The Health Innovation Program brought together 103 applications from 20 countries, connecting healthcare startups with industry leaders, healthcare professionals, investors, public institutions, and ecosystem partners. Discover how Health Innovation Day showcased promising innovations in AI, digital health, diagnostics, and healthcare financing, and why collaboration remains essential to shaping the future of healthcare.
Healthcare innovation moves fastest when the right startups meet the right industry, clinical, public-sector, academic, and investment stakeholders.
That was the ambition behind the Health Innovation Program, an open innovation initiative led by Novartis Türkiye, in collaboration with Tenity, in strategic partnership with MEXT, and with the support of the Swiss Embassy in Türkiye and Swissnex.
Focused on cardiovascular diseases, early-stage breast cancer, SMA, urticaria, and alternative financing solutions, the program was designed to identify high-potential ventures and connect them with the ecosystem partners needed to turn innovation into real-world healthcare impact.
On 11 June 2026, the program concluded with Health Innovation Day in Ankara, bringing together startups, healthcare leaders, public stakeholders, investors, academics, patient representatives, and innovation ecosystem partners for a day of pitches, strategic dialogue, and cross-sector collaboration.
The Health Innovation Program was built around a simple idea: innovation creates the greatest impact when promising startups are connected with the stakeholders who can help them scale, validate, and implement their solutions.
The 2026 edition attracted 103 applications from 20 countries, reflecting growing momentum around digital health, artificial intelligence, patient-centric care, and healthcare system transformation.
From this international pool, 10 startups were selected to pitch their solutions at Health Innovation Day. Together, they represented a broad spectrum of healthcare innovation, spanning AI, clinical decision support, diagnostic imaging, patient monitoring, rare disease detection, dermatology, digital health infrastructure, and alternative financing models.
By bringing startups together with healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical leaders, public institutions, investors, academics, and patient advocates, the program created opportunities for dialogue that extend far beyond a single event.
The strong international response to the Health Innovation Program highlights both the scale of healthcare challenges and the growing interest in developing innovative solutions to address them.
The program received 103 applications from 20 countries, reflecting the global urgency around building more accessible, sustainable, and patient-centric healthcare systems.
Healthcare systems worldwide continue to face increasing pressure from ageing populations, chronic disease burdens, workforce shortages, rising costs, and growing expectations for more personalized care. As a result, innovation has become a strategic priority across the healthcare value chain.
The diversity of applications demonstrated how entrepreneurs are addressing these challenges through advances in artificial intelligence, diagnostics, digital therapeutics, patient engagement, healthcare infrastructure, and financing models.
The startups taking the stage were:
Focus: Alternative Financing Solutions & Chronic Disease Management
An AI-powered multi-chronic disease management platform helping patients manage complex health conditions through personalized digital care.
Focus: Cardiovascular Health & AI Diagnostics
An MDR-certified MedTech startup providing AI-powered triage and diagnostic suites for cardiovascular and abdominal care.
Focus: Diagnostic Imaging & Artificial Intelligence
Developing advanced AI solutions for stroke, oncology, and pulmonary imaging.
Focus: Breast Cancer Detection
An AI-powered clinical decision support system that analyzes mammography images within seconds.
Focus: Decentralized Medical Imaging
Working to make ultrasound more accessible through mobile and decentralized imaging technologies.
Focus: Rare Disease Diagnosis
An AI-powered clinical decision support platform analyzing complex electronic health records to support faster and more accurate diagnosis of rare diseases and complex cases.
Focus: Dermatology & Urticaria
A mobile platform supporting early skin assessment and patient routing to care, with relevance for urticaria and dermatological conditions.
Focus: Alternative Financing Infrastructure
A white-label digital fintech platform supporting alternative financing solutions through modular and scalable financial infrastructure.
Focus: Real-World Evidence & Patient Outcomes
A digital health and AI platform helping pharmaceutical companies bridge the gap between clinical evidence and real-world patient outcomes.
Focus: Clinical Infrastructure & AI Integration
A unified clinical infrastructure platform integrating radiology, pathology, and AI into existing hospital systems and workflows.
Together, these startups demonstrated how healthcare innovation is increasingly shaped by the intersection of clinical expertise, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, data, access, and new financing models.
Following the startup pitches, three ventures were recognised for their strong potential to contribute to the future of healthcare:
The winning startups reflected the core thesis of the program: impactful healthcare innovation requires more than strong technology. It also requires clinical relevance, scalability, ecosystem alignment, and a clear pathway to real-world adoption.
One of the defining strengths of Health Innovation Day was the multidisciplinary jury, bringing together perspectives from healthcare, life sciences, academia, public affairs, artificial intelligence, oncology, cardiology, dermatology, patient advocacy, fintech, investment, diplomacy, and ecosystem development.
The jury included:
This breadth of expertise was critical. In healthcare, the success of a startup cannot be evaluated through technology alone. Solutions must be assessed through clinical value, patient impact, system readiness, regulatory relevance, scalability, and integration potential.
The jury and audience reflected the collaborative foundation needed to move promising solutions closer to implementation.
Beyond the startup pitches, Health Innovation Day also hosted a high-level panel titled “From Geopolitical Fragmentation to Constructive Innovation: Türkiye’s Life Sciences Future.”
Moderated by Prof. Dr. Simten Malhan, Faculty Member at Başkent University Ankara Hospital and Health Economist, the panel featured:
The panel brought together leading voices from Türkiye’s healthcare and life sciences ecosystem to discuss how the country can strengthen its global competitiveness in life sciences, health technologies, clinical research, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.
The discussion covered the impact of geopolitical shifts on healthcare systems, the importance of attracting international clinical research to Türkiye, technology transfer, local production capacity, innovative health technologies, and the role of public-private collaboration.
The conversation reinforced an important point: Türkiye has strong potential to become a regional life sciences and health innovation hub, but this ambition depends on deeper collaboration between public institutions, private sector actors, academia, startups, investors, and international partners.
Healthcare systems around the world are facing rising pressure: ageing populations, chronic diseases, cost constraints, access gaps, and growing demand for more personalized care.
At the same time, new technologies are creating powerful opportunities. AI can support earlier diagnosis. Digital health platforms can improve patient monitoring. Real-world data can generate stronger evidence. Alternative financing models can support access and sustainability. Decentralized tools can bring healthcare closer to patients.
But innovation only matters when it connects to real needs.
That is where open innovation programs play a critical role. They create structured platforms for startups to engage with industry leaders, clinicians, public stakeholders, investors, and ecosystem partners. They help transform promising ideas into relevant, scalable, and collaborative opportunities.
For Tenity, the Health Innovation Program was exactly this kind of platform: a bridge between entrepreneurial innovation and real-world healthcare transformation.
Health Innovation Day marked the conclusion of the program, but the real impact starts after the final pitch.
The value of initiatives like the Health Innovation Program is created through the conversations, partnerships, pilots, and collaborations that follow.
By bringing together 103 applications from 20 countries, selecting high-potential startups, convening a strong multidisciplinary jury, and creating space for strategic dialogue, the program contributed to a broader mission: strengthening the connection between innovation and healthcare impact.
At Tenity, we believe that no single stakeholder can transform healthcare alone. Progress happens when startups, corporates, public institutions, investors, clinicians, and ecosystem partners build together.
Congratulations to Hevi AI, Albert Health, and tenacio, and to all participating startups for bringing forward bold and relevant solutions.
We extend our sincere thanks to Novartis Türkiye, MEXT, the Swiss Embassy in Türkiye, Swissnex, the jury members, panel speakers, mentors, ecosystem stakeholders, and all participating startups for making this journey possible.
The future of healthcare will be shaped by collaboration. The Health Innovation Program showed what that collaboration can look like in action.
Ilayda Bahadıroğlu is a Program Manager at Tenity, where she designs and delivers innovation programs that connect startups, corporates, public institutions, and ecosystem stakeholders. Her work focuses on fostering collaboration across the innovation ecosystem and supporting startups in scaling solutions with real-world impact across industries, including healthcare, sustainability, and emerging technologies.
