USZ FoundationGetting innovations off the ground

Getting innovations off the ground

University Hospital Zurich now has a platform to help it identify and promote innovations even more rapidly: the Health Innovation Hub. The Hub is designed to support novel developments that benefit patients directly. One project that has already profited is the start-up b-rayZ.
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“The Hub is helping take our project to the next level.”
Translating an innovative idea into a finished product requires a lot of staying power − as Cristina Rossi knows from her own experience. She works as a physicist and data analyst at the Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at University Hospital Zurich (USZ). Together with Andreas Boss and Alexander Ciritsis, she’s developed the b-box, a device that helps doctors with the diagnosis and early detection of breast cancer. To be able to offer this valuable innovation to other hospitals in Switzerland and abroad, the USZ project team has established a start-up called b-rayZ, with Cristina Rossi as its co-CEO.
Innovation projects often face the same challenges: their technical knowledge is second to none, but they lack entrepreneurial experience, legal knowledge, or even money. For the b-rayZ team, it was a real stroke of luck that University Hospital Zurich launched its Health Innovation Hub in 2019. The Hub has a team of innovation specialists tasked with identifying and systematically supporting promising ideas at USZ. The Health Innovation Hub is what’s known on the start-up scene as an incubator for new ideas.
“They supported our project right from the very beginning,” says Cristina Rossi. For example, the Hub gave the research group access to USZ’s infrastructure, provided coaching in financial matters, and put them in touch with the relevant experts. “This enabled us to thoroughly analyze our strengths and weaknesses, which now puts us on a very strong footing as a start-up,” continues Rossi. The Hub has also taken a financial stake in the project and has joined forces with the USZ Foundation to seek philanthropic support and additional investors.
b-rayZ was one of the first projects supported by the Hub. The goal is to evaluate around 60 innovative undertakings every year with a view to supporting 20 of them. These could be innovations from USZ staff or from external start-ups that want to work with USZ to develop their project. Because the potential for innovation at USZ is huge. That’s hardly a surprise given the combination of smart people and rapid technological development that’s making possible entirely new types of diagnosis and therapy.
All the projects supported by the Hub have a clear goal: to enable patients to benefit as quickly as possible. Cristina Rossi firmly believes in the idea: “The Hub is crucial to driving innovation at USZ, for the benefit of the whole of society.” To give the Innovation Hub the necessary impetus, USZ Foundation is looking for further supporting partners for the incubator.