Transformative Potential of Living Labs in Oncology: Empowering Patient Advocacy and Cancer Prevention
TIME
14:00 – 15:15
TRACKS
TRACK 1: Living Labs for Grand Societal Challenges
ORGANISER
Prof. Panos Bamidis and Despoina Mantziari (ThessAHALL), Marius Geanta (Centre for Innovation in Medicine)
Target Audience
Policymakers and city representatives, Companies and entrepreneurs, Researchers and academics, Living Lab representatives and practitioners.
Type of Session
Topic Debate
DESCRIPTION
This session provides an overview of living labs in patient advocacy and primary cancer prevention, aligned with the EU Mission on Cancer Recommendation 12. We explore the transformative potential of oncology-focused living labs from European R&I initiatives like 4P-CAN, ONCODIR, ONCOSCREEN, and LIFECHAMPS Horizon projects. The session also introduces the “Partners of Experience in Cancer” (PECan) initiative, a patient-led living lab empowering patients & caregivers to lead agenda-setting and drive research & innovation in oncology care. We highlight the success of the Romanian living lab in Arges county, addressing societal and environmental barriers to cancer prevention, and the first patient-led living lab in Greece, powered by Thess-AHALL and the Hellenic Cancer Federation. Offering practical strategies for multi-stakeholder collaboration and advancing research, join us to explore Living Labs’ role in patient advocacy and cancer prevention, emphasizing patient leadership in co-creating a future where patient voices drive healthcare innovation and reduce inequalities.
Participants of the session will walk away with a comprehensive understanding of the pivotal role Living Labs play in accelerating the transition to carbon neutrality preparing the right conditions for embracing collaborative innovation across sectors and the arguments for the society and the industry ‘’fair’’ involvement.
Agenda
- Welcome & Session Overview (5 mins)
- Introduction to Living Labs in Oncology R&I (5 mins)
- Living Labs as Drivers for Cancer Prevention and Equal Access to Care: the 4P-CAN initiative (10 mins)
- Empowering Patient Advocacy through Living Labs: The “Partners of Experience in Cancer” (PECan) Initiative (10 mins)
- Case Studies of Successful European Projects on Oncology Living Lab R&I (15 mins)
- Round Table Discussion (15 mins)
- Q&A Session (10 mins)
- Closing & Final Remarks (5 mins)
SPEAKER BIOS
Marius Geantă
President at Centre for Innovation in Medicine, 4P-CAN Project Coordinator
Marius Geantă
President at Centre for Innovation in Medicine, 4P-CAN Project CoordinatorMarius Geantă is the President of the Center for Innovation in Medicine, a civil society organisation based in Bucharest, Romania, focused on innovation in the healthcare sector. He is an expert in innovation policy and has contributed to Romania's groundbreaking law that recognizes access to personalized medicine as a citizen's right. He is also involved in various research and innovation European projects. He is currently coordinating the 4P-CAN Project, focused on living labs for cancer primary prevention.
Christine Chommiene
Vice-Chair of the Horizon Europe Cancer Mission Board
Christine Chommiene
Vice-Chair of the Horizon Europe Cancer Mission BoardDr. Christine Chomienne is vice-chair of the Mission Board Cancer at the European Commission. She is also Professor of Cellular Biology at the Université de Paris, France. Formerly, she was Director of Research and Innovation at the French National Cancer Institute and past president of the European Hematology Association. Qualified in medicine with a PhD in 1989, she has led numerous scientific committees in oncology and stem cell research. Committed to education, she coordinates courses at Université Paris Diderot and has published over 270 peer-reviewed articles, earning multiple prestigious awards.
Jan-Willem van de Loo
Scientific and Policy Officer of the Cancer Mission at the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation
Jan-Willem van de Loo
Scientific and Policy Officer of the Cancer Mission at the European Commission, DG Research and InnovationSenior Expert at the European Commissions’ directorate general for research and innovation and involved in the European Mission on Cancer. From Sep 2019 - Jul 2021, he led a team co-creating the Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer. Other policy initiatives include contributions to the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, public-public and public private R&I partnerships. He has extensive experience with collaborative project management, international cancer research and innovation policy activities and stakeholder interactions.
Panagiotis Bamidis
Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing LL Founder, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Director, LifeChamps H2020 Coordinato
Panagiotis Bamidis
Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing LL Founder, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Director, LifeChamps H2020 CoordinatoPanagiotis Bamidis is a Professor of Medical Physics, Informatics and Medical Education and Director of the Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation in the School of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Greece. He is the co-ordinator of ten large European projects, and the principal investigator for many national and international funded projects. He is the President of the Hellenic Biomedical Technology Society, HL7 Hellas, the international Society of Applied Neuroscience, a member of the Administration Boards of other societies and patient associations, the Chairman/Organiser of some 20 international conferences and several national Biomedical Technology conferences. In 2013 he established the Thessaloniki Action for HeAlth & Wellbeing Living Lab (ThessAHALL) which in 2018 became a full member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL).
Antonis Billis
LifeChamps H2020 Scientific Coordinator, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Postdoctoral Researcher
Antonis Billis
LifeChamps H2020 Scientific Coordinator, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Postdoctoral ResearcherDr. Antonis Billis is an Electrical & Computer Engineer and holds a PhD in the research area of digital biomarkers facilitating the remote monitoring of chronic patients as well as older people. As of today, he is a PostDoc Researcher at the Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His main research interests lie in the areas of: e-health/mhealth, health living labs, digital biomarkers, clinical decision support systems, cancer informatics, smart patient remote monitoring systems, smart hospital applications, as well as assistive technologies for vulnerable populations. In addition, he has 15 years of research experience, having participated in many national and EU funded, digital health research projects, focusing on the QoL support of older adults. He has been the scientific coordinator of the LifeChamps H2020 project aiming at improving older cancer survivors’ QoL after treatment using BigData and AI technologies. He is the PI of two EU projects and has received more than 1 million euros of funding. He is also an associate editor at the Healthcare Technologies Letters Journal and member of the editorial board of the SAGE Health Informatics Journal.
Athanasios Mavropoulos
ONCODIR Project Coordinator, ITI/CERTH Postdoctoral Researcher
Athanasios Mavropoulos
ONCODIR Project Coordinator, ITI/CERTH Postdoctoral ResearcherDr. Athanasios Mavropoulos received his PhD degree in Computational Linguistics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Hellas and is working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas (CERTH) since 2016. His research interests revolve around Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning (Named Entity Recognition, Relation Extraction, term conceptualisation, PDF text classification, generative AI). He has successfully participated in several national and European projects, while his scientific work has been featured in international conferences and journals. Currently Dr. Mavropoulos is working on Knowledge Representation tasks in pervasive environments, virtual agent-focused Knowledge Extraction and AI chatbot development.
Despoina Mantziari
Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing LL, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Research Associate
Despoina Mantziari
Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing LL, AUTH Lab of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation Research AssociateDespoina Mantziari is a Ph.D. candidate at AUTH School of Journalism and Mass Communication, researching Active Patient Involvement and Patient Empowerment with new technologies and telemedicine. She holds a postgraduate degree in "Journalism and New Media" from AUTH and is pursuing a Master's in "Aging and Chronic Disease Management" at Hellenic Open University. Since 2018, she has been a Research Associate in the AUTH Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation. She is assistant coordinator in the EC JRC City Science Initiative “Thessaloniki: Mental Health & Wellbeing†Working Group since 2019, as well as in the 3-starred “Thessaloniki AHA Ecosystem†Reference Site of the European Innovation Partnership on Active & Healthy Ageing since 2018. Her research interests include Citizen Science, participatory research, and Living Labs. She has experience in stakeholder networking, event organization, and research dissemination
Irina Kolomiiets
Project Manager Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
Irina Kolomiiets
Project Manager Lithuanian University of Health SciencesIrina Kolomiiets is a project manager at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, with 5 years of experience in developing the Health Innovation ecosystem in Lithuania. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health Management, which underpins her strategic approach to health innovation and management. She has collaborated extensively with the European Institute of Technology (EIT Health), focusing on fostering entrepreneurial culture, innovation, and entrepreneurship training in the health sector. Currently, Irina leads the implementation of Living Labs and serves as the task leader in the ONCOSCREEN and ONCODIR projects. She is also an active mentor and coach, dedicated to nurturing the next generation of health innovators.
Yasmin Fonseca
Project Manager ECHoS
Yasmin Fonseca
Project Manager ECHoSYasmin Fonseca is an International Project Manager at AICIB - Agência de Investigação ClÃnica e Inovação Biomédica, with a strong track record in managing EU-funded projects in digital health, research, and innovation. She holds expertise in biochemistry and healthcare management, particularly in change management. She is currently Project Manager with ECHoS, a project which aims to support the implementation of the Cancer Mission activities through the establishment and development of Cancer Mission Hubs.