Students at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences have pitched ideas to help solve global healthcare challenges as part of the 2023 Student Innovation Challenge.

The challenge is a part of the RCSI Research Summer School which has been taking place over the month of June, immersing Undergraduate students in the diverse RCSI research environment.

The Student Innovation Challenge Pitch Day is the culmination of four weeks of work by the student teams, who, supported by training in market research, intellectual property and research commercialisation, develop innovations that have the potential solve challenges in healthcare.

The innovation challenge provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to work solving challenges under the supervision of an RCSI clinician scientist Challenge Leader, allowing them to acquire key problem-solving, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

Led by RCSI Head of Innovation Dr Aoife Gallagher, this year’s challenge saw 60 RCSI Research Summer School students working with expert challenge leaders on real clinical problems to become innovators, communicators and ultimately help them become skilled clinical practitioners.

At the pitch event yesterday, The Pink Pathway Team led by Dr Sandra Hembrecht successfully presented their ideas to a panel of judges, including industry experts, to become the winners of the challenge. The team developed a rapid access breast cancer pre-operative care pathway to streamline a breast cancer patient’s journey from diagnosis to treatment.

Commenting on the high quality of all of the team pitches, Dr Gallagher said: "This year’s teams showcased remarkable ingenuity in addressing real-world problems across key healthcare areas. The solutions pitched are a great demonstration of the active collaboration between academics, clinicians and patients that we support and encourage at RCSI to drive advancements in healthcare."

The teams were tasked with addressing challenges presented by RCSI researchers in key RCSI research areas: neurological and psychiatric disorders, vascular biology, cancer, endocrinology, cardiology and microbiology.

The full list of innovation challenges presented by the RCSI Challenge Leaders were:

• Dr Peter Widdess Walsh: Detection of nocturnal seizures in epilepsy patients.
• Dr Douglas Mulholland: Improved deployment of inferior vena cava filters
• Dr Katie Giblin: Prevention of surgical site infection
• Dr Leanne Cusson: Dispelling myths and increasing awareness of polycystic ovary syndrome
• Dr Sandra Hembrecht: Optimisation of the breast cancer pre-operative care pathway
• Dr JJ Coughlan: Improved left radial access in coronary catheterisation procedures
• Dr Liah McElligott: Dance therapy to help Parkinson’s disease patients