On June 11 and 12, PhotonicSweden organises a workshop involving the region of Stockholm. Here, experts, industry representatives, entrepreneurs and researchers from all over Europe will gather to strengthen the international network, exchange knowledge, ideas and challenges. Focus is on implementation of photonic technologies in the increasing global healthcare market. We had the opportunity to ask the director of PhotonicSweden, Pierre-Yves Fonjallaz, about the event.
First and foremost, what is photonics?
Photonics – from the words photons and electronics - concerns all technologies combining electronics with light such as lasers, LEDs, image detectors, sensors and optical fibers. In our community, we use this term of photonics because if we talk about optics most people think we are in the spectacles business… Nowadays, everyone is benefitting the revolution brought by photonic technologies to smart phones which contain advanced cameras, displays, LED lamps and more. The invisible aspects of it is that smart phones can be made very light because most parts of the housing are so thin that only lasers can cut them while keeping their shape undistorted. The other invisible implication of photons happens when communicating with internet or just calling since the signals are rapidly transferred from wireless signals to optical signals and send through optical fibers.
What implications does photonics have for healthcare?
Photonics for healthcare deals with imaging, like microscopy, endoscopy and other types of imaging of the patients. It concerns also treatment using lasers or LEDs. The biggest benefit of using photonic technologies in healthcare is that it improves the selectivity, the precision and the sensitivity. It means that it suits very well a personalized healthcare. Diseases are detected locally, in most cases non-invasively, and the treatments are more selective and adapted to the patient.
What are your expectations for the June meeting?
About half of the Swedish photonics industry and its over 240 companies can be found in the Stockholm region. The region is also home to a large part of the Swedish life science and especially of the healthcare-related industry. So, the combination Stockholm, photonics and healthcare, appeared as a natural choice for this event!
Our expectations are related to the potential effect on the growth of the many small photonics companies in Europe and on the increased awareness for the field of photonics in Stockholm. We also expect an increased interregional cooperation in the field of photonics involving Stockholm.
Do you want to know more about PhotonicSweden and the workshop in June, contact Pierre-Yves Fonjallaz; +46 70-218 11 76, pierre@photonicsweden.org
About PhotonicSwedenPhotonicSweden is the voice of the Swedish optics and photonics community gathering companies, researchers and individuals. By connecting a large number of stakeholders within photonics and supporting both large, medium and small companies as well as researchers PhotonicSweden aims to strengthen the field of photonics. The workshop in June is one example over initiatives on how PhotonicSweden strive to enhance the interest and opportunities within the photonics field.
PhotonicSweden is a branch organisation providing services to, a large number of small and medium players which do not necessarily have the possibility to cover all components for their successful business development, e.g. finding partners or acquiring Swedish or EU public financing etc.
