Unimed-BH launches Hub Horizontes

Unimed-BH Hub Horizontes opened.

In an unprecedented model for the sector in Brazil, the center will work in two main areas: open innovation and new health businesses.

The project hits the market with key partners, including Framework, Índigo Hive, Box1824, KPTL and CI-IA Saúde.

“It is a technology that can be applied to improve the lives of our customers and to improve the lives of all the people we interact with because our role is not only with our 1.5 million customers, but with the entire society of the 34 municipalities we serve. interaction”, assesses the CEO of Unimed-BH, Frederico Peret, during the Talks Unimed-BH that took place at the headquarters of the collaboration, in Belo Horizonte.

According to the CEO of Unimed-BH, Frederico Peret, the center marks a new level of innovation within the Cooperative.

“As a leading company we need to stay ahead of trends and adapt quickly to the changes that are transforming our sector. We are moving away from the innovation center model, whose purpose was to develop initiatives for internal use, and we are establishing the Horizontes Hub, which is based on the principle of inclusive innovation, so that together we can create a future together. health care”, he clarifies.

New projects

Unimed-BH has 5,100 collaborative doctors, generating more than 5,000 direct jobs and several indirect jobs.

There are four hospitals in operation, and in addition to the outpatient units, there is already a new unit in an advanced stage of construction, which is the hospital in Contagem (MG).

In addition, Frederico Peret said that the cooperative’s board of directors is evaluating new structural projects.

Office 2030

Horizontes Hub is the first experimental center for new digital technologies and artificial intelligence in healthcare in Brazil.

It establishes the concept of future laboratories (living laboratory) which is being established in a new physical space at the head office of Unimed-BH.

One of them, the “Consultório 2030”, will be a model office where doctors will have the opportunity to test trends such as devices, virtual reality, artificial intelligence co-pilots and advances in telemedicine.

The purpose of this lab is to accelerate the introduction of continuous improvements in practices. The second lab, ‘Meta-Health,’ is patient-centered and will be dedicated to the evolution of care and wellness through apps, smart wearables, algorithms and the metaverse. Other laboratories should be launched later this year, such as “Lab Gerações”, to explore new directions in patient and doctor profiles, and another focused on Generative AI.

Generational AI

Horizontes Hub also brings the first digital open innovation platform to the healthcare sector in Brazil with Generative AI, which allows the general public to interact with this AI to learn about trends and insights new.

On the platform, doctors, employees, start-ups, partners, among others, will be able to register and participate in the center’s activities, and client companies and service providers will be able to challenge to launch innovation in different areas of healthcare, which will be solved by startups, researchers, bigtechs and digital transformation companies.

The aim is to increase the capacity of partnerships to accelerate innovative projects, experiment with emerging technologies and anticipate trends. According to Peret, this environment will be fundamental for everyone who is and will be part of the Hub to solve emerging challenges with a focus on evolving care and improving medical practice.

A beginning

In addition, Horizontes Hub has a new business studio, Horizontes Studio, dedicated to the expansion and commercialization of new digital and AI products. Based on this line of action, Unimed-BH, after completing its first investment in startups, intends to expand the evaluation of new startups and make new investments.

Strategic partnerships

The Horizontes Hub operates on two floors of the Unimed-BH headquarters building, at Escritores, in Belo Horizonte.

The space will be conducive to the exchange of knowledge and experimentation and will also act as an accommodation for beginners working in the health sector.

Hive Indigo

Índigo Hive is an artificial intelligence company and one of the Horizontes Hub partners. Through this partnership, the Hub’s first generation AI models are already being born.

For Índigo, “Horizons Hub represents the opportunity to move faster towards solutions that will bring real disruption to the healthcare sector and could redefine how millions of people take care of their health care, because we analyze the sector as a whole,” said the doctor, CEO and founder of the company, Frederico Andrade.

Frame

Framework is a digital transformation company, a partner of Unimed-BH in several projects for several years, and which has also joined Horizontes Hub.

“A framework has a lot to contribute through our ability to identify opportunities to use technology. We will share all the knowledge gained to strengthen the health care sector so that it can monitor and anticipate the needs of the future”, said the CEO of the company, André Dib.

KPTL Fund

For KPTL investment fund management partner Gustavo Junqueira, another Horizontes Hub partner, this work will help to address key challenges facing society in general and the health value chain to special.

“Market interaction solutions must be polished and hubs like Horizontes play this fundamental role in generating the necessary connections. Therefore, KPTL is a partner in the project because of our great interest in making investments in innovative start-ups with high potential for impact in the health sector”, he said.