The Empowering Women Entrepreneurship in Health Innovation programme (WE Health) aims to enhance the participation of women in health innovation and entrepreneurial activities, by providing capacity-building specifically tailored to women’s needs and by inspiring and supporting them to advance in their professional careers.

The first module of the programme takes place 11-13 May 2020 in Galway, Ireland, and applications are being accepted until 19 April 2020.

Every year, Wild Card builds two new ventures that break new ground, push boundaries and troubleshoot some of European healthcare’s greatest challenges. They attract the brightest talents, mentor founders to be and invest up to €2 million in the two most promising ventures.
The two challenge areas Wild Card 2020 is focused on are: advancing women’s health and progressing digital therapeutics. 

Apply before 9 February 2020 23:59 CET.

The Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Convent of Councillors provided an assessment of the 2020 budget proposal on 10 December 2019. The members of the Convent saw positive growth in RSU's financial situation and approved the budget for the coming year.

After listening to the report on the budget proposal for 2020, delivered by RSU Rector Prof. Aigars Pētersons, the members of the Convent had a positive assessment of RSU’s financial situation and plans for development stressing that RSU is ‘a center for the solidification of higher education’.

An extended  outpatient surgery unit was opened at the Clinic of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Institute of Stomatology on 12 December. The newly opened unit will start working in January 2020.

In order to strengthen and improve cooperation with the aim of preparing and attracting young doctors, and developing scientific research and human resources, a shareholder agreement was signed on 20 December establishing Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) as the third shareholder of Vidzeme Hospital. Up to that moment Vidzeme Hospital had two shareholders: the Valmiera City Municipality and the Valka Municipality Council.

On 15 November, Andrejs Šķesters, the Head of the Scientific Laboratory of Biochemistry and a senior researcher and Associate Professor of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), received the Certificate of Appreciation of the Ministry of Health from the Minister of Health Ilze Viņķele. He received this acknowledgement for his significant long-term contribution to research in the field of genetics and biomedicine.

Placing a smart device in a blood vessel to act as a filter that would warn of the risk of stroke is the healthtech idea devised by the Smart Umbrella team formed by students from Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU). In December 2019 Smart Umbrella was chosen as one of three winners at a prestigious  competition organised as part of Innovation Days in Paris. Ideas pitched by 33 teams, including such leading European science and study centres as the Karolinska Institute, Oxford University and Sorbonne University, were among Smart Umbrella’s competitors. 

An echinococcus infection is caused by an approximately 5mm long parasite which can be caught by consuming parasite eggs found on berries and fruit from orchards or the forest, or by stroking dogs and cats, for example. Echinococcosis is a serious and usually incurable disease, where patients often have to take medication for the rest of their lives.