nstitut Guttmann researcher Alba Roca was one of the winners at the first edition of the Innomed Awards for innovation in health, during the pitching session in which she presented the Guttmann Cognitest project. The jury highlighted the quality of all the business ideas presented, among which was also the Non-Stroke project by Roger Bragulat, physiotherapist at the Institute of Brain Health and Neurorehabilitation Guttmann Barcelona. 

The event took place on 13 June at the Can Ruti Campus. Roca and Bragulat competed alongside 13 other biomedical projects from the institutions associated with the campus: the Maresme Health Consortium (CSdM), the Germans Trias Hospital (HUGTiP), the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), IrsiCaixa and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP). A total of 5 projects were awarded, each receiving a consultancy service worth 5,000 euros from the companies sponsoring the programme: BHV Partners, Genesis Biomed, Inveniam Group, Ingecal and ZBM Patents & Trademarks. 

Guttmann Cognitest is based on the fact that 75% of the world's dementias remain undiagnosed due to a lack of diagnostic resources. Given that changes in the brain start decades before the first symptoms appear, early detection of dementia could lead to a slower progression of the disease and a huge saving of economic resources globally. Guttmann Cognitest is a self-administered digital cognitive evaluation tool that allows for large-scale remote cognitive evaluation, as it does not depend on the availability of space or healthcare personnel. It consists of 7 tasks designed by neuropsychologists and based on cognitive paradigms, and has already been validated in healthy population, elder people and people with acquired brain damage. The tool obtains a correlation of more than 90% with standard tests for measuring cognitive performance in all population groups, as well as a score of 87.7/100 in terms of usability. This demonstrates the good perception and ease of use also for the elderly, a crucial fact considering that advanced age is the first risk factor for the development of dementia. 

The amount of the prize will be used for the next steps of the business idea, which include the development of an intellectual property and regulatory strategy, the establishment of a business model and, finally, the creation of a spin-off. 

Health innovation hub 

The conference reaffirmed the commitment to collaboration between the main health and research centres of the Can Ruti Campus and its potential as a health innovation hub. The 5 award-winning projects were: 

- SNIPer: Ana Piqueras Hinojo (Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol) - Inveniam 

- Design and Development of New Cell Therapies for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Laura Belver (Institut Josep Carreras) - BHV Partners  

- Guttmann Cognitest: Alba Roca (Institut Guttmann) - Genesis Biomed 

- Thyromet: Mireia Jordà (Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute) - Ingecal 

- Towards a highly immunogenic vaccine platform for pancreatic cancer - Carmen Aguilar (IrsiCaixa) - ZBM Patents & Trademarks 

The Innomed Awards closed the first edition of the Innomed programme, which began earlier this year with the support of ITEMAS, the platform of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III to support R&D&I in Biomedicine and Health Sciences. The initiative, which will also be held in 2025 and 2026, was created with the aim of transforming innovation in health and is structured along three axes: fostering the culture of innovation, project incubation and public-private collaboration. The managers of the projects selected by the participating institutions have received six months of training and workshops to assess and implement innovative projects, addressing issues such as the market and business model, the regulation of health products and medicines, and the technology transfer process.