These year's award finals were in the Swiss town Winterthur, in the Zurich canton, where ADORA MED won an excellent second place.

ADORA MED is developing a hand-gesture based interactive viewer of medical images, ADORA AssistantTM, which allows surgeons to see information about patients inside the sterile field within operating room.

As part of the award, Zimmer Biomet, a leading global company for medical equipment in the field of musculoskeletal health, based in Indiana, USA, and with a European headquarters in Winterthur, will set up a pilot ADORA ASSISTANT™ system in three of its partner hospitals in Switzerland, Italy and Finland.  

Two startups from Slovenia in the competition

This was the first edition of the competition European Connected Health Innovation Award, started this year by the corporation Zimmer Biomet, which was established in 1927 and is today doing business in more than 25 countries and marketing its products in more than 100 countries.

Over 30 applications arrived for the competition, in 6 categories from 14 European countries. Two Slovenian health tech startups participated in the competition, namely the excellent second-placed ADORA MED team, and the Ljubljana-based Kinestica with products for rehabilitation at home.

The competition leading to accelerated development of new technologies

Otherwise, the management of the Zimmer Biomet corporation encourages collaboration with teams and experts across the world to accelerate the development of new technologies and the use of digital innovations for treating patients suffering from injuries of bone, joints and soft tissues. This is also one of the main reasons for launching the Zimmer Biomet Connected Health Innovation Award. 

Win-win collaboration of corporations and startups

When receiving the award, Kristjan Košič, CEO of ADORA MED, highlighted that considering the urgency of finding new innovative products, such competitions are a great example of big organizations connecting and collaborating with lean and agile startups, excellently supplementing the hot trend of establishing corporate accelerators and funds.

Part of the award is test setup of the products 

This year, the above-mentioned competition also ensured a rich palette of awards, including 25,000 € for the winner and the possibility of freely using offices in the company headquarters in Winterthur, test setup in European hospitals, promotion of the winners' innovative products, and an extensive package of mentorship by experienced medical experts of the Zimmer Biomet company and other jury members. 

From student success to an esteemed investment and CESA 2016 finals

They are one of the most active members of Venture Factory, the incubator of the University of Maribor, and the Maribor startup community. Last summer, they successfully completed an additional round of financing in the amount of 200,000 EUR, in which the Bulgarian investment fund Eleven collaborated with Tim Draper, the elder of American investors.

ADORA MED and its interactive system are currently present in Slovenia, Portugal, Ireland and Kuwait, and installations in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain will follow soon.