About Our Team, Our Vision, Our Mission

Team

Vision – Constructing the Global Health Tech Lab network through initial building of Health Tech ecosystem of Serbia. This network will include ecosystems of all developing countries of Africa, South America and Asia and all other emerging health tech markets. Furthermore, it will provide knowledge share among developing countries as well as among developing and developed countris enabling crossing of the divides and resulting in health without borders.

Mission – Health Tech Lab will make an impact on global health tech ecosystems and communities through multiple glocal activites, projects and events. There is a real need of gathering all healthcare and tech stakeholders, students and professionals in multidisciplinary settings. This is where the innovation occurs and where innovation growth is enabled and promoted.

Our story

Health Tech Lab (HTL) was created in 2018 to meet the real need of building an impactful health-tech ecosystem of Serbia. Core mission of HTL is to identify health challenges and create and support innovative, technological solutions with the patient always being at the core.

Some of the key achievements during the first two years are the following:

  • Enabling total of of 8 health-tech meet-ups from which 5 were part of partnering conferences
  • One self-orchestrated conference marking the partnership and membership within European Connected Health Alliance
  • 1 ducational workshop on data protection – GDPR in Health
  • Co-organization of health-tech startup competition Startup Jerusalem, together with Israeli embassy in Serbia and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for freedom
  • Co-organization of pre-acceleration program for health startups in collaboration with the Innovation Forum Cambridge, UK and the Science and Technology Park Belgrade
  • Active collaboration with government officials in order to address key legal and bureaucratic barriers for health tech startups
  • Membership with European Connected Health Alliance-ECHAlliance since June 2018
  • Becoming local expert and international jury at the United Nations based World Summit Awards since February 2019
  • Distinguished as one of four finalists of the Science & Research for Women In Tech program in Paris, France.

The ultimate goal is glocal multidisciplinary lab, from research to prototyping, up to ready–to-market solutions. After Serbia, Health Tech Lab model will be reproduced in other developing countries: Africa, South America and Asia and others.

We look forward to collaborating with you. Best regards!

Cordially,

Ivana Kostić & Damjan Damnjanović

Team

Ivana Kostić

Dr. Ivana Kostić is the co-founder of the Health Tech Lab (HTL). HTL was created after the organization of the First MIT Medical hackathon in Belgrade, in cooperation with MIT hacking medicine. She is also a technology transfer associate at the Innovation Fund and MASHAV alumni.

Ivana holds PhD degree from MIT Portugal Program in Bioengineering Systems in collaboration with Portuguese Laboratory-Biomaterials & Stem Cell-based Therapeutics Lab- and -Karp Lab at MIT together with Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s Hospital. These collaborative efforts are aimed at developing minimally invasive and effective therapies for ischemic organs. The collaboration is still ongoing.

Her initial interest in the field began during her studies in physiology at the University of Belgrade and further enriched by the practical knowledge gained through the practice of IAESTE in Brazil and the First BSRT Summer School for Regenerative Medicine in Berlin.

Dr. Ivana Kostić je suosnivač Health Tech Lab-a / Laboratorije zdravstvenih tehnologija. HTL je nastao nakon organizovanja Prvog MIT medicinskog hakatona u Beogradu, u saradnji sa MIT hacking medicine. Ona je takođe saradnik za transfer tehnologije u Fondu za inovacionu delatnost i alumnista MASHAV-a.

Ivana je doktorirala na MIT Portugal programu / Bioinženjerski sistemi u saradnji sa portugalskom laboratorijom –Biomaterials & Stem Cell-based Therapeutics Lab– i –Karp Lab-om na MIT-u zajedno sa Brigham and Women’s i Boston Children’s Hospital. Ovi zajednički napori su usmereni na razvoj minimalno invazivnih i efikasnih terapija za ishemične organe. Saradnja je još uvek u toku.

Njeno početno zanimanje za ovu oblast započelo je tokom studija fiziologije na Univerzitetu u Beogradu i dodatno obogaćeno praktičnim znanjem stečenim kroz praksu IAESTE u Brazilu i Prvu BSRT letnju školu za regenerativnu medicinu u Berlinu.

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Damjan Damnjanović

Born and raised in Belgrade. Graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the Department of Movie and TV Production. Received his Master’s degree in State Management and Humanitarian Affairs as a scholarship holder from the Government of Italy and the European Parliament.

Dina’s father, expert in direct marketing, digital nomad, bibliophile, co-founder of Blue circle, ex President of Serbian patient Association. Co-Founder Health Tech with Ivana Kostić.

Rođen je i odrastao u Beogradu. Diplomirao na Fakultetu dramskih umetnosti na Odseku za filmsku i TV produkciju. Magistrirao je iz oblasti državne uprave i humanitarnih poslova kao stipendista Vlade Italije i Evropskog parlamenta.

Dinin tata, stručnjak za direktni marketing, digitalni nomad, bibliofil, suosnivač Plavog kruga, bivši predsednik Srpskog udruženja pacijenata. Suosnivač Health Tech s Ivanom Kostić.

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Maša Komnenić

Information Security and Data Privacy Specialist | Certified Data Protection Officer (GDPR)

Masha has been working as a Data Protection Officer for the past 5 years, helping early stage biomedical startups from UK and Ireland, and has contributed as a mentor on many international business accelerators. She specialises in implementing, monitoring and auditing business compliance with privacy regulations (HIPAA, PIPEDA, E privacy directive, GDPR, PCI DSS, EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks). As a member of the ECHAlliance Ecosystem Serbia she works closely with patient associations, Serbian Government and private medical secretor advising on information security and personal data protection.

Masha studied Law at the Belgrade University and has Masters degree from the Faculty of Law. She has passed the Bar examination in 2016 and got GDPR certification from the PECAB in 2018.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Early Stage Businesses Development
  • Information Security
  • Regulatory Compliance
  • Legal research

Stručnjak za sigurnost informacija i privatnost podataka | Ovlašćeni službenik za zaštitu podataka (GDPR)

Maša poslednjih 5 godina radi kao službenik za zaštitu podataka, pomažući biomedicinskim startapima u Velikoj Britaniji i Irskoj te je tako doprinela mnogim mentorima za međunarodno poslovanje. Specijalizovala se za sprovođenje, nadzor i reviziju usklađenosti poslovanja sa propisima o privatnosti (HIPAA, PIPEDA, E direktiva o privatnosti, GDPR, PCI DSS, EU-SAD i švajcarsko-američki okviri zaštite privatnosti). Kao članica ECHAlliance ekosistema Srbija usko sarađuje sa udruženjima pacijenata, lokalnom Vladom i privatnim medicinskim sektorom koji savetuje o sigurnosti informacija i zaštiti ličnih podataka.

Maša je studirala pravo i magistrirala na na Pravnom fakultetu, Univerziteta u Beogradu. Položila je pravosudni ispit 2016. godine i od 2018. godine stekla je GDPR certifikat od PECAB-a.

Područja stručnosti:

  • Razvoj preduzeća u ranoj fazi
  • Sigurnost informacija
  • Pridržavanje propisa
  • Pravna istraživanja

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David Vučen

David Vučen is a student of medical biochemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade. He is very active in the student organizations BPSA and NAPSer, where in the past few years he has participated in the organization of numerous educational and mobility projects, workshops and congresses. He is the co-founder of the AlgiOx startup and served as Public Relations Officer in 2019. He started working as a teaching assistant at the Health Tech Lab since its inception and is currently serving as a Community Manager. He is driven by a strong desire to support and develop health care start-ups and innovations in the future, with a focus on disruptive technologies.

David Vučen je student medicinske biohemije na Farmaceutskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Veoma je aktvan u studentskim organizacijama BPSA i NAPSer, gde je u proteklih nekoliko godina učestvovao u organizaciji brojnih edukativnih projekata, projekata mobilnosti, radionica i kongresa. Ko-osnivač je startapa AlgiOx i tokom 2019. godine je vršio funkciju Public Relations Officer-a. Svoj rad u Health Tech Lab-u je od samog osnivanja počeo kao asistent, a trenutno vrši fuknciju Community Manager-a. Vođen je velikom željom da se u budućnosti bavi podrškom i razvojem staratpova i inovacija u oblasti zdravstva, sa akcentom na disruptivne tehnologije.

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