- The acceleration day – powered by the globally-recognized MESH Incubator – allowed AI, digital health and entrepreneurship to take center stage as clinicians and innovators transformed ideas into real-world healthcare solutions
Dubai: Mass General Brigham, a global leader in healthcare and top hospital system in the U.S., concluded a WHX edition of its award-winning Healthcare Innovation Acceleration program powered by the globally-recognized MESH Incubator, bringing together clinicians, innovators, and health system leaders to explore healthcare innovation, AI, and clinician-led entrepreneurship.
Held during WHX, the program convened clinicians, health system leaders, founders, researchers, and investors from the Middle East and international markets. MESH translated ideas to, discussions centered on a shared challenge facing healthcare systems globally: how to operationalize innovation — AI, venture funding and digital health — within real clinical environments, regulation, and workforce.
Over the day, participants progressed through a structured innovation pathway, from foundational perspectives on AI and digital health to application, tech transfer, venture readiness, to pitching their innovations. Sessions explored how emerging technologies move from concept to bedside, with exercises focused on problem-solving, intellectual property and licensing, venture formation, and investment-ready pitches. Designed by physician innovators for innovators, the program emphasized execution, decision-making, and real-world constraints, reflecting the regional shift from experimentation toward scalable, system-ready innovation.
“MESH is intentionally designed around the realities of healthcare — not around theory,” said Marc Succi, MD, who founded the center at Mass General Brigham in 2017 after licensing his own inventions to industry and founding several companies. “The program is grounded in peer-reviewed research and real-world clinical validation, and what we saw at WHX was a strong interest across the region for practical frameworks that help clinicians and health systems move faster, without losing rigor or patient focus.”
The program was led by Mass General Brigham clinicians and innovation executives who operate at the intersection of entrepreneurship, care delivery, research, and commercialization, including Chris Coburn, Chief Innovation Officer; Marc Succi, MD, MGB Innovation Acceleration Day Course Director and Founder and Executive Director of the MESH Incubator; Bernardo Bizzo, Senior Director at Mass General Brigham AI; and Sherene Shenouda, Director of Business Development & Licensing — offering insights into how innovation is governed, evaluated, and scaled within an integrated academic healthcare system like Mass General Brigham.
Unlike traditional incubators, MESH is embedded within clinical practice and led by a faculty of inventors, entrepreneurs and operators, ensuring innovation is grounded in patient care, regulatory reality and system readiness. Independent peer-reviewed studies validate MESH model’s effectiveness in boosting innovation in clinical settings, and the MESH Incubator has published more than 80 scientific papers on innovation, AI and healthcare operations.
Chris Coburn, Chief Innovation Officer at Mass General Brigham, said “As healthcare systems across the Middle East continue to invest in digital transformation and human capital, discussions at WHX highlighted the importance of moving beyond ideas towards execution and durable innovation that deliver measurable impact for patients and communities.”
