Winner of the Medtech4Health Innovation Award 2017

State Secretary Agneta Karlsson with golden envelope

All the finalists were invited to the award ceremony that took place during the annual conference of Swedish Medtech on 27th April 2017. The five projects were each presented in a video clip to the audience of conference participants, after which moderator Petrus Laestadius asked each project group a little more about their project. Finally State Secretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs Agneta Karlsson revealed the name in the golden envelope.

Video presentations (in Swedish) of the four projects here.

The four runners-up were:
Digital pathology – image analysis (the University Hospital of Linköping)
EVLP – Ex vivo lung perfusion (the Igelösa Life Science Community, Lund)
Virtual healthcare – healthcare at a distance (Storuman)
Open doors – the Västerås model (Västerås)

Award winner

Mattia Ringh of Karolinska Institute representing the winning project SMS Lifesaver.

The award winner was the Centre for Research into Cardiac Arrest and Projekt SMS-livräddare (Project SMS Lifesaver).

In cases of cardiac arrest, time is of the essence and all too frequently an ambulance will arrive too late. The Project developed an app for smartphones that makes it possible to find someone in the immediate vicinity of the patient who is trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The jury’s motivation in awarding the prize to SMS Lifesaver was:
The SMS Lifesaver app saves lives by taking advantage of a resource previously unused in healthcare and makes it easier for people to help one another. The three million Swedes who have gone through CPR training are all potential users. The app is being spread to other health authority areas and even internationally.

Project SMS Lifesaver was represented at the award ceremony by Mattias Ringh of the Karolinska Institute. See the film about SMS Lifesaver (in Swedish).

Above, a group photo with all the finalists. From left to right, Mattias Ringh from Stockholm, Erika Barreby, Ulrika Stefansson, Sophie Andersson from Västerås, Helén Richard, Claes Clasén from Linköping, State Secretary Agneta Karlsson, Anna Bodén from Linköping, Ådne Sten Lund, Daniel Bergström, Agnetha Sundqvist och Pia Kristiansson from Storuman.

After the award ceremony, all the participants took part in a cocktail party and dinner. Several pictures from the day are available in a file on Facebook. If you wish, you may spread copies of the images as long as Medtech4Health is credited as the source.