Top Medical Founders and Investors Gather at Charité Summit

There are a lot of conferences and events out there that deal with topics on the intersection of healthcare and technology. From more traditional IT health conferences, such as the conhIT in Germany, to more disruptive and internet-oriented ones as the upcoming Doctors 2.0 conference in Paris.

Now, in the last couple of years a very special conference in Germany has quietly evolved to a must-attend conference for people interested in biotech, healthcare, entrepreneurship and venture capital – the Charité Summit.

The Charité is one of the biggest and most acclaimed university clinics and medical schools in Europe. Spread over three campuses and multiple affiliated research institutes  it acts on the forefront of medical research on a global level.

The Charité Foundation, a privately held foundation that “supports the implementation of innovative and application-oriented projects of the Charité and promotes outstanding young scientists and doctors” hosts its annual summit in Berlin from April 11-12, 2011 (Register here). Withouth much noise and little PR the event fulfills all dreams of a medical entrepreneur. From renowned speakers outside of medicine (Peter Thiel, co-founder and former CEO, PayPal & early investor to Facebook & founder and partner of The Founder’s Fund) to celebrities who campaign for therapeutic innovation of certain diseases (Susan Axelrod, chair of Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy CURE) and a broad range of successful biomedical entrepreneurs, venture capitalists focused on medicine products, biotechnology and innovative health 2.0 web applications, the event combines a vast and breathtaking selection of speakers and attendees.

MedCrunch being a media partner for the event (as well as the Doctors 2.0 conference in Paris), we want to fully disclose our form of collaboration here. We think that both events are great and are urgently needed for Europe’s health 2.0 sphere and we do not get paid for this. Those are events that mirror our mentality and thinking and that’s why we want to support them. Entrepreneurship needs to thrive in Europe as it does in the United States, and such events only help grow Europe’s medical entrepreneur community. The Charité Summit allows entrepreneurs (or soon-to-be entrepreneurs) to meet prolific investors and gather valuable input for their business ideas. With attendants like Peter Thiel, a native German and celebrity in the tech and web 2.0 arena, such a fine conference on medical entrepreneurship attracts people from outside the industry and helps medical doctors transform their ideas and research into businesses.

If you are a physician and ever thought about bringing your ideas to life and start a company then we suggest attending the Charité Summit in Berlin. On a more administrative note, the summit offers some highly innovative networking platforms aside from the main conference, such as Business Speed Dating, Charité Partnering or Unsolved Clinical Problems. So we suggest you hop on board and join us for a party in Berlin.

Here is a brief interview with Stephan Gutzeit, one of two executive directors at the Stiftung Charité about the conference:

Stephan Gutzeit

Stephan Gutzeit has been working as a knowledge entrepreneur in Berlin for a number of years. Currently he is an executive director at Stiftung Charité, a foundation endowed by German entrepreneur Johanna Quandt to advance medical entrepreneurship. He holds several other directorships, among them at the foundation Arcadia Berlin Stiftung gGmbH. He is also supporting the launch of the Charité Biomedical Fund, a venture capital fund focussing on investments in medical device companies, and serves as a consultant for universities and foundations. Earlier, he worked for a global consultancy firm, started up the first German liberal arts college, and co-founded the second German school of governance. He was educated at Stanford and Harvard, where he studied chemistry and philosophy.

MedCrunch: Mr. Gutzeit, who should attend your conference?

Stephan Gutzeit: Our conference is intended for innovators in medicine, physicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals. We want to hook them up with people that are essential for the success of a healthcare startup like investors, accountants, lawyers etc.

MedCrunch: Who came up the idea for your conference?

Stephan Gutzeit: We came up with the idea when we were at Stanford. We talked with people there and realized that in Europe there were not enough venues where these key stakeholders could interact.

MedCrunch: Let’s say I am an innovative physician and I want to meet all those people at your conference, how should I procede?

Stephan Gutzeit: Well, first of all you have to register. We will implement a web-tool that will allow like-minded participants to meet. In addition, we will offer several other opportunities for meeting people: the business-speeddating event, the startup pitches and last but not least, the social events.

MedCrunch: What social events will there be?

Stephan Gutzeit: We have a gala dinner and a startup party at the end of the conference. I think there will be something for everyone at our event and I would highly encourage all entrepreneurial minds in the healthcare industry to attend and spread the word.

Related Links:

Lisa Chu MD recently wrote about medicine, business and creativity here on MedCrunch.