MedicRise today it trains hundreds of healthcare professionals across the Czech Republic and cooperates with larger healthcare facilities. But when the team entered the incubation program Social Impact Award, was just getting started. His journey shows how the right background, a clearer strategy, and perseverance can help turn a strong intention into a sustainable project with real impact that improves communication in healthcare.
A topic that the healthcare industry has long underestimated
MedicRise is dedicated to developing communication and soft skills of healthcare professionals. Today, it systematically trains face-to-face courses directly in healthcare facilities and focuses on topics that are of greatest interest in practice: communication with dissatisfied or aggressive patients, assertive communication or teamwork. This is precisely the strength of the MedicRise project. It does not address marginal topics, but skills that directly affect the everyday reality of client care.
"As a young doctor, I found myself in situations where a patient was dissatisfied, yelling, or wanted something from me that I couldn't fulfill, and it was not at all easy to react calmly, understandably, and at the same time maintain boundaries. It was these experiences that led me to start looking for ways to communicate with patients and with each other differently," he says Barbora Mechurova, founder of the MedicRise project.
In healthcare, communication is often the deciding factor in whether a difficult situation ends in cooperation or conflict. When a healthcare professional initially fails to respond to a patient's emotions and simply starts explaining, the patient feels unheard, tension builds, and trust is lost. Delivering negative news is similarly challenging, where uncertainty and fear easily arise without preparation. When communication skills are underestimated, it affects both sides: healthcare professionals are exhausted, patients are dissatisfied, and the entire system loses trust. MedicRise is thus working in an area that has a direct impact not only on the healthcare professional's experience, but also on the quality of care itself.
The Social Impact Award came at a time when the idea needed direction
When MedicRise entered the Social Impact Award in 2022, it was at the very beginning. The team had an established legal entity and was preparing the first annual Healthy Healthcare conference, but it lacked a clear concept and strategy. Much of it was based on intuition, enthusiasm, and a willingness to venture into uncertainty without a guarantee that the topic would be of any interest in the healthcare industry.
It was at this point that the Social Impact Award program played an important role. It gave the team a structure: it helped clarify the direction, formulate a concept, define the products they wanted to focus on, and set the first concrete steps. Not only the structure of the program was important, but also the opportunity to share experiences with other participants who were solving similar issues. For MedicRise, the Social Impact Award was not a one-time breakthrough, but an environment that helped the team think more strategically and significantly accelerated the path that would otherwise have taken much longer to find through trial and error.
From one-on-one courses to greater impact
An important moment for the further growth of the project was also a change in the model. At the beginning, the project mainly focused on courses for individuals, but it gradually became clear that cooperation with entire healthcare facilities has a greater meaning and impact. Thanks to this, MedicRise can train entire teams and get the principles of quality communication directly into the daily functioning of hospitals and clinics.
Since 2022, he has organized four national conferences, each attended by more than a hundred healthcare professionals from more than fifty facilities, and in addition to face-to-face education, it also expands online courses and freely available materials.
Market reactions have shown that cultivating communication in healthcare is not a marginal problem
One of the biggest uncertainties at the beginning was whether healthcare professionals would even perceive communication as a topic worth devoting time to. Today, MedicRise cooperates with larger healthcare providers such as EUC, Canadian Medical, AKESO holding, or Klaudián's Hospital, and the topic is finding a firm place in practice.
The team says they see the impact mainly through concrete feedback: when healthcare professionals leave the courses feeling like they've finally taken something away that they can use in practice the next day, or when they later say that one of the techniques helped them manage a difficult patient situation. But they also get feedback from the other side; when patients watch their work and say they wish they could have that experience more often.
Change comes in steps
The story and journey of MedicRise shows that change may not be impossible even in a complex and conservative environment. But it takes time, patience, clear direction, and a supportive ecosystem to help turn a strong idea into a concrete model. This is exactly what the Social Impact Award was important for the project: it did not bring a ready-made solution, but helped the team to name what they wanted to build and which path to take.
Change in healthcare doesn’t have to come in a revolution. It can happen step by step, through working with individuals, teams, and the entire culture of care. And when a project has an environment around it that helps it grow healthier and more consciously, the initial enthusiasm can become an organization with long-term impact.
Social Impact Award
Social Impact Award (SIA) Czechia je incubation program, which supports young people aged 14 to 30 in developing socially beneficial projects. Its aim is to help develop an idea into a real and sustainable business with positive impact to the company.
It offers:
- Mentoring Programme from experienced professionals and consultation with more than 190 experts.
- Workshops focused on developing entrepreneurial skills.
- Chance to win €1 for the best projects.
- Access to the international community over 30 social innovators.
It is intended for start-up projects that:
- They are in the initial phase (within 1 year of existence).
- They have not received any other support exceeding €3.
