Health Innovation Hub

How Ideas Become Tomorrow's Solutions

From the hospital to the market
At the USZ, professionals from the clinical and research communities work every day to develop solutions that improve patients’ lives. But a brilliant idea alone is often not enough. In day-to-day hospital life, there is often a lack of time, capital, and entrepreneurial know-how to turn a good idea into a market-ready offering or product.

Comprehensive support
Since 2018, the Health Innovation Hub has been filling this gap. Made possible by the donors of the USZ Foundation, the Hub provides targeted support to the most promising projects.

The support is comprehensive: It ranges from market analyses to legal advice on patent protection to complex regulatory issues. Since the development of medical products can take years, the hub also provides loans to help bridge the costly early stages.

Sustainable funding cycle
About twenty USZ startups have already been successfully launched through this program. What makes this funding model unique is its sustainability: if the startups succeed in the market, a portion of the proceeds flows back to the USZ Foundation. In keeping with philanthropic principles, the funds remain within a nonprofit cycle and directly enable new innovations. This ensures that medical advances reach where they belong—the patient’s bedside—more quickly.

Success stories from the hub
The range of innovations is impressive.

neurodAIgnostics: Replaces pen and paper with artificial intelligence, enabling the evaluation of cognitive tests in seconds—for faster diagnoses of dementia or ADHD.
OBaris: An innovative transdermal patch delivers active ingredients through the skin that previously had to be administered by injection—for pain-free treatment.
Ontrack Biomedical: A new urine test is designed to detect prostate cancer more reliably and easily—for simple early detection.

Customized Project Partnerships
Every foundation has unique priorities. Together with you, we develop a customized project partnership that best reflects your mission. We identify suitable initiatives at the USZ that align with your funding goals and maximize impact. In this way, your foundation makes an important contribution to solutions for the healthcare of tomorrow and helps to tangibly improve patients’ quality of life.

Strategic Projects Our strategic projects are shaping the future of medicine. These forward-looking initiatives have the potential to sustainably improve patients’ quality of life and directly contribute to advancing the USZ’s strategy. A high-caliber panel of experts oversees their selection and ensures the highest quality and a strategic allocation of funding.

Thematic Funds: Make a targeted contribution to a medical specialty that is important to you. Whether it’s cancer research, neurology, or cardiovascular medicine—with a thematic fund, your contributions go directly to innovative projects and research initiatives in the area of your choice. We ensure that your funds are used for their intended purpose and provide you with transparent updates on the progress made.

Sub-Foundation Would you like to achieve your philanthropic goals efficiently and over the long term? A sub-foundation is the ideal solution. Under the umbrella of the USZ Foundation, you can support the medicine of the future and focus entirely on your charitable causes at the University Hospital of Zurich. You define your foundation’s purpose yourself, in line with our overarching mission. We handle the professional administrative management and contribute our many years of expertise.