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Participants of the PHEMS Business Hackathon. Image / GENESIS Biomed
 13.04.2026

GENESIS Biomed leads the European PHEMS Business Hackathon in Barcelona to shape the future of the Paediatric Health Data Space

More than 50 stakeholders gathered in Barcelona in an international Hackathon organized and coordinated by GENESIS Biomed, based at the University of Barcelona Science Park, within the PHEMS project. The event brought together experts from hospitals, research organizations, industry and innovation ecosystems to co-create sustainable service models for the Paediatric Health Data Space (PHDS). Through three thematic working tracks, participants validated value propositions, identified early adopters and explored long-term sustainability for PHDS services.

PHEMS is a Horizon Europe project that has been building the foundations of the Paediatric Health Data Space (PHDS), a secure, federated and interoperable ecosystem designed to enable the sharing of paediatric health data across Europe. Aligned with the vision of the European Health Data Space (EHDS), the initiative has aimed to facilitate the compliant use of health data for research, innovation and policymaking. Through this work, PHEMS has sought to support the development of new therapies for children, improve the evaluation of paediatric care outcomes through cross-border hospital benchmarking, and foster the creation of new technological solutions in child health.

The PHEMS consortium is made up of a multidisciplinary group of partners from across Europe, including Helsinki University Hospital, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, University College London, Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation, Meyer Children’s Hospital IRCCS, VEIL.AI, Tietoevry Finland, Children’s Clinical University Hospital of Latvia, the European Children’s Hospitals Organisation, GENESIS Biomed, and Aridhia Informatics Limited, an The Hyve.

The PHEMS Business Hackathon was organized as a collaborative forum to explore
exploitation models and long-term sustainability strategies for the future PHDS.

The PHEMS Business Hackathon took place at the Barcelona Health Hub in Barcelona, Spain, bringing together more than 50 participants for an intensive one-day event structured around plenary sessions, parallel working groups across three different tracks, final presentations delivered by a representative from each track, and a concluding discussion. The Hackathon began at 9:30 a.m. with an opening plenary session featuring Eva Rosell, CEO of Barcelona Health Hub, Jari Petäjä, Director of the New Children’s Hospital at HUS (Helsinki University Hospital), Rubén Díaz, Executive Director of ECHO, and Josep Lluís Falcó, CEO of GENESIS Biomed, who introduced Barcelona Health Hub, PHEMS, ECHO and the Business Hackathon, respectively.

The main objective of the hackathon was to gather external input on the business hypotheses associated with the services promoted by PHEMS and their continuity under the future PHDS. More specifically, the exercise was designed to test business models in realistic scenarios, assess stakeholders’ willingness to pay for different services, simulate service delivery and payment schemes, and identify opportunities for scalability and long-term sustainability. In addition, the event aimed to help define the role and requirements of future PHDS Access Providers. Secondary objectives included identifying early adopters, refining service packages and data products, and fostering dialogue among hospitals, data scientists, companies and other key stakeholders in the ecosystem.

» Link to the news: GENESIS Biomed website [+]