International Precision Medicine Networking Forum in Riga; RSU hosted first i-Days Riga health hackathon

The National Library of Latvia hosted the 3rd International Precision Medicine Networking Forum (PMNET), one of the leading platforms for precision medicine in Northern Europe, on 10-11 October. In collaboration with Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) and the Health Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Health), the Riga iDays health hackathon was held for the first time as part of the PMNET Forum, encouraging students to find solutions to challenges in personalised medicine.

This year's PMNET Forum focused on precision medicine and related fields such as genetics, functional methods and sharing experiences from different countries. The Forum brought together those responsible for the next steps in patient care and medical development in Latvia. There were also discussions on how to increase patient involvement and address the issue of human resources in the medical sector.

The Riga iDays hackathon gave students from all over Latvia the opportunity to develop their ideas in the field of health, collaborate with experts and create innovative solutions that can help solve pressing healthcare problems in Latvia and abroad. Organised by EIT Health and RSU, the hackathon is a health innovation event for university students at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level.

The event is organised to promote health innovation among university students. The hackathon evaluates ideas at an early stage, so participants do not need any prior knowledge or experience in innovation, entrepreneurship or healthcare. During the two-day-long Latvian leg of the event, participants were able to listen to lectures, take part in team competitions, in coaching sessions, and receive mentoring.

Although the challenges in this hackathon were related to precision medicine, we believe that events like these are a good starting point for other ideas. Additionally, the prize fund helps student teams present their ideas internationally, gain new experience, and possibly turn them into real products or services.

Līga Žūka, Director of the RSU Innovation Centre and Head of the EIT Health Centre in Latvia

The hackathon partners are the Children's Clinical University Hospital (BKUS) and the biotechnology company Roche. The partners are calling for the communication of precision medicine to be addressed, while encouraging the creation of tools for personalised and palliative care, as well as the involvement of digital laboratory data in achieving better health outcomes.

Precision medicine is a new approach to treating and preventing disease that takes the genetic diversity, environment, and lifestyle of each individual into account. The Forum aims to improve patient care and outcomes by promoting the development and implementation of precision medicine in clinical practice and making it more accessible in Latvia.

The PMNET Forum brought together speakers from the United States, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Lithuania, and Estonia. The scale of the Forum indicates that Latvia and Riga are emerging as one of the centres for precision medicine, research and innovation in Europe.

Honorary guest speakers at the PMNET Forum included Olli Kalioniemi, a leading expert in precision medicine, technology, data and artificial intelligence and a major contributor to precision medicine research, and Stefan Pfister, an expert in paediatric brain tumours at Heidelberg University Hospital and Head of the Division of Paediatric Neurooncology at the German Cancer Research Centre. The forum focused on how to improve global access to next-generation molecular tumour diagnostics.