Wandering between robots, rubbing shoulders with medical beds or even flying underneath an XXL drone. This is what awaits visitors to the third Healthcare Week Luxembourg, which kicked off its two-day programme on Tuesday 7 October at Luxexpo The Box. The theme chosen this year for this major trade fair dedicated to healthcare, organised on the initiative of the Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL), with the support of the events agency Quinze Mai, is: "AI in healthcare: a transformation of medical professions and practices."
It brings together thousands of professionals and experts from the fields of healthcare, research, education and technology, as well as representatives from government agencies, ministries and various social and professional organisations.
Thirty or so events are planned, including round tables, speeches by leading figures from the sector and speeches by ministers such as the Minister for Digitalisation, 
Over the past five years, Luxembourg's healthtech sector has created more than 600 jobs, reaching a total of 2,500 jobs spread across 130 companies, Lex Delles explained on site. "36% of the country's healthtech companies were set up within the last ten years, and 72% of them employ fewer than ten people. Fifty per cent of these companies have a digital focus, compared with just 28% in 2020, when the last census was taken," the ministry statement said.
35% are start-ups or scale-ups
"A third (32%) of companies in the sector are active in the field of medical devices, This means that they develop, produce and market regulated healthcare technologies, including software for medical purposes, used for example to diagnose or treat illnesses. Another third (31%) of these companies are active in the field of non-regulated, non-medical healthcare software. The remainder are companies active in the distribution of medicines and healthcare products (19%), biopharmaceuticals (13%), in vitro diagnostics (2%) and medical analyses (2%)."
This mapping shows that 86% of the healthtech companies listed target exclusively the needs of the human health market. The remaining 14%, originally active in other markets, are now diversifying their technology offering towards the human health market, seen as a new growth opportunity.
35% of the companies listed are start-ups and scale-ups, a third of which have completed the Fit 4 Start programme. They are concentrated mainly in the cantons of Luxembourg and Esch-sur-Alzette.
Clean, structured data
The "Spotlight Stage" on Tuesday included a succession of talks with very concrete examples, such as highlighting how AI actively personalises patient experiences, strengthens clinical decision-making and "ensures that empathy remains at the heart of care delivery", insisted the panel of experts, which included 
"In the past, AI was already helping us, for example in the emergency department to do triage. We would say symptoms A or B, and the machine would say who had priority. It was already being used for drug interactions too, so it's important to remember that," explained Eric Lampach.
"The AI Act mentions the health sector, it talks about safety. At the beginning, machines helped us to make decisions, and now we use the data for experiments or to inform us live about the situation of patients: the state of their heart, their organs, etc. Another example is radiology, with the use of AI. Another example: in radiology, with the machine and deep learning, we send the patient's documents and the machine suggests diagnoses."
"Now we can go further, make connections between each piece of data, but this data must be extremely clean and structured," adds Ulf Nehrbass. "Here in Luxembourg, we have a systematic approach to this subject, to federate data systems, which must remain local, and if we can't access them, we have to generate them. There's a new network that goes beyond Luxembourg, but which must also include it. Data alone says nothing, we need to ask it the right questions."
Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of the LIH, Dr Michael Witsch, paediatrician specialising in endocrinology and diabetology at the CHL and Dr Eric Lampach, chief digital officer at Robert Schuman Hospitals (HRS) spoke at a conference moderated by Frank Roessig of Proximus NXT. (Photo: Ioanna Schimizzi/Paperjam))
"At the end of the day, we need doctors who focus on their patients and not on their screens. Patients want clear explanations. When you have personalised medicine, you have more confidence in science. We all know each other here and we need a commitment from the State," insisted Michael Witsch for his part, explaining how AI was being used to treat diabetes with a connected insulin pump.
An active ecosystem
Adapting individual therapeutic strategies, modelled on each patient's recovery and lifestyle. In an attempt to meet this need, the CHL's orthopaedic surgery department has teamed up with researchers from the LIH, led by Dr Laurent Malisoux from the "physical activity, sport and health" group, and with IEE, "to develop and validate a remote monitoring system capable of collecting information on patients' activity during their daily lives. It involves pressure-sensitive insoles inserted into the patient's shoes to detect their movements", Laurent Malisoux explained on stage.
The project was funded under a joint call for proposals from the Fonds national de la recherche (FNR), the Ministry of the Economy and Luxinnovation. The study to validate these insoles and their use is currently underway. "During research, you need an active ecosystem that works together. Since the call for projects was launched, we have received some very good project proposals, and the FNR has provided a great deal of support. But for a project to be successful, all the players need to be able to talk to each other," confirmed Jean-Philippe Arié, business relationship manager at Luxinnovation.
Tobias Meyer, business development manager smartHealth at IEE sensing, Laurent Malisoux, group leader, physical activity, sport and health at LIH and Jean-Philippe Arie, PhD, business relationship manager at Luxinnovation spoke at a conference moderated by Lisa Burke. (Photo: Ioanna Schimizzi/Paperjam)
The Griffin project, whose drone transported last July, for the first time in Luxembourg, a blood sample between the Robert Schuman Hospitals and the Laboratoires Réunis de Junglinster was also presented at Healthcare Week Luxembourg. A project in partnership with Luxembourg Air Rescue, Laboratoires réunis, Post and Santé Services des HRS.
"This is a project that has lasted two years. Initially we thought it would be quicker, but we had a number of constraints and had to take breaks, particularly because of the weather. We also came up against regulatory limits," said 
"The drone used - an Eiger 03 model designed by the Swiss company RigiTech - is fully electric. It can reach a speed of 100 km/h and carry up to three kilograms of blood, serum, urine or other medical samples. Three kilos is the total gross mass, and the Iso dedicated to these activities imposes a triple hull that takes weight, ice packs so in the end there are 1.6 kilos left for the goods, or 25 pots of urine", detailed the CEO of Laboratoires réunis Stéphane Tholl.
800 flight hours for the drone
"We use a drone that is similar to an aeroplane, with a wingspan of almost three metres, but of limited weight because it is made of carbon", adds Hugo Larue, safety and compliance engineer at Luxembourg Air Services. "We've flown 65 times, that's 800 hours, and we haven't had a single incident. The number one constraint is really the regulatory part. For phase 1, we were only allowed to operate one day a week, from 7am to 9am. So now we're hoping that phase 2 will allow us to fly every day", adds Jérôme Pin.
Highly "weather-dependent", this business of medical transport by drone is also changing regulatory limits as it develops. At the start of the Griffin project, European rules required the presence of three drone pilots for each flight and "now we're down to two, one day maybe we'll get down to one", Jérôme Pin quips.