A Blueprint for Sustainable Living

DESIGNS

FOR TRANSFORMATIVE 
DEVICES
“Geopolitical tensions impacted the European innovation ecosystem heavily in 2023 – 
including its funding. The EIB continued to provide essential support to early-stage and highly 
innovative companies across Europe, in strategic sectors such as life sciences, space, climate, 
artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. The EIB has become a clear leader in this crucial 
market segment. Our direct support allowed many innovative SMEs to stay in Europe, created 
jobs, and safeguarded know-how that often originates from excellent European universities and 
research centres. The investment community is looking more and more to the Bank as a potential 
lead investor. This is exactly the catalyst role that we are aiming for in a segment with a large 
market gap.”
Yu Zhang, head of Industry 4.0 and life sciences, EIB
“Our financing has a strong impact on the lives of EU citizens. Investing in research, innovation 
and development is critical for every sector of the economy. The EIB plays a crucial role in 
promoting innovative and sustainable projects that drive economic growth and, thus, improve the 
lives of people in the communities they serve. We are proud of these transactions.”
Gilles Badot, director, Adriatic Sea and Iberia, EIB
“This year has seen Advisory playing a critical role in supporting individual companies and 
projects to get prepared for financing, and in supporting the development of a strong ecosystem 
in key high-tech sectors. We link up promoters, investors and the European Commission. This 
includes sectors from space to cybersecurity, and hydrogen to defence. ”
Juan Magaña-Campos, head of corporate finance advisory, EIB

Innovators examine the processes that others take for 
granted. They question them, and they develop a 
better path. A path so much better that when everyone 
else sees it they wonder how they could have missed it 
themselves. The European Investment Bank looks for 
these innovators, and gives them the tools to create 
and to transform how we go through our lives. From 
our hospitals to our breakfast tables, these innovators 
make our lives better.

WHEN PAPERWORK 
IS LIFE AND DEATH

A German health startup uses artificial intelligence to cut time spent on 
medical paperwork and improve patient care

In the early 2010s, Wieland Sommer was a young, enthusiastic radiologist who had just started working 
in one of Europe’s biggest hospitals, LMU Klinikum in Munich. It didn’t take him long to realise that 
instead of focusing on his patients, he spent most of his time on paperwork. “My time could have been 
used better,” he says. Then, he had an idea: use digital technology to standardise reporting and minimise 
time spent on documentation.
It’s an idea that could have a big impact. After all, the average doctor spends more than a third of their 
working hours on paperwork. And even though Europe has a better than average ratio of doctors to 
inhabitants compared to the rest of the world, 40% of these practitioners are close to retirement age. 
Europe has a looming shortage of physicians, and doctors need to make each hour count.
Radiologists like Sommer are particularly in demand. Due to an ageing population, more and more 
medical imaging is needed, but over 80% of health systems report radiology shortages. And radiologists 
lose a lot of time reporting, because of outdated methods of documentation. “We usually start with a 
blank document,” Sommer says, “look at the images, and dictate our analysis.” Every doctor has their own 
style and there’s little standardisation.
In 2014, Sommer founded his startup, Smart Radiology. He worked with software engineers to develop 
templates that could be updated regularly, so that clinicians always have access to the most relevant 
information. 
Digitalising healthcare
After a decade, the company has expanded beyond radiology and rebranded as Smart Reporting. It has 
more than 80 employees, including a significant number of clinicians, while its software has more than 
15 000 users in over 90 countries. The European Investment Bank is supporting Smart Reporting’s 
expansion with €15 million in venture debt financing, backed by the InvestEU programme, 
which helps innovative European companies mobilise investment and supports the European Union’s 
sustainability agenda. “There’s still a lot of efficiency to be gained in the healthcare sector, and we see 
this software as not only a great solution for that, but also as a step forward for much-needed healthcare 
digitalisation,” says Gergely Krajcsi, the EU bank loan officer working on the project.
The company says its software can save up to 90% of the time doctors spend on documentation, as well 
as cutting 30% of the time referring physicians spend interpreting non-standard reports. It’s literally a 
matter of life and death, after all. Research has shown that introducing standardised reporting in 
pathology led to a 4.3% reduction in patient mortality. “Another reason why we’re financing the 
company,” adds Cristina Niculescu, a European Investment Bank life sciences specialist, “is because it has 
the potential to improve healthcare through a data-driven approach that makes diagnoses easier and 
more accurate.”

A Blueprint for Sustainable Living