Last week’s Wild Card Hackathon saw 35 hopeful entrepreneurs travel to Amsterdam from across Europe.

The week-long event that saw participants work through a number of tasks designed to encourage teamwork and improve business skills.

Six teams have been selected to continue to the next stage of the programme: Business Model Validation – a ten-week journey of intensive mentoring and customer discovery, before entering the final pitch contest in July.

Kicking off early May in Paris at the ICM (Brain and Spine Institute), the finalists will work more closely with their mentors to test their hypotheses, validate and develop value propositions and identify appropriate business models for their proposed solutions to meet the Wild Card healthcare challenges.

The mentors will be supporting the teams through a series of sessions looking at key issues in innovation and entrepreneurship such as intellectual property, de-risking projects and business economics.

The six teams progressing to the next stage following the Hackathon are:

In Digital Biomarkers

Improving early diagnostics with the application of digital biomarkers

BioDTek: Enrique Hernandez, Eduard Guerrero, Erika Plata, Francisco Jesus Aloa, and Edilberto Ojeda.

Dinosis: Miguel Amador, Jane Bourgninaud and Andreu Oliver.

Phi: Mahmoud Tavakoli and Pedro Lopes.

In Brain and Mental Health

Improving prediction, diagnosis and treatment to fight mental disorders and strengthen brain health

iLoF: Luis Valente and Joana Paiva.

Panthera: Alfonso Maria Ponsiglione, Clemens Lowik and Kranthi Panth.

PIPRA: John Klepper, Nick Gklezakos, Nayeli Schmutz and Benjamin Dodsworth

Wild Card finalist 2019 Miguel Amador said: “The week in Amsterdam was a great experience and allowed me to find other likeminded people who are passionate about making a change in healthcare. Our team is delighted to be one of the finalists moving on to the next stage of the Wild Card programme.”