World Cancer Day is an international awareness day led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and this year – on 4 February – the focus is on the equity gap experienced by people worldwide.
Recognising existing inequities and addressing how the global community can prevent unnecessary deaths by providing better access to care and innovative solutions are key to ensuring everyone is able to benefit.
At present, an estimated nine million people die from cancer around the world every year, and cancer cases are expected to increase in Europe by 25% over the next ten years. These figures will put a further strain on healthcare systems following the pandemic.
EIT Health is one of the healthcare solutions companies taking up its role in the fight against cancer, joining others on World Cancer Day to support its committent to ‘Close the Care Gap’.
As part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, EIT Health has pledged to back the development of innovative technologies that can support early screening and cancer diagnoses, with the goal of closing care gaps for all who need treatment.
The company provides support across numerous fields of oncology, having developed and launched various solutions focused on identifying and diagnosing cancer earlier. One such initiative is its ‘Wild Card’ open innovation programme – a training and mentoring programme offered by EIT Health with up to €3m offered to innovators with ideas for advancing the early detection of lung and prostate cancer.
EIT Health’s goal is to develop new ways of detecting cancer earlier by focusing on screening, diagnosis and oncology research, which would offer millions a better chance of survival, while reducing the economic strain on healthcare systems.
EIT Health supports various cancer programmes and start-ups aiming to improve outcomes for lung and prostate cancer patients, including Stockholm3, OncoWatch and Optellum – three programmes using innovative technology and AI.
Sharing her thoughts on the company’s progress, Jan-Philipp Beck, CEO at EIT Health said: “Incredible work has taken place over the past decades to improve cancer services, and as we begin to plan for life after COVID-19, it’s time to upweight our focus on early detection and diagnosis of this disease.
“Treating cancer early is better for everyone – it has a better success rate generally, is less expensive and it comes with better quality of life for the patient. EIT Health’s vision for closing the gap is underpinned by supporting cutting-edge technology that can make it easier to prevent, find and treat cancers as early as possible.”