Knowledge-intensive services (KIS) consolidate innovations by allowing people, information and systems to interact. In Leipzig, the high density of professional competence enables our KIS to create value for a variety of different stakeholders – from R&D entities, to start-ups, to established companies.
Flagship SMITH: Improving medical care through innovative IT
Hospitals and medical practices generate huge amounts of data every day, e.g. laboratory results, medical images and patient histories. This information can change patients’ lives for the better – if it is made easily accessible to the relevant medical experts and researchers. The Smart Medical Technology for Healthcare (SMITH) Consortium wants to help the research and medical care sector work together by establishing a digital infrastructure to make data from routine medical care available for use in clinical and biomedical research. Ongoing projects in the fields of infectious medicine and intensive care are already highlighting the potential for improving disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. The SMITH Consortium is also establishing training and continuing education programs for medical personnel under its Joint Expertise Center for Teaching (SMITH-JET) initiative. SMITH is one of four consortiums funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of its Medical Informatics Initiative (MII).
Flagship MEDICAL FORGE: Forging success for start-ups that are changing lives
Innovative young start-ups need support and resources if they are to thrive in the long term. MEDICAL FORGE Leipzig is an accelerator whose goal is to help medical technology startups and SMEs enter the German healthcare market and to strengthen the industry throughout Saxony. It offers support for everything from finalizing clinical evidence, to navigating approval processes, to developing marketing strategies and securing reimbursement. Mentees can access vital equipment and resources, such as state-of-the-art wet labs, ESD workstations and 3D printers – and are connected with hospitals who can use their technologies. Start-ups from the program have already been changing lives with their innovations, such as a voice-controlled patient communication tool for hospitals, innovative genetic tests for cancer screening, an AI-based diagnostic support tool for rare diseases, tissue products for regenerative medicine, 3D-printed medical devices, and a high-precision diagnostic platform for infectious diseases.