NEC Innovation Challenge 2023

Deliver the solutions of tomorrow – NEC is looking for startups with LLM, Healthcare, Smart City, and Urban Agriculture solutions to collaborate together!

Healthcare

 

   To promote business related to drug discovery and medical systems, NEC changed its articles of incorporation in 2019. This expanded NEC’s mission for “Solutions for Society” in the field of healthcare, which has been one of the strategic growth fields for NEC.

   In this field, there is still a huge untapped potential for utilizing technologies to create customer value. NEC is therefore looking for startups worldwide, with solutions to explore such potential and give their innovative ideas the chance to be showcased and, eventually, adopted in a business context.

 


Inspirations: Additional Context

Here are some additional background information on the nature of the current situation and challenge statement to help you come up with relevant solutions:  

 

In 2021, NEC announced an initiative to create a healthcare and life science business that utilizes AI and other digital technologies as part of the "creation of future growth businesses" set forth in the 2025 Mid-term Management Plan. NEC will focus on the three areas of Medical Care, Lifestyle Support, and Life Science, aiming for a business value of 500 billion yen (approximately 4.5 billion USD) in 2030. 

 

NEC has contributed to the efficiency and sophistication of medical services through the provision of reception systems (*1) and electronic medical record systems for more than 50 years. Furthermore, NEC began full-scale entry into the drug discovery business in 2019 (*2), with the aim of promoting innovative next-generation medical care based on the results of research activities to date. This new initiative aims to accelerate and expand the healthcare-related business more than ever before and to grow the business toward the creation of social value.

Specifically, NEC will expand business in the following three areas by taking advantage of its leading-edge biometrics technologies, “Bio-IDiom" (*3), featuring the world's No. 1 face recognition accuracy (*4), as well as its portfolio of leading artificial intelligence technologies, “NEC the WISE" (*5), including video analytics and graph-based relationship learning developed by NEC laboratories.

The first area is the “Medical Care" business, featuring digital support for medical care; the second is “Lifestyle Support" business, which helps individuals in their daily lives; and the third is “Life Science" business, which supports personalized medical care with technology. Through these three areas of business, NEC aims to create a world in which individuals may live more freely and comfortably. 


Three Areas of Focus and Future Vision 

 

In addition, NEC promotes R&D with an eye toward 2030 and the needs of hospitals, nursing care, rehabilitation, and other situations, and at the same time, NEC has also launched the Healthcare and Life Sciences Project Management Office (PMO) to support the acceleration of business development across the NEC Group.

NEC aims to support society and the healthcare sciences field through the provision of services and products tailored to individuals, including both consumers and healthcare professionals.  

 

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*1) Reception system: System for preparing medical fee statements 

*2) NEC's AI Drug Development Business
https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/ai-drug/index.html 

*3) “Bio-IDiom” is the term for NEC’s biometric authentication, including face, iris, fingerprint/palmprint, finger vein, voice, and ear acoustics. _By leveraging this world-class technology and extensive performances and using biometric authentication in different ways or in combination to suit each custmers’ needs, NEC will create “a world where everyone can use digital technology safely”. 

https://www.nec.com/en/global/ad/bio-idiom/ 

*4)  Since 2009, NEC has repeatedly been ranked first in the face recognition accuracy evaluation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/biometrics/face/index.html  

*5)"NEC the WISE" is the term for a group of the NEC’s advanced AI technologies. “The WISE” indicates the meaning of the “sages” and the thoughts that humans and AI will work together to solve social issues that are becoming more complex with advanced intelligence.  


Press Release; NEC announces new AI technology brand, “NEC the WISE”. https://www.nec.com/en/press/201607/global_20160719_01.html 

AI by NEC  https://www.nec.com/ai  

 

 

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