Swedish Embassy Hosts Hybrid Graduation Ceremony for Healthcare Innovation Programme in Egypt

The Chargé d’affaires of Sweden in Egypt, Dr. Per-Axel Frielingsdorf, hosted the graduation ceremony of the Clinical Innovation Fellowships Program, which was launched in Egypt for the first time in April 2020.

The ceremony took place at the Swedish Residence in Zamalek in the presence of H.E. the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Yasser Refaat, Deputy Chairman of the General Healthcare Authority, Dr. Hany Rashed, and the CEO of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, Mr. Ayman Soliman, along with a group of investors and managers of the Swedish life sciences companies in Egypt, including AstraZeneca.

‘’Innovation is no longer a luxury. It is crucial for transforming how we do business, how we communicate, educate, recreate, and of course how we seek medical care. Sweden is looking forward to working with Egypt and to support its healthcare reforms and ambitions to become a regional center of excellence’’ said the Chargé d’affaires of Sweden in Egypt, Dr. Per-Axel Frielingsdorf.

In the framework of its collaboration between RISE Research Institute of Sweden and EIT Health, enpact brought the Clinical Innovation Fellowships for the first time to Egypt. Eight participants with backgrounds in Business, Medicine, Engineering, and Product Design were on brink of developing solutions based on tangible healthcare needs.

The program included six weeks of deep clinical immersion at the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 (CCHE). Using a needs-based innovation process, the fellows validated and shortlisted around 20 challenges that face cancer patients in Egypt on different levels.

During the graduation ceremony, the fellows presented their solutions which are based on the challenges they identified in the course of their clinical immersion experience by generating patient-centric solution concepts with the aim of providing holistic healthcare service that adds value in the long run.

The Clinical Innovation Fellowship program manager at Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), representatives of EIT Health, and the Swedish Trade and Invest Council (Business Sweden) joined the ceremony via video conference.