On Friday 16 October, four teams from UMC Utrecht, the university hospital in the Utrecht Science Park, will pitch their ideas for improving care in the final of the 12th Ureka Mega Challenge. According to the hospital, the event is open to everyone and no registration is needed.

What Ureka is

UMC Utrecht describes Ureka as its annual innovation competition. It is meant to help healthcare professionals and researchers develop an idea or piece of research faster and improve its chances of becoming reality. Applicants are interviewed by the Ureka core team, which makes a selection. Participants then get coaching and workshops, including on intellectual property and pitching. The hospital says that more than half of earlier Ureka ideas have since been realised or scaled up, within UMC Utrecht or elsewhere. That figure is the organiser's own and we have not checked it independently.

The four finalists each receive a €3,000 development budget to build a professional business case. The winner takes a main prize of €50,000. According to the programme description, half of that, €25,000, is paid by the hospital's executive board. The other €25,000 must come from a division or directorate within UMC Utrecht, or from the participant's own organisation if they are external. Winners are expected to report back on their progress at the following year's final.

The four finalists

The descriptions below are the teams' own, as published by UMC Utrecht. None of the claimed benefits has been independently assessed here.

- **ReVoice** (head and neck surgical oncology): uses sensors and AI to reconstruct, in real time, the damaged voice of people who have lost their voice, for example after removal of the larynx because of throat cancer. The aim is a recognisable, personal voice. The team says the idea came directly from a patient. - **Sterile Drain Fix** (orthopaedics): a transparent, flexible patch that holds a surgical drain airtight and protects the insertion site with an antibacterial gel. The team expects fewer wound infections, fewer complications and lower costs. - **CLIO** (intensive care): a digital tool that advises on how to spread several intravenous medicines over a patient's available infusion lines. The team says that looking up and interpreting the protocols can currently take up to 15 minutes, and that CLIO gives advice within a minute. - **iStack** (rehabilitation): an automated system for "airstacking", which brings extra air into the lungs of people with neuromuscular conditions who can no longer cough forcefully. Today this is done by hand with a ventilation bag, often with help from a carer. According to the team, a working prototype exists and a home pilot is being prepared.

What to expect on the day

The final takes place in the Roze Collegezaal at UMC Utrecht. From 13:00 an inspiration market in the foyer lets visitors meet partners and past participants and see their innovations. The final show starts at 14:00. At 15:30, UCANACT, the winner of the 11th edition, presents its progress, followed by drinks and snacks.

Why it matters

Prototypes and pilots are not proven treatments, and a pitch competition does not show that an idea works. The value for residents is in seeing how ideas from hospital wards are moved toward use. Ureka's own requirement that winners report back a year later is one way the hospital says it checks that the prize leads to real progress.