The hospital of the future is not only a place where medical services are delivered, but also a space for creating and implementing innovations that address the real needs of patients and healthcare professionals. It is a hospital that ceases to be merely a recipient of healthcare policies and instead becomes a co-creator of change.
The MCSC Platform, developed by the Institute of Mother and Child, is an ecosystem for collaboration, testing, validation, and implementation of healthcare innovations.
It represents an evolution and natural continuation of the experience gained through the MCSC Hospital Leadership Innovation Competition, transforming the existing program into a permanent platform supporting the development of medical technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital health services. The fifth edition of the competition is currently underway.
“The foundation of the Platform is the experience gained through the MCSC Hospital Leadership Innovation Competition, which since 2022 has been building one of the largest medical innovation ecosystems in Poland, engaging dozens of hospitals, experts, and technology partners. The program enables the identification of real healthcare facility needs, the testing of solutions in clinical environments, and the creation of implementation pathways”,
says Dr. Alicja Karney, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute of Mother and Child.
Under the MCSC banner, we are creating a collaborative environment that supports every stage of innovation development – from idea and prototype, through clinical validation, to implementation and scaling.
A Sandbox for Digital Health Innovation
One of the key components of the MCSC Platform will be a specialized innovation sandbox for the healthcare sector.
Its development will begin in autumn 2026. This will be a long-term infrastructure and capability-building project aimed at creating a secure environment for testing and validating solutions that utilize medical data and artificial intelligence.
“Secure access to medical data is currently one of the key prerequisites for the development of AI in healthcare. The sandbox being created within the MCSC Platform will combine innovation with responsibility, supporting the development of solutions that comply with European standards for data protection and the use of artificial intelligence”,
says Dr. Joanna Aftyka, PhD Eng, Data Scientist within the MCSC team.
Within the framework of the Gaia AI Factory, the MCSC Platform will serve as a center of expertise in medical data and artificial intelligence.
Validation in Real Clinical Environments
Clinical pilots will be a key pillar of the MCSC Platform’s activities. Through the involvement of healthcare professionals, patients, and experts, technologies will be validated under real-world conditions.
We believe that these pilot projects will generate clinical evidence supporting the development and commercialization of innovative solutions.
Development Support Program
Our goal is also to support innovators, startups, and technology companies in reaching hospitals and gaining a better understanding of the Polish healthcare system.
Through our initiatives, innovators will gain access to industry experts, technical consultations, testing environments, pilot projects, and collaboration opportunities with healthcare providers.
Ultimately, we aim to create an environment where products can be verified and prepared for market entry, enabling technology demonstrations and shortening the path to implementation. As Maciej Migacz, CEO of Clebre, one of the winners of previous editions of the MCSC competition, emphasized, the possibility of real-world implementation is one of the initiative’s greatest strengths:
“The perspective of a medical startup is quite challenging because of the barriers we face. Before we can realistically begin testing our solution on the market, we must complete medical certification – a lengthy, demanding, and costly process. Only then can we start working with healthcare professionals and truly verify whether our solution makes sense. The competition significantly shortens this path to validation.”
The full statement is available in the Medonet PRO podcast “Ostry Dyżur” (“Emergency Ward”).
Education, Skills Development, and an Innovation Community
The Platform will also serve as a center for developing competencies in AI, medical data, and the digital transformation of healthcare. To support this mission, on July 8, as part of the Gaia AI Factory project, we will launch a series of open webinars dedicated to the use of artificial intelligence.
Register for the webinar:
European-Style Digital Health: AI, Data, and e-Health in Modern Healthcare – The Most Promising Development Trends | July 8, 2026 (Polish-language webinar)
Together with our partners, we will gradually organize training courses, webinars, workshops, and educational programs for students, young entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, researchers, and public administration representatives.
This will help build the competencies necessary for the effective implementation of innovation while also fostering a community of experts capable of creating modern solutions for the healthcare sector.
The coming months will also mark an important stage in the development of the MCSC community. On September 15, the Hospital Innovation Summit & Demo Day will take place at the Warsaw Gasworks Museum, where the 10 finalists of the 5th edition of the MCSC Hospital Leadership Innovation Competition will present their solutions to representatives of the healthcare, scientific, and business sectors.
The competition cycle will conclude with the October Grand Finale Gala, during which the winners will be announced.
From Innovation to Public Policy
Another key objective is to support the transfer of knowledge from pilot projects and implementations to national and European healthcare policies.
The results of ongoing projects, validations, and research activities will serve as the basis for developing recommendations on the implementation of digital health technologies, identifying regulatory barriers, and establishing new models for the assessment and financing of innovation.
In this way, the Platform will become not only a place where technologies are developed, but also a source of knowledge supporting the transformation of healthcare systems.
MCSC Platform – The Future of Healthcare Innovation
“The MCSC Platform does not replace the Hospital Leadership Innovation Competition; it expands its potential. Our ambition is not only to support the development of technologies but also to create solutions that improve patient care, support healthcare professionals, and increase the efficiency of the Polish healthcare system”,
says Radosław Nowak, Director’s Representative for IT and Cybersecurity and Head of the Center for Innovation and Artificial Intelligence.
Ultimately, the MCSC Platform will evolve into a national and international healthcare innovation hub, combining the functions of a competition, accelerator, living lab, sandbox, competence center, and collaborative environment connecting healthcare, science, business, and public administration.
Its mission is to accelerate the safe implementation of innovation, strengthen the competitiveness of the Polish MedTech sector, and support a data-driven transformation of healthcare.