Neurosurgeon Prof. Dr. med. Philippe Schucht, Head Physician at the Department of Neurosurgery at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and his team had 45 days to achieve the target amount of 50 000 CHF on the Swiss crowdfunding platform wemakeit. It was reached early after just 29 days and the HORAO team could breathe a sigh of relief. By the end of the campaign yesterday, Monday, 18 September 2017 at 5 p.m., a total of 69 060 CHF was raised. “We are overwhelmed by the generous support for our project and thank all donors from the bottom of our hearts for their financial help,” says Philippe Schucht.
The crowdfunding project was a novelty for the Department of Neurosurgery at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. Chief Physician and Clinic Director Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Raabe says: “The success of HORAO shows us that it taking unconventional paths is also worth it when looking for ideas. Thanks to the successful crowdfunding, we can now motivate researchers all over the world to think about our problem, even and especially outside of the usual medical research.”
Project phase II: Global crowdsourcing competition
With the end of the campaign on wemakeit, the HORAO project goes into phase two. The HORAO team is now preparing the global competition between research and development teams. The money collected on wemakeit will be available as a prize to the winner. “Our goal remains to develop a technology for a microscope, together with the brightest brains, which shows the healthy tissue, so that we neurosurgeons can better distinguish this healthy tissue from a tumor. A technology that will make brain tumor operations even safer in future,” emphasises Philippe Schucht.
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The HORAO campaign on wemakeit: https://wemakeit.com/projects/horao?locale=en