hospital (HUB) was selected by a jury of experts in health innovation and the hospital sector.

The objective is to make the project viable beyond the 18 months that the CMIH will last in partnership with the lifetech.brussels teams. During this period, specific support will be offered in the areas of project management, contacts with the entrepreneurial world and innovation strategy. We hope this pilot project will inspire other hospitals in the Brussels Region.