Flu-Copilot virtual assistant, winner of the "Paediatric Innovation Challenge" launched by AstraZeneca and i4KIDS

The 4YFN held in Barcelona as part of the Mobile World Congress was the venue chosen to announce the winner of the “Paediatric Innovation Challenge”, launched by AstraZeneca and i4KIDS, the Paediatric Innovation Hub coordinated by the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu: the artificial intelligence tool Flu-Copilot, developed by the Canadian platform Arkangel Ai.

The purpose of this international collaboration was to identify initiatives offering innovative solutions and strategies to mitigate the impact of paediatric flu on society, addressing needs such as disease awareness, prevention strategies, and vaccination coverage.

Arnau Valls, director of i4KIDS and Coordinator of Innovation at Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, emphasizes the role of i4KIDS, whose team works “To ensure that more solutions to unmet pediatric needs reach the market and have a positive impact on patients, bridging the current gap and the lack of products and services specifically designed and developed for this underrepresented population. Collaboration between the industry, clinical professionals, the healthcare system, the scientific community, and innovators is crucial to achieve this goal, and initiatives like the challenge launched with AstraZeneca are a good example of open innovation strategies to achieve it.”

As explained by Dr. César Velasco, Director of Innovation and Digital Strategy at AstraZeneca, “Through this challenge, which we have launched together with i4KIDS, we seek to promote projects born within the Spanish healthcare system focused on child health. The innovation ecosystem can help improve pediatric flu vaccination by applying innovative technologies with both social and healthcare approaches. Through innovation, we aim to improve accessibility and vaccination-related information to protect the most vulnerable population against this virus.”

A panel of experts evaluated the twenty-two projects received, considering various criteria such as the strength of the proposal, the innovation of the solution, the scope of impact, previous experience, and the implementation capacity of the proposed solution.

Flu-Copilot, the winning solution

Flu-Copilot, the AI assistant developed by Arkangel AI, provides essential information about paediatric flu, facilitates access to accurate data, streamlines appointment scheduling, and improves vaccination rates by 20%. Additionally, it can analyze and respond to inquiries in real-time with information validated by medical professionals, monitoring user participation and knowledge to enhance responses through feedback systems. It can also initiate actions to schedule appointments and integrate with existing vaccination systems to reduce the time spent on decision-making by parents.

This initiative will receive funding of up to €50,000 and will have the support of AstraZeneca to jointly develop the proposed innovation.

Collaboration with the industry

This call is part of the “Challenge-based Industry” programme that i4KIDS develops in collaboration with key stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem, such as the industry and the community of clinical professionals. Its objective is to drive the arrival of innovative solutions to the market in the field of foetal, paediatric, and maternal health, through the launch of challenges to the innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem to identify projects that can solve unmet clinical needs.