At MEDVIA, we believe that health innovation improves when we have diversity in leadership. Which is why we work to improve the diversity of people both within our organization and in the broader health(tech) industry. We strive for more balanced representation in the voices contributing ideas and making decisions in our ecosystem. Together, we can create better health – by all, for all.

MEDVIA is an industry-driven membership organization – we stimulate health innovation in Flanders by providing funding and services for R&D at the intersection of biotech, medtech and digital technologies. Our strength lies in unity: As a cluster, we support our members by keeping an eye on the bigger picture and addressing large-scale challenges facing our health industry.

By improving the diversity of people in positions of leadership, we can bolster the success of our healthcare sector. Diversity is defined here as a representation of various identities – including but not limited to different genders, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, disabilities, ages and backgrounds – and leadership refers to inclusion of a person’s ideas and opinions in the innovation and decision-making process of companies and organizations.

Improved inclusion is not only fair; it is also strategic. Health innovation benefits from diversity in the decision-making team.

Innovators from different backgrounds bring unique perspectives that help us understand and address healthcare needs, leading to breakthroughs such as improved women’s health products when female scientists contribute to R&D efforts, and better healthcare solutions when patients take part in the innovation process.

To strengthen the Flemish health innovation industry, MEDVIA is committed to fostering improved diversity in our own team, Board of Directors and Innovation Board. Furthermore, we aim to provide the members of our ecosystem with insights on the benefits of diversity and with guidance on how they can create greater equity and opportunity for underrepresented groups in their own executive teams and Boards.

To achieve these goals, MEDVIA will incorporate diversity-supporting activities in our member services, events and programs.

Initial Steps

We are initiating our efforts with a CEO Roundtable ‘Diversity & Leadership’ on 19 November 2024. The event will feature a keynote by Eva McLellan from Roche highlighting the advantages of diversity, backed by data and research from her organization Unlocking Eve. This will be followed by a moderated roundtable discussion inviting our CEOs to share the challenges they’re facing and to identify potential solutions.

The aim is to create a roadmap forward for Flemish healthtech with better practical support for diversity in our ecosystem’s leadership teams. We invite all C-suite executives from our members to participate in the CEO Roundtable (you can find more information here or register here).

Together, we can pave the way to better health.