A solution to a problem is worth little without execution and adoption. But even before that the idea you might have needs validation and support. If you’re working in the digital health space, MEDICA App Competition is an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.
“Winning the competition brought us tremendous benefits regarding recognition, branding and finding new partners,” says Moka Lantum, serial entrepreneur and the CEO of Sagitarix Ltd, private health technology, and concierge medicines distribution company, which design iSikcure app – last year’s winner of the MEDICA App Competition.
MEDICA App competition for digital health startups is running 7th year in a row this year. Applications can be submitted until September 30th, 2018.
APPLY HERE and don’t forget to read the evaluation criteria before finalizing the application.
In essence,you are eligible to apply if you have a medical app for smartphones / tablets / smartwatches / AR or VR gears / drones. Solution that are NOT eligible are pure B2C solutions with focus on diet tips, fitness or wellness.
RECOGNITION: The most essential reward indeed is the global awareness created at MEDICA as well as through MEDICA means.
MONEY: The solution ranked number 1 will be rewarded with EUR 2,000, the number 2 with EUR 1,000 and the number 3 with EUR 500.
GRANTS AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAMS: Our partner SXSW grants two (2) ‘SXSW 2019 Interactive badge registrations’ worth USD 1,325 per pass to the winning team for accessing the cult event in March 2019 in Austin, TX (USA). Our partner Startupboothcamp (SBC) Digital Health sponsors following vouchers for the top 3 places:
– 1st prize winner gets one (1) exclusive ticket to attend SBC Masterclass in Berlin during the next SBC Health Program 2019.
– 2nd prize winner gets dinner with a SBC Mentor in Berlin
– 3rd prize winner gets one (1) hour of SBC Online Mentor Office Hours
This year’s SXSW was the second time Future for health attended one of the worlds liveliest innovation, music, entrepreneurship and latest tech trends festival. This year in Austin, Texas we hosted three companies in our pavilion in the exhibition space – G4A Generator and global FTR4H sponsors BGI and Philips Healthworks. The highlight, however, was the full-day conference, held on Sunday, March 11th.
The main focus of the program was to bring the international audience the best global speakers from various countries. After an introduction of FTR4 by its co-founder Tom Mitchell, President of MDNA, the opening keynote was in the hands of Rasu Shrestha, CIO at UPMC and Head of UPMC Enterprises.
The subject of his keynote was “Everybody wants to innovate, nobody wants to change”, and as he emphasized, the biggest danger to innovation is complacency of existing market players. When talking about innovation, we need to be aware it regards behavioral change, which requires deep design thinking. Only in such design technology can be invisible to the user and consequently effective.
Priscilla Beal, Head of G4A Generator, presented Bayers new, the US focused initiative for startups addressing self-care in the areas of sun and skin protection, external pain management, nutritional support and digital self-care.
Johannes Steger (left on the picture below), Journalist at Handelsblatt moderated the panel of patient self-care with panelists Jordi Piera Jiménez, Secretary of the Strategic IT Board at the Catalonian Healthcare Department and Jorrit Ebben, Co-founder & Managing Director, Academy Het Dorp.
Our global FTR4H Evangelist Mark Wächter talked to Brian Rosnov, Innovation Lead at Philips HealthWorks about solving Healthcare challenges via collaboration. HealthWorks a recently created unit within Philips has a mission to generate Breakthrough Innovation in the area of Healthcare particularly Digital Health. Working at a global level, HealthWorks is creating new methods of collaboration with external startups and the Healthcare eco-system to solve some of the bigger challenges that exist in Healthcare around the world.
The conversation on collaboration was followed by a debate on potentials of blockchain in healthcare with Eugene Borukhovich, the Global Head of Digital Health Incubation & Innovation at Bayer, Samson Williams, co-founder of Axes & Eggs, a cryptocurrency mining company and Michael Dillhyon, Co-founder of Swiss-based Healthbank. It was moderated by the FTR4H Ambassador Tjaša Zajc, business developer at Iryo.
We are especially proud to offer the SXSW audience an insight into digital health development around the world. The session was moderated by Maren Lesche, eHealth Startup Expert, and Ambassador at FTR4H.
Jonathan Lee (picture above), Executive Director of Academy at MaGIC, presented Malaysia. Regine M.A. Th. Aalders, Counselor for Health, Welfare and Sport to Canada and the USA, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands presented the state of eHealth and digital health in the Netherlands. FTR4H Ambassador Moka Lantum talked about opportunities and specifics of the African market. We heard the presentation of approaches to digital health in Norway, presented by Nard Schreurs, Director eHealth, and smart living at IKT-Norge/ITK Norway.
Big Data and AI are buzzwords when it comes to healthcare future. From public health to personal patient data and transparency of medical documentation, to care personalization, to the future of work for clinicians, the expectations on Big Data impact are at times astonishing and at times alarming.
Elena Poughia, Managing Director At DataNatives and Dataconomy talked to Urška Sršen, Founder and CCO at Bellabeat, Anthony Gerardi, MBA, Chief Operating Officer of Enterprise Analytics, Gwynneth Ballentine, Digital Health Innovation Lead, TMC Innovation Institute, Sangeeta Chakraborty, CCO, Ayasdi and Wout Brusselaers, CEO, Co.founder Deep 6 AI.
After an open-mic session, we wrapped up the conference with genomics. Mark Wächter talked to dr. Wang Jingjing, a Product Manager at BGI International. Dr. Wang Jingjing gave a speech on the topic of “The Future of Genomics – Whole Genome Sequencing WGS.” She mentioned that in the field of pathogen detection, metagenomics sequencing provides a single, all-inclusive diagnostic test and allows actionable information to be obtained sooner than traditional techniques. In the future of personalized medicine, sequencing is easy to obtain, while the comprehensiveness of microbial WGS database and data interpretation will be the challenge. Metagenome sequence data will be an important tool to predict disease susceptibility and drug response.
The FTR4H jury (see below) selected the 15 startups which will be pitching on November 15th at MEDICA Trade Fair in Düsseldorf.
Join us LIVE at MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM in hall 15, on Wednesday, 15 November from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm during MEDICA runtime including a Get-Together.
Jury members:
Dr. Ashish Atreja, Chief Technology Innovation and Engagement Officer at Mount Sinai Health System (USA)
Dr. med. Urs-Vito Albrecht, MPH, Deputy Director (Germany)
Dr. Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer Grants4Apps Accelerator (Germany)
Harsha Jagasia, Chief Operating Officer at Startupbootcamp Digital Health (Germany)
Ralf-Gordon Jahns, Managing Director at research2guidance (Germany)
Maren Lesche, Startup Advisor, Co-Founder YourStory Germany and Ecosystem Manager at etventure (Germany)
Muthu Singaram, CEO of Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC) (India)
Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Peppermint VenturePartners GmbH (Germany)
Mirko Whitfield, Head of Business Development for EMEA & Asia at SXSW (USA)
Tjaša Zajc, Digital Health Journalist (Slovenia)
Full program:
03:00 – 03:05 p.m. Opening of the 6th MEDICA App COMPETITION
Christian Grosser, Deputy Director MEDICA
03:05 – 03:15 p.m. The Promise of m-Health in Africa – Hope, Hype, or Hustle?
Dr. Moka Lantum, MD, MS, CEO, MicroClinic Technologies
03:15 – 03:25 p.m. SXSW festival & MedTech – an inspiring fusion
Mirko Whitfield, International Development SXSW EMEA & Asia
03:25 – 04:35 p.m. Live-Pitch of 15 App-based Medical Mobile Solutions
3 minutes pitch & 2 minutes Q&A each
04:35 – 04:50 p.m. Live Deliberation of Jury & Presentation of Decision
Maren Lesche, Jury Captain MEDICA App COMPETITION
04:50 – 05:00 p.m. Award Ceremony
Dr. med. Urs-Vito Albrecht, Group Leader PLRI MedAppLab, Hannover Medical School (MHH)
From 05:00 p.m. Reception & Drinks at US Pavilion in Hall 16
Welcome note by Joachim Schäfer, MD of Messe Düsseldorf
Who will be rocking the stage from 3.25 p.m. on?
Air
Air is the mobile app (available on both iOS and android) connected to our ultraportable spirometer, Air Smart, market leader in the hand-held spirometry market. The Air app allows physicians perform a spirometry test in a fraction of the time it takes to perform a spirometry test compared to desktop spirometers. More importantly, the Air app helps physicians in managing multiple patients at the same time, so that they can better prioritize their work. More: www.nuvoair.com
AMBOSS Knowledge
AMBOSS offers an interdisciplinary perspective on all medical specialties. Whether providing physicians with information to assist them in their daily routines or preparing medical students for exams, AMBOSS’ team of more than 50 physicians provide carefully curated, cross-checked and up-to-date content. More: www.miamed.de/
Butterfly (Salubrious)
Butterfly – Your Thyroid Diary is a mobile app for people with thyroid conditions in need of keeping track of a wealth of information to get the right course of treatment, including symptom and food diaries, medication schedules, and private test results. More: getbutterfly.net
Clinivid (Health Care Innovate)
Clinivid is a cloud-based communication platform that helps all clinicians to share patient information securely from their mobile phones and across all platforms. Clinivid has been designed by industry experts to fit clinical workflows. More: clinivid.com.au
Cupris Health
Cupris enables doctors to discuss patient cases remotely and patients to receive diagnoses and advice from doctors without having to see a doctor in person. Cupris has developed smartphone connected medical devices and a secure software communication platform (app and web platform). This reduces unnecessary and expensive face to face consultations in developed countries, and extends medical expertise to those living in remote areas in developing countries who otherwise would have no access to care. More: http://www.cupris.com/
Femisphere (Onelife Health)
Femisphere is a medically-certified, smart healthcare companion, allowing mothers-to-be to monitor their vital signs on a daily basis and providing them with medically verified advice, guidance and reassurance whenever they need. More: www.onelife.me
imitoCam
imitoCam is a system for visual capturing, documentation and communication of medical findings, special cases and the healing progress of patients‘ diseases and injuries. Photos and videos are instantly and securely stored into the hospital‘s image archive, and available in the EMR. Second opinion and feedback can easily be discussed among the team and colleagues via team chat. More: www.imito.io
iSikCure
iSikCure enables users to access healthcare by matching them to service providers who can then be paid by one of 6 ways – cash, credit card, mobile money, MedCoins, Self-help group wallet or employer wallets. Users earn MedCoins for creating a detailed medical profile, adherence to treatment, ask and sharing medical tips in the app, and for referring iSikCure to peers and family. iSikCure leverages the data in the patient records to create the best match with available providers in a given market, thus ensuring better quality of care. More: www.isikcure.com
Kaia (US)
Mind-body therapy against back pain.The app identifies the optimal path for patients based on their individual patient journeys, directs them to the right specialist at the right time, and facilitate self help with the Kaia App. More: www.kaia-health.com
LOLA
LOLA App is a digital health & emergency assistant for mobile devices that allows users to monitor their health 24/7 and to automatically get help in case of emergency (falls, loss of consciousness, epileptic seizures). LOLA monitors health-relevant factors – pulse, sleep, step count, activity levels and occurrence of fatigue, automatically recognizes abnormal patterns (falls and epileptic seizures) and alerts the pre-defined emergency contacts by call and SMS providing GPS location information. More: www.qolware.com
Medicus AI
Medicus converts health data with its cryptic numbers and medical language into a visual experience with easy-to-understand health insights and actionable recommendations. It empowers patients to easily understand their medical and health info and see how they fit within their overall health profile. More: medicus.ai
Moodpath (Aurora Health)
Aurora Health is a Berlin-based technology company developing digital solutions to improve the detection and treatment of mental health disorders. The company’s solutions comprise of Moodpath, a consumer-friendly mobile depression screening and improvement program, and Aurora, the underlying platform to support healthcare practitioners in diagnostic, therapeutic and administrative processes. More: www.moodpath.io
myAirCoach
An app with advanced algorithms for better Asthma and COPD control, with an holistic overview of patient’s status. myAirCoach has developed a prototype click-on for patient’s inhaler that potentially improves inhaler usage by up to 70%. Observational study is already referred to by the UK based NICE standard. More: www.myair.coach
RxUniverse (Rx.Health)
Rx.Health’s flagship product, RxUniverse, is the first enterprise-based Digital Medicine delivery system that enables physicians to prescribe evidence-based mobile health applications, multi-media education, wearables, and therapeutics to patients at the point of care. More: http://rx.health
Thinklabs Wave
Thinklabs Wave captures body sounds from Thinklabs One Digital Stethoscope for recording, sharing live around the bedside for a unique medical education experience, remote live sharing for telemedicine/home monitoring, uploading to cloud systems for building signal libraries for machine learning and diagnostic purposes. More: http://thinklabs.com/
Meet the current supporters and ambassadors of the organisation.
Future For Health (FTR4H) is continuing its mission to become a Global ThinkTank on Digital Health. We’ve presented the organisation at different World of MEDICA Trade Fairs in Germany, India, China, we’ve been at SXSW in the USA. We keep partnering with experts in digital health from different countries. These are our current evangelists, some of them also this years jurors of MEDICA App Competition, which you are welcome to apply to by 30th September.
FTR4H will be located at USA Pavilion at MEDICA 2017. It will also feature a FTR4H LAB showcasing innovators and visionaries in this field.
Mark Wächter, Entrepreneur
Mark Wächter.
Mark Wächter is marketer with many years professional and leadership experience in the areas of Consumer Goods, Internet and Mobile Communications. In May 2005 he founded MWC.mobi, a worldwide active management consultancy focusing on Mobile Strategy Development and served clients in over 30 countries on all continents in the past years.
Mark is head of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in Germany (locally known as BVDW Section Mobile) and member of MMAs Board of Directors. He is co-founder of MobileMonday and chairs the advisory board of Germany’s first Master Degree Program in Mobile Marketing at Leipzig School of Media. Mark is a Mobile Aficionado since the very beginning and became a globally well respected Mobile Media Evangelist and Strategist aka ‚Mr. Mobile‘, acting as advisor and mentor on many Mobile Initiatives. In December 2015 Springer Gabler published his book ‚MOBILE STRATEGY‘. This has been chosen as basic compendium for the charismha study on Mobile Health Apps.
Digital Health is a core competency of Mark. He organizes the world’s largest Medical Mobile Solutions award, the annual MEDICA App Competition. In May 2016 he co-initiated the global Digital Health Society, FTR4H, and since then acts as the Chief Evangelist of this platform. So far, FTR4H launched in China, Europe, India and the USA.
Maren is a storyteller and communicator by heart. She supports several startups and women in tech in establishing strong marketing campaigns to create a successful brand and support sales.
As an advisor and business development expert for Israeli startup VoiceItt, Maren is in close contact with investors, she pitches on stage to win competitions and supports the team of 12 that is spread over three continents, in scaling up in Europe their voice and voice-pattern recognition software for people with speech impairment suffering from diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer, strokes or paralyzation.
In February 2016, Maren also joined the team of etventure Startup Hub, a small team of startup experts that brings entrepreneurs and corporates together to form strategic partnerships. At etventure Startup Hub, she is also the Communications Manager for several EU-funded programs such as Accelerator European Pioneers, Welcome and the new IoT European Platform Initiative.
Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, Venture Capitalist
Dr. Klaus Stöckemann.
After obtaining his PhD in biology and pharmacology, he had held several leading positions in research and development and business development with companies like Schering AG and ASTA Medica. He later became a partner in a leading international investment firm 3i and in 2009 he co-founded Peppermint Venture Partners, which specializes in investments in Digital Health and Medical Devices. He is the Chairman of the board of several young companies such as Caterna Vision GmbH, which develops digital therapies for treating eye disorders and Emperra GmbH, which has developed the ESYSTA® System – the first GSM and Bluetooth enabled smart insulin pen connected to a web based portal, enabling web-based telemedical closed-loop management system for patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2 and Vice-Chairman of Implandata a company having developed the first wireless sensor for measuring intraocular eye pressure in Glaucoma patients.
PVP is currently launching its second fund (PVP II) with a focus on investments in innovative solutions alongside the individual health journey at the crossroads of medical devices and digital health. PVP II aims to start investing from 2018 on.
Klaus is also a mentor of several digital health accelerators such as Startupbootcamp as well as Member of the board of the German Association of Venture Capital since 2015.
Muthu Singaram, Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist
Muthu Singaram.
Muthu is a parallel entrepreneur having been involved in several startups over last 20 years. He has over 25 years of experience in Engineering, Management and Entrepreneurship, has been a judge and mentor in many business plan competitions and is a Mentor / Entrepreneur in Residence in several Universities.
Among other things, he was responsible in developing the Malaysian National Uniprenuer Development Programme (NUDP) at the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC). He was also a council member for the National Incubator Network.
His recent major consulting assignment is for the Malaysian Government Agency (Agency Innovasi (Innovation) Malaysia) under the Prime Minister’s Office on industry driven Innovation, helping research and entrepreneurs in accessing technology and business models.
He is currently working on a Virtual international Business Accelerator aka VibaZone based in several locations. The vision is to develop and provide a virtual community of entrepreneurs or anyone wishing to participate in / building or growing a sustainable business in any area or industry. Muthu still involves himself with new startups and works with them to go to market.
He is also the author of the book Entrepreneurship: A Hands on Guide To Starting Your Business.
Tjasa Zajc, Journalist and Audience Developer
Tjaša Zajc.
Tjasa has a Bachelors degree in journalism and a Master’s degree in health management and economics. In the last few years she focused her interest on exploring chronic diseases, healthcare systems, the digital health market and how stakeholders in these fields could be better connected to increase the speed of healthcare improvement.
She currently works for a Slovenian trade publication for healthcare professionals Medicina danes, is the host of Medicine Today on Digital Health Podcast and an Audience Developer (looking for strategies to increase reader/ subscriber retention) for its publisher – Časnik Finance, owned by the international publishing house Bonnier AB. In the past she worked for the Slovenian Press Agency and as a photographer and journalist for the weekly magazine Mladina. She has contributed to MedTech Engine – an innovative new internet portal specialized for medtech stakeholders. She is a member of the jury of this years’ Medica App Competition – the world’s largest medical app competition evaluating medical mobile solutions.
Dr. Hu Junhao, Entrepreneur
Dr. Junhua Hu.
Hu Junhao is an entrepreneur with a doctorate in Photoelectric. He worked as a research scientist in Institute for Infocomm Research, and a senior optical fiber sensor expert and then founded Darma Inc. in the United States.
DARMA completed the mass production and shipment of smart cushions in 2015, and favored by Google, Apple, Aetna and other international well-known enterprises. In 2016, DARMA has sold products to United States, Britain, Poland, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and other dozens of countries.
With excellent sensitivity and medical level accuracy, DARMA Fiber Optic Sensor attracted a lot attention in the field of healthcare, and got thousands of orders in the stage of R&D.
Meanwhile, DARMA Fiber Optic Sensor attracted a lot of doctors and professors in well-known hospitals and medical school in China and US, such as Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Ashish Atreja, Gastroenterologist & CTO at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Ashish Atreja.
Dr. Ashish Atreja is the Chief Technology Innovation and Engagement Office (C-TIE) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is the Director of Sinai Applab – a form of incubator/accelerator for testing, validating and translating digital health apps in clinical practice. The goal of Sinai Applab is to utilize data-driven Learning Healthcare System approach to become a national leader in pragmatic trials and innovative patient-centered apps and analytics.
Dr. Ashish Atreja founded the Sinai AppLab in 2012 at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. By 2013, our first grant was awarded, closely followed by more. The Sinai AppLab now boasts extensive experience creating, implementing and evaluating technology platforms to address the needs of patients, health care providers, and researchers within the Mount Sinai Health System and beyond.
FTR4H is spreading its wings around the globe! After debuting at SXSW in March, we held a conference and a startup competition in India. We did quite a bit of research on the Indian market, so be sure to check all out blogposts about it!
The event is organized by a medical journal Medicina danes and Technology Park Ljubljana – largest innovation ecosystem for commercialisation of knowledge and technology in SE Europe – in collaboration with the Slovenian Medtech community Healthday.si. It is sponsored by MARAND, Bayer, MDNA, EU and SPIRIT Slovenia.
Here’s what’s on the menu:
Event moderator: Tjaša Zajc, Medicina Danes
17.00 WELCOME SPEECH; Tjaša Zajc, Journalist & conference moderator
17.15 – VIDEO: How is New Delhi hacking public health with mHealth
Q&A PANEL AND COMMENT: Where are we in eHealth compared to developing countries? What can we learn from them and each other?
mag. Katarina Kralj, Head of eHealth coordination at Ministry of Health Slovenia Ozren Pezo, independent expert for eHealth, former Assistant Director for ICT at Croatian Health Insurance Fund HZZO
The Q&A will be moderated by Dorjan Marušič, Practicing Cardiologist, Former Member of the Expert Panel at European Commission DG for Health and Consumers (DG Sanco).
17.45 – CHIT CHAT with dr. Axel Polack: The hype around big data, genetic testing and gene modification technologies: progress or resurfacing of eugenics?
18.00 – KEYNOTE: Digital Health Trends: Forget the numbers, where is the impact?
Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer’s Grants4Apps Accelerator
18.15 – PANEL: Rethinking the patient/customer, payment models, funding options
Dr. Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer’s Grants4Apps Accelerator Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, Managing Partner at Peppermint Venture Partners Dorjan Marušič, Practicing Cardiologist, Former Member of the Expert Panel at European Commission DG for Health and Consumers (DG Sanco) Stanislav Sirakov, Partner at LAUNCHub Dr. Axel Polack, General Partner at the Joint Polish Investment found Alex Farcet, Co-founder of Startupbootcamp – global network of industry focused startup accelerators
Details about the JURY MEMBERS of the Startup Competition at the INFUSE Digital Health Networking Event are available here.
19.00 – BREAK BEFORE THE “LAST CALL for Grants4Apps Startup Competition”
19.30 – STARTUP PITCH COMPETITION
20.30 – JURY DELIBERATION & AWARD CEREMONY
21.00 – NETWORKING PARTY TIME
Startups in all stages are invited to pitch at INFUSE.
It’s no secret around 80% of startups die after two years, due to lack of experience and funding. Accelerator programs get hundreds of applications and the majority of companies don’t even get a chance to present their solution in person. At INFUSE you can increase those odds. By getting feedback from the decision makers, you can gain visibility, make new valuable contacts and increase you chances to get funding.
Three startups pitching will be chosen:
– one will get shortlisted for Startupbootcamp, which gives accepted teams mentorship and 15.000 euros,
– one will get shortlisted for Grants4Apps, which gives accepted teams mentorship and 50.000 euros,
– one more developed will get a booth at MEDICA Trade Fair in Düsseldorf in November, at FTR4H Lab&Lounge in the US Pavilion!
The commercial price of a spot in the Future for Health Lab & Lounge at MEDICA is 3.000 USD. Future for Health (FTR4H) is a global Think Tank on Digital Health.
“Just creating an app does not mean you have a company. The key key question is: are you solving a problem?” These were the opening words of Pradeep K. Jaisingh, Founder of HealthStart India, at the VC Panel at #FTR4H program at MEDICAL FAIR India in New Delhi. Panel was organised by HealthStart. The main aim was to highlight VC perspective on the digital health startups scene in India.
As said by Mr. Jaisingh, the basic background of technology needs to be that it improves the outcome. A solution needs to solve a problem and be sustainable. From the macro perspective, potential for disruptive innovation in India is big, said Mr. Jaisingh. Especially in terms of diagnostics, treatment and management of chronic diseases.
The doctor’s expectations in the near future are high. Artificial intelligence can be utilized to effectively synthesize patient information before his visit in the hospital or a doctor’s office.
What do the doctors need?
Private Equity Professional Mayur Sirdesai, Director at Somerset Indus Capital Partners, warned, the key issue in digital health technology and innovation is probability of adoption. “When a doctor has a line of patients in the waiting room, he can’t be bothered by entering data in the computer,” he mentioned. The second challenge is payment for digital solutions. Revenue model of a startup is crucial to implementation of a solution in practice. In India, most payments are still out of pocket which might change with the development of the insurance market.
From the perspective of Shuchin Bajaj, Founder Director at Cygnus Medicare, a big potential in India is in putting more effort into medical education of other specialists and healthcare providers, apart from doctors. “We are to doctor-centric. I am a big fan of personalized medicine and “ayurveda” in that sense. These sciences look at the patient as an individual while medicine takes the patient as a dataset. Ayurveda does not treat the disease,” he said.
Needs and payments
Partha Dey, Healthcare Leader and SME at IBM India mentioned the need for more collaboration:“It is clear and we agree we need to walk together and collaborate. Technology can work as a platform and our idea is to use it to solve real life problems. We are working on longterm solutions. The first issue is always the business case. What do users need? What are they prepared to pay for? A lot of startups have ideas, but struggle with translation and implementation in practice.”
Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures Advisors described India as a unique market because of the payment system. “In the developed world insurance takes care of healthcare. Our environment drives behaviour. Hence healthcare consumption is different compared to the rest of the world. The opportunities here are of different nature than in other countries. One thing to look at is infrastructure. Ratio of hospitals does not match population needs.” Huge opportunities lay in financial assistance for healthcare, concluded Vikram Gupta.
iNICU stands for ‘Integrated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’. The solution is leveraging IOT and Big Data,connecting generated source data from various devices.
iNICU is a one stop workflow solution to assimilate and disseminate neonate information. The application is designed to help improve management of all responsibilities of various professionals (Nurse, Resident Doctor, Senior Doctor, Pediatrician and Administrator) involved in the care of a baby.
A solution for an important but hitherto ignored area – Student Wellness. It helps monitor, track and control children’s wellness in school, making it easier for parents and teachers recognize struggles of specific students. This makes it easier for the carers to find ways to help students cope with their problems easier and make most of their potentials.
Focus 2: data optimization, presentation, utilization
Vertes Cloud
Empowering transformation along enterprises in various verticals, mainly in the field of Education & Learning solutions. A mixed approach with Open Source & proprietary offerings enable institutions achieve higher levels of transformation, in much affordable way. Abda Digital
Abda Digital (a Tech Vedika Pvt. Ltd. spin off) has been establish with vision to develop innovative products specifically for the mobile and digital space. The inception of Abda in November 2015 marked commitment to focus on product ideas that could help organizations communicate with their target audiences in the best way using less time.
Management software for obstetricians and gynecologists is offering End-to-End Solution to all ObGyn Practice Management Challenges. This solutions offers a new way of communication between the expecting mother, obstetricians and gynecologists. Between visits in the doctors office, the mother can ask questions with the help of a platform.
Cardiotrack brings portability to healthcare diagnostics. Cardiotrack health sensors provide clinical grade reading for 12-lead ECG, SpO2 and blood pressure. Robust design makes Cardiotrack an ideal solution for home healthcare, tele-health, doctor’s clinic, nursing home or primary healthcare.
This solution is altering the delivery of critical life saving health care monitoring during emergency and preventive diagnostic capabilities. This is done at a much lower price-performance points, thanks to innovative synthesis of digital signal processing, image processing, biomedical components, algorithms, wireless and communication technologies. The first sets of solutions are in the realm of wireless remote patient monitoring.
TrackMyBeat is a healthcare technology and analytics company, offering a complete health and wellness management system. It focuses on the prevention of lifestyle diseases. The subscriber can proactively manage his or her health through automated alerts. The product also highlights the efficacy of various interventions and activities in improving the user’s well-being.
FTR4H is in full preparations for MEDICAL FAIR INDIA 2017. Before arrival, we talked to Incubators, Companies, Start-ups, Experts… Here’s what you might find useful if you’re thinking about doing business in India.
1. Make good market research
India ranked at 130 out of 189 economies in 2015 according to the World bank. 4% of the GDP go to healthcare; around 60% of expenses for healthcare are out of pocket, according to OECD. Almost a third of the population is supposed to own a smartphone by 2019, claims GSMA report. All this goes in favour to digital health or at least mHealth solutions, but keep in mind plenty of good startups on the ground are busy tackling everyday issues.
The country is extensively working on using all the advantages of digital solutions to improve people’s lives and health. Heard of Aadhar? It’s unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data such as eyes and finger prints. Nishal Arvind Singh, Founder NASS & Associates IPR Boutique law firm and Legal policy advisor to Honourable Health Minister Satyendra Jain of the Delhi Government explains the plan behind the project: “All payments will be linked with aadhar, to avoid duplicity, promote increase in online payments and disbursement to beneficiaries under many governmental schemes for education, pension etc. This will enable direct transactions into beneficiaries bank account, which will prevent corruption,” says Arvind, adding that in time, it will be connected with healthcare. The unique identification number of a person will prevent duplication and confusion in data management and insurance claimes with others with the same name.
2. Do you have enough time for business here?
According to a World bank report from 2006, it takes 56 procedures and approximately four years for a simple commercial contract in India. As explained by Prabhu Guptara, a distinguished Professor of Global Business, Management & Public Policy at William Carey University, India, a Member of Boards of different companies in the UK, Germany and Switzerland, the problem is the bureaucratic system. It takes years for the legal claims to be processed, let alone enforced. It is a slow system, so brace yourself with energy and patience to conquer it.
3. Know that India has very good medical doctors
Top class. World renowned. There’s a reason medical tourism flourishes here. However, as Sachin Gaur warns, 80% of people live in rural areas and only 20% of facillites are there. There are different initiatives to improve access, such as the the mohalla (neighbourhood) clinics. As explained by the hindustantimes, they were started with the aim of taking diagnostics and treatment of simple ailments to people’s doorstep and reduce the footfall in tertiary care hospitals.
4. Can you make a subscription plan under a dollar a month?
India has 1.3 billion people, the majority is poor. “2/3 of the population can’t be your target market. 30% of the population lives on less than 2.5 dollars/day, another third 5 dollars/day. Which still leaves you with 400 million people you could address,” says Prabhu Guptara. However, given the number of people, if you can design a subscription model for around 20 cents, than you might address the poorer population, says Sachin Gaur, Director Operation at InnovatioCuris. Taking into account the volume you could reach, it can turn out to be a viable business model.
“If you can design a subscription model for around 20 cents, than you might address the poorer population,” says Sachin Gaur, Director of Operations at InnovatioCuris.
5. Ask, connect to people on the ground
Have you heard of HealthCode.io? It’s a platform for healthcare professionals where you can find people interested in co-creation, consulting, commercialisation, fundraising, mentoring, investing, validation. The app, as the founders claim, already has members from 52 countries, so you might find useful connections even outside India!
Be sure to check the two episodes of Medicine Today on Digital Health! Praphu Guptara speaks about differences in the healthcare systems in India, Switzerland or England. Sachin Gaur talks about the innovative solutions in India and problems of digital solutions and cyber security. You can find it on iTunes or Soundcloud.
Press Release: March 1, 2017 – Every year in Duesseldorf, Germany, more than 5,000 exhibitors from over 70 countries participate in MEDICA, the world’s leading exhibition for medical products and tech. When it comes to digitalization of healthcare, MEDICA has taken a leading role, especially with the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM (with the MEDICA App COMPETITION). The newest initiative – FTR4H – explores how Digital Transformation affects the healthcare industry.
“FTR4H acts as a Think Tank and definer to connect global Digital Health ecosystems in markets like China, Europe, India, Israel and the US with the World of MEDICA – a hashtag to categorize what drives Digital Health: #FTR4H.”
Debut at SXSW 2017
In 2017, FTR4H will debut at SXSW, the world-famous series of conferences & festivals which celebrate the convergence of the interactive media, film, and music industries. Get an overview of what FTR4H is about, what is planned in the future, and who is part of our network. As a special treat, we will feature some international digital health startups in a mini-pitch that will shape the healthcare community in the future:
All the way from Berlin: iRewardHealth – their wellness program tackles the massive problem of preventable diseases using behavioral economics to effectively motivate healthy behavior change
Houston calling! CareScriptions by Seremedi from Houston, Texas, is a SaaS patient engagement platform
The Hungarian-German startup MediLad builds personalized health conversations for women – so called FemTech. The first product of the young female founder team is Izzy, a period tracking #chabot for messenger.
“The U.S. is the world’s most important market for Digital Health, and initiative like FTR4H is more timely than ever as our world turns to mobile as a hub for digital transformation with IoT, AI and Data reshaping every industry, most especially healthcare”, said Tom Mitchell, President of MEDICA’s U.S. operations.
FTR4H will host a Digital Health Meet & Greet on Monday, March 13 at the German Pavilion from 4:00-5:00pm.
Impressions:
Kicking off FTR4H at GermanHaus at SXSW
Kim Bond Evans, founder of Seremedi, pitching CareScription at the SXSW FTR4H Digital Health Reception
Impressions from eHealth pitches at SXSW
Talk on Gender equality and diversity
Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche on stage at GermanHaus at SXSW
iRewardHealth on stage at the FTR4H Digital Health Reception
Mark Wächter kicking off the SXSW FTR4H Digital Health Reception
Maren Lesche presenting MediLad, a chatbot startup in Femtech from Europe
Women’s Health Talk at SXSW
Mark Wächter, Ambassador of FTR4H
Examples for VirtualReality solutions for eHealth at SXSW
More than 90,000 attendees arrive at SXSW
A packed programme at SXSW: More than 400 panels, workshops and talks
Till Kästner presenting a German case study at the FTR4H Digital Health Reception at SXSW
According to CBinsights, Startups have raised over $1.1B to help improve women’s healthcare. At SXSW 2017, we therefore invited a new startup that developed a FemTech solution that will support teenage girls in learning more about sexual health: The Hungarian-German startup MediLad builds personalized health conversations for women.The first product of the young female founders team is Izzy, a period tracking chatbot for messenger. In a short time of 3 months, the female founder team engaged 15,000 users worldwide and processed around 300,000 messages. In September 2016, the team joined the first batch of Startupbootcamp Digital Health Berlin.
What is FemTech? The analysts of CBinsights divid FemTech in eight major areas:
Fertility solutions – Startups providing IVF, egg freezing, and medical treatments for female infertility.
Period & fertility tracking mobile apps – Mobile apps for self-tracking of periods and fertility cycles.
At-home fertility monitoring devices – Startups offering hardware devices for women to monitor their fertility at home.
Pregnancy & nursing care – Startups offering medical care & diagnostics for pregnant women, as well as tech-enhanced breast pumps.
Reproductive system healthcare – Healthcare companies focused on women’s sexual health issues, such as pelvic floor device makersand women’s STI treatments.
General healthcare – Teams aiming to improve the overall clinical healthcare experience for women.
Period care goods – Startups offering pads, tampons, and CPG items for managing periods.
Women’s sexual wellness – Startups offering lubricants and related items to help women improve sexual wellness.
Learn more about MediLad & Izzy at the FTR4H Digital Health Reception on March 13th, 4pm, at the German Pavillion, Wunderbar.
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