Innovation Galaxy at the 20th Mediterranean Geriatrics Forum in Sousse
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Innovation Galaxy at the 20th Mediterranean Geriatrics Forum in Sousse
HealthCare Innovation ran an Innovation Galaxy at the 20th Mediterranean Forum of Geriatrics. The forum took place on 4 and 5 April 2026 at Hotel El Mouradi Palace in Sousse. The immersive space ran across both days, around three themes: ageing and prevention, patient care pathways, and medico-social support.
HealthCare Innovation is the HealthTech cluster based in Monastir, Tunisia. It co-organised the space with the Society for the Promotion of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Serve Senior and MedGalaxis .
The problem the format solves
Clinicians do not attend startup fairs. Startups do not attend medical congresses. Each group assumes the other will come to it, and neither does.
Innovation Galaxy removes that choice. HCI builds the space inside a congress the clinicians already planned to attend. The visitor does not travel, does not register for a second event, and meets the tools between two sessions.
That is a simple idea. It is also the reason a geriatrician saw a remote monitoring tool in April who would not have seen one otherwise.
What the two days covered
The space was built around three themes rather than around exhibitors.
| Theme | What visitors could examine |
| Ageing and prevention | Tools that detect loss of function early rather than after a fall |
| Patient care pathways | Solutions that follow an older patient across services rather than inside one |
| Medico-social support | Tools built for the carer as much as for the patient |
Healthcare professionals, experts, innovators and ecosystem players moved through the space over the two days. Dr Haroun Ouanes, Lina Gargouri and Nermine Dammak led the HCI side.
« A geriatrician does not need to be convinced that ageing is a subject. What is missing is the chance to hold the tool, ask two hard questions and decide in five minutes. That is what this space is for. » Dr Haroun Ouanes, Director, HealthCare Innovation
Why geriatrics, and why now
The demographic case is settled. The World Health Organization expects the number of people aged 60 and over to reach 1.4 billion in 2030, then 2.1 billion in 2050 . By 2030 one person in six worldwide will be 60 or older.
Two thirds of them will live in low and middle income countries. Tunisia sits in that group, and it carries a second load. Noncommunicable diseases cause around 86 percent of deaths in the country. Long conditions and long lives make the same demand: continuity.
The World Health Organization answers with an approach called integrated care for older people, or ICOPE . It organises care around five intrinsic capacities: cognition, mobility, vitality and nutrition, sensory function, and psychological health.
Read the ICOPE list next to the three Innovation Galaxy themes and they overlap. That is not a coincidence. Both start from function rather than from diagnosis.
What we take from it
Three points hold beyond the forum.
- The venue is the intervention. Putting innovation inside an existing congress reaches practitioners that a dedicated event never will. We use the same method in other specialties, described in the Patient Care Pathways hackathon
- Carers are users. Solutions built only for the patient miss the person who actually operates them at home.
- Ageing is an economic subject as well as a clinical one. It sits next to workplace health in the same policy file, which we cover in ISO 45003 and the new rules of workplace mental health
Congress organisers who want an Innovation Galaxy at their event can reach us through the Projects page. Startups working on ageing can apply through our Startup programmes
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the Innovation Galaxy?
A: An immersive space that HealthCare Innovation sets up inside an existing medical congress. Visitors move through interactive stations showing digital health solutions relevant to that congress.
Q: When and where did the geriatrics edition take place?
A: On 4 and 5 April 2026, at Hotel El Mouradi Palace in Sousse, during the 20th Mediterranean Forum of Geriatrics.
Q: Who co-organised it?
A: HealthCare Innovation, the Society for the Promotion of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Serve Senior and MedGalaxis.
Q: What themes did it cover?
A: Ageing and prevention, patient care pathways, and medico-social support.
Q: How can a congress host an Innovation Galaxy?
A: By contacting HealthCare Innovation through the projects page of the cluster website.
HCI Resources
Accelerating Innovation in HealthTech
Pharma & Medical Device Regulatory Services
External Citations
World Health Organization – Ageing and health fact sheet
World Health Organization – Integrated care for older people, ICOPE
World Health Organization – Tunisia country data
