Sports & HealthTech Meetup recap

2nd May 2022

Health and Sports go hand in hand. Also in the world of technology. But where do these interfaces lie and how do they reinforce each other? What can we learn from sports to help people live longer healthy lives? Around this theme, we gathered in De Krook in Ghent for an evening full of insights and great people! (Aftermovie below!)

Who were the guests of the night?

We listened to a number of motivated startups to talk about the way they implement technology into Sports and/or Health.

• MyPitch talked about how they use smart cameras to automatically record the performance of players on the field. They offer many statistics which can be interpreted by the player himself of by the sports club he's in.
  
  
  
  

• Hylyght uses an innovative platform to set up unique testing protocols that are a mix of evidence-based knowledge and the expertise of the user. With these testing protocols trainers can use it for injury prevention for their athletes or to create custom training programs for each athlete, doctors can use it to give their patients an optimal return to activity and many more options.
  
  
  
  

• StriveCloud enlightened us about the power of gamification to enrich your customer experience through StriveCloud’s User Motivation Platform. They can help you to gamify your app with ready-made software or to host your own online tournaments.
  
  
  
  

• Lower Impact Running is a spin-off that created a wearable tool that provides music-based feedback on a runner’s impact shock magnitude. That's how they want to prevent running related injuries!
  
  
  
  We also invited some fascinating speakers from the field to talk about their experience in Sports & HealthTech. Prof. Wim Derave leads a research team in exercise physiology, sport nutrition and muscle metabolism at the department of Movement and Sports Sciences at Ghent University. He talked about the importance of exercise and movement for humans. He took us back to the ancient times and compared the human body and its needs to that from a monkey and a primordial man. Monkeys need very little physical activity to be healthy and to survive. So why do humans need exercise to stay healthy? It's all because of the way of life as a primal human. We were required to walk and exercise as gatherer-hunters. So the great importance of getting enough daily exercise still dates back to prehistoric times. Are you interested in the full story? Then be sure to contact Prof. Derave!
  
  
  
  Servaas Bingé is a medical doctor and author and he has a mission: to inspire people in as many ways as possible to take control of their own health. In his books, he combines scientific facts with a layer of perspective and humor. And so, during his keynote, he took us into the wonderful world of our greatest asset: health. So, it may be no surprise that the combination of the knowledge of both these men gave a lot of fodder to talk about.
  
  
  
  Last but definitely not least we sat together to have a panel discussion with Wouter Goris (Ready2Improve), Sanne Stegen (Gray), Servaas Breyne (JouwKiné) and Wim Derave and discussed various aspects on the relevance of wearable activity trackers, implementation strategies and future needs and ambitions.

These were a few of the questions for the panelists:

• How important is sports in a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention context?
• Sports and health care: are they really going hand in hand?
• What is there to find at the intersection of Digital Health, MedTech and SportTech?

After that: time for a drink with lots of networking, continuing the interesting discussions we started to have during the Q&A.

This is how the evening looked like:

Do you have any questions for SportUp? Contact Kristof De Mey!
Or maybe for BlueHealth Innovation Center? Contact Tom Braekeleirs!