One of the most exciting fields coming up is personalized medicine, which should reshape the way we think about treating sick people instead of leaning towards one-size-fits-all solutions. The Estonian government has thrown a lot of weight behind the concept, and is preparing an ambitious Personalised Medicine Pilot Programme between 2015-2018, and aims to put Estonia into the forefront of developing Personalised Medicine Applications.
What this means for you as a student, scientist, visionary, or entrepreneur is that there’s going to be some easy ways to plug into the field of personalized medicine in Estonia in the coming years. It’s a good place for it: Estonia has their secure ID cards, their information backbone X-road, e-voting, an advanced health information system and digital prescriptions. Additionally they point out that people in Estonia trust these initiatives, which gives it a heads up compared to the always suspicious American healthcare scene.
Up next on the 13th of June is the Idea Garage which is organized by familiar Estonian names like the Garage48 Foundation and Buildit Accelerator in cooperation with Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and supported by European Regional Development Fund via TerVE Programme managed by Estonian Research Council. In practice it will look like a Garage48 prototyping weekend, trying to push the limits of what teams can accomplish in short periods of time.
They write:
We’ll gather in the morning and split up into small groups. In these groups we will work on the following:
- We identify what kind of a problem the idea solves.
- We detail the solution.
- We identify the target customers and the market.
- We see if there is a sustainable (business) model for the solution.
- We discuss what could be the scope of the initial prototype – is there anything what can be built during 48h hackathon.
We will prepare a presentation and a small pitch to introduce the outcomes of the work to all participants. The best ideas presented will receive special awards from the Jury.
Will we be hearing more about personalized medicine in Estonia in the coming years? I suppose that’s up to you. You can join the Idea Garage here.
