Built to last: The Entrepreneurial Perspective

In health AI, building the technology is only the beginning. The harder part is earning trust: from doctors, patients, clinical partners, regulators, investors, strategic buyers and the people you need around you to grow.

In this moderated Health Session, Marko Topalovic, founder of ArtiQ, joins Urbain Vandeurzen for a conversation between two generations of Leuven technology entrepreneurship.

ArtiQ develops AI-powered software for respiratory medicine, helping medical professionals interpret lung function data and support better diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients with lung diseases. After its acquisition by Clario in 2024, Marko Topalovic's team became part of a broader international platform for clinical trials and respiratory solutions. With Clario now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the story raises a sharper question: what does it take for Leuven-born health AI to become trusted at global scale?

Urbain Vandeurzen brings a rare long-term perspective to that question. As the entrepreneur behind LMS, later acquired by Siemens, and as an investor involved in high-growth technology, industrial and life sciences companies, he understands that scaling technology is never just about the product. It is about timing, credibility, capital, market access, strategic buyers and the human relationships that make growth possible.

Together, Marko and Urbain will explore how health AI moves from research to clinical use, how medical data and devices shape innovation, why healthcare scale is different from ordinary software scale, and what founders need to understand when technology enters a much bigger international machine.