More than half of all three- to four-month-old infants vomit frequently, a condition known as gastroesophegeal reflux. Working with paediatricians, a Belgian entrepreneur has designed a bed proven to be effective as a first course of treatment.

The anti-reflux bed, which positions infants on their backs at a 40-degree angle, has decreased regurgitation and crying in three-quarters of babies tested at Brussels University Hospital. Besides helping little ones and their worried parents sleep soundly, the downward-sloping bed eliminates the need for medication with potential side effects.

“I wanted to create something that works,” says Serge Vleeschouwer, who sells and rents the Multicare bed at pharmacies throughout Belgium.

To find new clients abroad Vleeschouwer turned to the Enterprise Europe Network, based in Ghent at the Agentschap Ondernemen – East Flanders. Working out of 50 countries, the Network’s 3 000-strong staff is perfectly placed to help SMEs tap into new markets.

“The best marketing for a product like this is to show rather than tell,” says Marleen Heyse, a Ghent-based Network expert. With that in mind, she invited Vleeschouwer to Medica, the world’s top medical trade fair, in Düsseldorf, Germany.

“If you have a medical product, you must be at Medica,” says Juan J.-Carmona-Schneider, Network consultant at Zenit in Germany, which organises a business matchmaking forum at Medica every year.

Shortly after the 2009 edition, Vleeschouwer struck a deal with AirMed Plus, a medical-device maker in Bochum, Germany. The company is now successfully test-marketing the anti-reflux bed at hospitals and with midwives in that country.

“This success story shows that the Enterprise Europe Network supports the transformation of research results into real products,” says Zenit’s Carmona-Schneider.