Luxembourg Delegation Visits Digital Health Ecosystem in Boston

On Monday 7 November 2022, the first day of the working visit to the United States, chaired by His Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke and led jointly by Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Minister of Economy, Franz Fayot, began in Boston, Massachusetts.

Historically focused on activities related to biotechnology, life sciences and pharmaceuticals, the city of Boston decided, in 2016, to invest in digital health with the ambition of building a dynamic ecosystem and becoming a leader worldwide in this area. Luxembourg, which aims to position its ecosystem of health technologies as innovative, particularly in the field of digital health, wishes to draw inspiration from Boston's successful model.

The purpose of the working visit is to identify and understand the key factors of Boston's digital health ecosystem and good practices, among others, in terms of data governance and financing systems. In addition, the trip aims to identify potential collaborations between Luxembourg and the United States in this field.

Thus, the day began with a breakfast with the leaders of Mass General Brigham (MGB), an integrated academic health care system, comprising both academic medical centres, hospitals, including Mass General Hospital (MGH), a health insurance plan, networks of physicians, community health centres, home care and long-term care services. MGB is the largest private employer in the state of Massachusetts and also associated with Harvard Medical School.

The delegation then visited the hospital's surgical theatre, made famous as the "Ether Dome" in 1846, when the first surgery using ether as an anesthetic was performed there in public. The delegation then visited the MGH Cancer Centre, which was one of the first hospitals in the world to implement proton therapy in cancer treatment.

Then, the delegation looked at how MGB finances research and innovation in the field of digital health. In particular, the delegation attended a presentation of the investment fund dedicated to digital innovation and artificial intelligence launched by Mass General Brigham, followed by the presentation of Mass General Brigham Ventures, the venture capital fund created to invest in the marketing of innovations resulting from MGB's clinical research.

The delegation was also received for a meeting by Charlie Baker, the outgoing Republican Governor of the State of Massachusetts.

His Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke and Minister Fayot then went to FM Global with part of the delegation. An insurer specialising in risk prevention in the industrial sector, FM Global has earlier signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) in October 2022 on the themes of industrial automation and climate resilience. Following Brexit, in 2017, FM Global decided to transfer its European headquarters to Luxembourg and has continued to develop its activities ever since.

Deputy Prime Minister Lenert visited BlueCross, a non-profit organisation that has responsibility for health insurance linked to the responsibility of providing health care with the other part of the delegation. The purpose of the meeting was to study the best practices put in place to accelerate preventive medicine.