European Innovator of the Year: Andreu Climent

Andreu Climent, researcher at the ITACA Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), has won the first prize in the EIT Awards, organised by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Climent won the top prize thanks to Corify, a non-invasive medical device capable of seeing the heart as if we had introduced catheters, but in a totally safe and simple way, which facilitates the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. The prize is 50,000 euros. In addition, Climent took third place in the public vote.

“The support of the European Institute of Technology for the Corify project, which it considers to be the Innovative Prize of the year, is a huge boost that helps us to continue and make our research available to all patients with cardiac arrhythmias as soon as possible. This award is the result of the hard work of a huge team of people, from Corify, ITACA at the UPV, the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, Genesis Biomed and so many other agents who are helping us,” said Andreu Climent.

Heart arrhythmia affects over 10 million people in Europe and statistics indicate that one in three adults will suffer from an arrhythmia in their lifetime. They are characterised by the fact that one part of the heart, the atrium, stops working in a coordinated way and becomes active several hundred times per second. The main problem is that for more than half of the patients there is no effective treatment. Patients move between drugs, defibrillations and multiple invasive interventions and in about 50% of cases without success.

There are a high number of cardiac mapping systems on the market, but the vast majority are invasive and require the introduction of catheters into the heart before we know if the treatment will be effective. However, the interventions are complex, expensive, not without danger and can only be offered to a very small number of patients (between 3 and 5%), and what is worse, their long-term effectiveness rarely exceeds 65%.

“Corify stands out for its ease of application in clinical practice as it is non-invasive. It would significantly improve the diagnosis and effectiveness of patient treatment, thus improving the lives of millions of patients”, said Andreu Climent.

The EIT Awards recognise the most talented entrepreneurs in Europe who are driving solutions to the urgent challenges facing the continent in areas such as climate, energy, food, health and raw materials. They include five categories, encourage entrepreneurs and promote innovation with a European flavour.

Andreu Climent was the candidate for the EIT’s health division, EIT Health. With Corify, he has been, since yesterday, the best European innovator according to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.