Naru wins Roche Farma Spain’s Startup Creasphere award

Step Oncology, the technological tool developed by the Gipuzkoa-based company, received the top award in the Hepatocarcinoma category.

A total of 56 startups from Spain and different European countries participated in this edition of Startup Creasphere.

The Guipuzcoa-based company Naru and its technological tool Step Oncology won the first prize in the Startup Creasphere promoted by Roche Farma España in the hepatocarcinoma category. This award highlights Naru’s commitment to innovation and new technologies with the aim of improving the healthcare system.

Startup Creasphere is a global innovation initiative promoted by Roche Farma Spain. This year, developed in collaboration with Plug and Play, its aim was to attract, recognise and promote innovative and disruptive initiatives developed by startups and hospitals to improve the health and quality of life of patients. As highlighted by Roche Farma España in the statement, Naru received the award for its Step Oncology technology tool ‘an artificial intelligence (AI) that reduces serious complications in cancer patients and aims to improve quality of life after hospitalisation. The tool ensures data collection and valuable information’ without hospitals losing control and ownership of the data.

In addition to the company Naru, two other projects received awards. UK-based Novai received the award in the ophthalmology category for the development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based biomarker to predict the progression of glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In the hospital field, the winning initiative was NaIA-DMAE, from the University Hospital of Navarra, an AI tool that automatically detects and measures retinal fluid in patients with AMD and diabetic macular oedema (DME).

Naru, a consolidated company with a new visual identity

This recognition to the company from Guipuzcoa coincides with the recent launch of its new visual identity. According to its founders, Eider Sánchez, CEO of Naru and Maider Alberich, CTO of Naru, this new step forward in the evolution of the company reflects the dynamism and transformation that drive its work in oncology and biomedicine. The new tagline Healthcare, the smarter the better reflects its commitment to innovation and its vision for a smarter, more efficient and patient-centric healthcare system.

Naru transforms the management of clinical data for use in different areas of the therapeutic value chain. It is the only validated solution in Europe that generates Real World Evidence (RWE) in real time and combines PROs (Patient Reported Outcomes) and HIS (Hospital Information System) to empower strategic decision making. Thanks to its proprietary Aiatech technology and Step Oncology technology tool, this new care environment contributes to the improvement and optimisation of clinical practice, research and patient life.

Since founding the project in 2017, the company has continued to grow and evolve. To date, the company has more than 26 initiatives in 4 countries in different public and private hospitals (more than 50) and in large pharmaceutical companies and with more than 1 million patient data.

New products aimed at accelerating knowledge.

With a focus on the applicability of its solutions in different contexts, Naru continues to work on new formats of its technological tool Step Oncology. They are currently involved in two clinical trials with the research and pharmaceutical sectors in order to obtain patient data in a simple and agile way to generate a direct impact on the acceleration of knowledge about cancer treatment.

Unlike other solutions that require complex integrations with hospital IT systems, the new version of the Step Oncology tool connects directly to the institutions that manage clinical trials and treatments. Patients can easily report symptoms, adverse effects of treatments and their health status without having to travel to hospitals and from their own mobile phone. The app not only makes life easier for the patient, it also allows healthcare professionals to get a more complete and constant overview of how each person is doing between medical visits. Especially in the case of cancer patients, where treatments can have highly variable effects, this type of monitoring is key to adjusting care and attention precisely. In addition, the information provided by patients is protected, preserving complete privacy and guaranteeing the confidentiality of medical data.