EUREGHA is happy to introduce another New Member to Our Network 🌟
As part of our continuous efforts to strengthen regional health collaboration, we’re excited to announce the addition of a new associate member: IMAGO-MOL!
In a special welcome interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Alina Capitanu, Vice president of IMAGO-MOL and Carmen Mihai, Cluster Maanager, to discuss their vision and contributions to our network. You can find the full interview below!
Additionally, we’re thrilled to share that over the course of this month, EUREGHA will be introducing three more new members to our expanding community. Stay tuned for more updates!
What is Imago Mol’s role in the healthcare sector, and what specific contributions are you making in this field?
Imago-Mol Cluster is an umbrella organization comprising over 70 members dedicated to advancing healthcare innovation, representing the quadruple helix. With more than a decade of activity in the North-East Region of Romania, our primary mission is to facilitate collaboration and matchmaking among our members, while also supporting the adoption of new technologies and the latest advancements in healthcare in our region. We contribute by connecting our local ecosystem with European networks through European-funded projects, either by direct involvement or by facilitating our members’ participation in consortia. Additionally, we focus on nurturing the MedTech community in our region by organizing open innovation initiatives, including healthcare hackathons, workshops, forums, and conferences to showcase our vibrant community of startups and scaleups.
Which areas of healthcare do you consider most important for collaboration with other EUREGHA members, and why?
We are currently engaged in a variety of projects, but a few topics are of particular interest to us. One key area is health data, especially as we are now part of the emerging South East European Health Space under the newly adopted EHDS legislation. We are eager to learn from the experiences of other members as we navigate this challenging pathway.
At the same time, precision medicine and personalized medicine are also high on our agenda, and we are actively seeking partners for collaboration in these fields under the umbrella of MEDIC NEST Meta Cluster.
Lastly, as a cluster originally founded with a focus on medical imaging and nuclear medicine, we are keen to identify new collaborators to help expand TRACE-MED, our inter-regional platform dedicated to the development of new radiotracers for personalized medicine.
What key aspects or unique qualities does Imago Mol bring to its partnership with EUREGHA?
Imago-Mol is deeply embedded in the North East region but also Romanian healthcare ecosystem, with the ability to mobilize resources and form strategic partnerships with other members. We proudly chair the MEDIC-NEST metacluster in precision medicine, a dynamic alliance of 17 medical and bio clusters and regions across Europe, all committed to advancing this visionary approach in healthcare.
Additionally, we are at the forefront of driving digital healthcare transformation in our region as part of the European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH-DIZ). We are also an active member of the Smart Health Pilot under the Vanguard Initiative, contributing to a demo case for innovative healthcare solutions.
Furthermore, we are honored to be part of one of Europe’s Innovation Valleys in health through the PRECISEU consortium, which is dedicated to advancing precision medicine and advanced therapies across the EU.
What are the long-term goals you aim to achieve through your partnership with EUREGHA as an associate member?
Being an associate member of EUREGHA is important to us, as it provides exposure to a wide range of organizations that could become potential partners for joint initiatives. This membership helps us identify relevant partners for our current projects and explore opportunities for sustainable collaboration in areas like digital health and precision medicine.
During our welcome presentation, our Vice President, Mrs. Alina Capitanu, introduced a compelling approach to European policy design. She suggested that, in addition to traditional economic indicators, we should incorporate broader metrics such as wellbeing, happiness, and quality of life indexes. These additional indicators can provide a more holistic view of societal progress and ensure that our policies truly enhance the lives of our citizens. In this context, we propose developing a comprehensive wellbeing policy and a series of collaborative projects as part of our partnership within EUREGHA.
What new initiatives or contributions does Buskerud plan to share with the EUREGHA network by the end of the year/next twelve months?
Imago-Mol is currently pursuing a new organizational strategy for managing our ecosystem. We have established a new Committee for Coordination of our Departments aiming to efficiently operationalize our strategic objectives. We believe this approach will enable us to offer improved and more innovative services to our members.
Moreover, we received the ESCA gold label last year, and we will need to reapply for certification in 2025, reinforcing our commitment to implementing actions within the cluster.
Last year was pivotal, as we successfully established a Regional Center of Excellence for Personalized Diagnosis and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (MEDIMAG-IA), a joint medical-IT infrastructure, which is now in the exploitation phase. We aim to maximize its potential over the next 12 months.
Simultaneously, we are engaged in several challenging European projects focused on precision medicine and the digital transformation of healthcare. Significant efforts will be directed towards providing services to various stakeholders, such as hospitals and other healthcare providers, as they adopt new technologies.
Additionally, the animation of the MEDIC-NEST Meta Cluster in Precision Medicine is a top priority for us.
Supporting our members in developing partnerships and European collaborative projects in Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) will remain a constant focus for us.
