EIC Pathfinder Portfolio Meeting hosted by M4D Coordinator Highlights Innovation in Next-Generation Healthcare Technologies
On May 22 and 23, the European innovation landscape in healthcare took center stage at the working group meeting of the EIC Pathfinder Portfolio ‘Towards the Healthcare Continuum: Technologies to support a radical shift from episodic to continuous healthcare’, hosted by Fraunhofer EMFT, coordinator of MuSiC4Diabetes. Held in Munich, the event convened nine pioneering EIC Pathfinder projects: Blood2Power, BreathSense, KERMIT, IV Lab, MiWear, STIMULUS, VOCORDER, WoundSens, and MuSiC4Diabetes —each pushing the boundaries of diagnostics, monitoring, and medical device innovation.
Led by Federica Zanca, EIC Programme Manager for Medical Imaging and AI in Healthcare at EISMEA, and Alina Tomoiaga, EIC Policy Adviser, the meeting provided a platform for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and alignment across projects supported by the European Innovation Council. Together with, the EIC team offered valuable feedback and policy-level insights to steer the projects toward impactful outcomes. At the meeting, the Portfolio Strategic Plan, elaborated in all the Working Groups and clearly defining the Goals and Milestones of the portfolio work, was officially presented.
Progress Across Four Strategic Working Groups
The event featured updates from all four Working Groups, each addressing a key pillar of translational innovation:
- Regulatory Affairs and Ethics.
- Knowledge Sharing and Communication
- Technology Innovation Transition
- IP and Commercial Exploitation
The two-day meeting also featured a series of thematic workshops, offering deep dives into emerging technologies and strategic frameworks:
Day 1 – Technology-Focused Knowledge Sharing Workshops (internal):
VOCORDER: Detection and quantification of biomarkers in exhaled breath, highlighting non-invasive diagnostics for early disease detection. WoundSens: Wearable and skin-patch monitoring devices for continuous wound and skin health monitoring. IV Lab: Implantable devices and their integration into personalized treatment strategies. STIMULUS: Advances in point-of-care diagnostic platforms and decentralized healthcare solutions. BreathSense: AI-driven algorithms for interpreting biosensor data, underlining the role of machine learning in predictive healthcare.
Day 2 – Strategy and Compliance Workshops:
- Regulatory Affairs: A dedicated session with Alexey Shirayev, representing a notified body under the MDR, provided hands-on insights into regulatory expectations and certification pathways for novel medical technologies.
- IP and Commercial Exploitation: Experts from the European Patent Office (EPO) conducted a workshop, presenting a first patent cartography tailored to the Healthcare Continuum, helping project teams navigate patent landscapes and identify protection opportunities.
A Shared Vision for European Health Innovation
The Portfolio Meeting not only reinforced the alignment between research efforts and EU innovation policy but also created new opportunities for synergy, co-development, and future collaboration among the participating projects.
