EW meets serial entrepreneur and business visionary Barry Shrier, founder of GIANT Health, organiser of European Health-Tech innovation week.
Barry Shrier has been described as a visionary business pioneer. He built an enviable track record in telecom, sustainability and technology innovation, and then founded GIANT Health seven years ago. So, what precipitated his decision to focus on innovation in healthcare technology?
BS: Having founded, scaled and exited several successful ventures in telecoms and green tech, I moved to the States to help look after my 91-year-old dad, and found myself completely immersed in healthcare. The experience was inspiring. I discovered some truths about the scale and the future of global healthcare. It was a real lightbulb moment.
It’s the largest industry in the world, creating US$20 trillion of revenue every year. Global demographics mean demand for healthcare is going to continue to rise, and our ability to deliver it won’t be able to keep up unless we accelerate the use of technological innovation. That’s why I founded GIANT Health, a spearhead movement determined to bring the latest technological advances to meet medical and healthcare needs. We connect investors, inventors, engineers, academics, researchers, students and medical professionals and give them the opportunity to exchange ideas, collaborate and create.
EW: What is the GIANT Health community, and why is it important?
BS: Community requires a meaningful common purpose. Our purpose is simply to bring about a better future, where technological innovation delivers improved health outcomes at a lower cost. We started small, grew our networks and every year we focused our energies on the live GIANT Health event. By 2019 this had grown to 5,000 delegates and we attracted prominent sponsorship support.
We bind our community together with newsletters, our weekly live TV show, podcasts and smaller events, and cement our sense of community with the big annual event.
Live events are particularly valuable because they provide our delegates with opportunities for serendipity. And they’re an unbeatable platform for showcasing new technology where people can experience the real thing. Live is where the all-important sparks of innovation originate.
EW: This year you’ve created European Health-Tech Innovation Week. How is that different from the annual GIANT Health event, and what are you hoping to achieve with it?
BS: The shock of a global pandemic, the cessation of live events and successive lockdowns meant that we had to hold our 2020 event virtually. While we attracted 20,000 delegates through our own virtual event platform, it really was no substitute for a live event, so we conceived European Health-Tech Innovation Week. This is a call to arms across the continent. The pandemic is causing devastation in healthcare, both directly from Covid-19, but equally importantly, creating a colossal backlog of healthcare treatments and interventions. We can really help with this.
I wanted to bring Europe’s meditech sector together now that circumstances permit, so we’re hosting events in Liverpool, Paris, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Berlin on five consecutive days, with a mixture of live and online speakers and events, to create the largest ever meditech community platform for investors and innovators.
The ACC Liverpool was the venue for the first European Health-Tech Innovation Week, 17-21 May, before the series moved on to Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and Stockholm.
Barry Shrier said: “The city and the whole region is home to leading academic and medical institutions and a strong medical technology industry, as well as having a global reputation for innovation, manufacturing and outstanding hospitality.”
Professor Shafi Ahmed, multi-award-winning cancer surgeon working at The Royal London Hospital, and who chairs GIANT, added: “After a year of lockdowns the British government is permitting the resumption of proper business face-to-face gatherings, conferences and exhibitions. GIANT Health aimed to lead the way to help reopen society and celebrate the incredible work carried out by healthcare workers and businesses across Europe and beyond.”
