Tag: health

Who will be the guest startup at FTR4H Lab&Lounge at MEDICA 2017?

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in MEDICA.

Nine startups were presented at the INFUSE Digital Health Networking Event, the first FTR4H partnership event, which took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia in May. The winning team – a Croatian startup Toothcam – will visit MEDICA Trade Fairin November 2017 in Düsseldorf as a guest startup at the FTR4H Lab&Lounge.

INFUSE Digital Health Networking Event consisted of a short conference program and presentation of digital health startups in the Balkan region. Three startups were chosen to continue discussions about their solution with experiences industry opinion leaders from Startupbootcamp Digital Health Accelerator and Bayers Grants4Apps Accelerator. The jury members were:

  • 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 Panel of Experts, DG Sanco,
  • Stanislav Sirakov, Partner at LAUNCHub
  • Dr. Axel Polack, General Partner at the Joint Polish Investment fund
  • Alex Farcet, co-founder of Startupbootcamp – global network of industry-focused startup accelerators

Prior to the startup competition a panel on business models in digital health was held with the jury members. You can listen to it on Medicine Today on Digital Health Podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes. 

Startups, presented at INFUSE Digital Health:

Toothcam (NR.1!)

Is a digitalized dental mirror for better insight and easier work for dentists. The team observed dentists suffer from back pain due to constant bending during their work. Toothcam aims at solving a problem with a camera. This reduces the need for bending and allowing easier, faster, cheaper, and better dental service by improving dentists’ vision. 

GlutenTag

GlutenTag is an app for people who do not tolerate gluten. It could pass between two hours to two days (depending on a person’s physiology) between an ingested meal with traces of gluten and the symptoms harming celiac patients. By labelling past meals / restaurants as safe / non-safe on the digestive tract of gluten intolerant person (or persons, through aggregation), the user can easily detect problematic food products.

Anti-stress clinic

Anti-stress clinic is an app to support stress management, mental strength and mental health.

Feelif

Feelif enables blind and visually impaired people to feel on a standard touch screen. Current tools for the blind are expensive and/or one-dimensional, big, not interactive, not fun and not creative. Feelif is a standard tablet. By putting a special grid on top of the touchscreen, and installing a special app, Feelif signals to the blind person what’s beneath her fingers with the use of vibrations, sound and speech. Feelif enables the user to feel shapes/geometric functions, draw, learn Braille, exchange knowledge, watch interactive stories, play games…

Mediately

Mediately is the name of a company working on an app. The doctor can check how to dose the drugs, there are any unwanted interactions with other drugs, and other aspects of care. In addition, he can use various diagnostic tools in the app to help him diagnose the condition, and then help him treat the patient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top three teams selected by the jury – Blaž Triglav (Mediately), Ivan Guć & Tomislav Mamić (Toothcam), Željko Khermayer (Feelif). 

Zavest d.o.o.

The Insulated Multimedia Space invention – The Awakening Room® – boosts the natural self-healing properties of the immune system with the help of a focused energy field. It solves the problem of vitality and courage in life for everyone, including the patients before and after major medical procedures.

FlySentinel

The system supervises the physical condition of a pilot and his entire flight. In case of a problematic interference affecting the pilots piloting capabilities, the pilot gets warned about the source of the problem. After the flight, the pilot can save all the data gathered in the cloud for later analysis.

Tobiar

Tobiar is a massage device with a USB charging option, intended to primarily massage the wrist, the carpal tunnel area and by that prevent repetitive strain injury. It can also be used to massage other parts of the body, suffering due to repetitive strain injuries.

iEmbryo

IEmbryo is a kit to help prevent a miscarriage. It embeds the embryos of the embryo. In case of suspicious events, the mother can connect to the doctor through the platform to get advice or act before misfortunate event for the baby.

Opportunities in India from the VC perspective

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in Data, India, MEDICA, Mobile.

“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.

Meet our startups!

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in India, MEDICA, Mobile, Weblog.

8 start-ups are present at our FTR4H lounge at MEDICAL FAIR INDIA in New Delhi. They are:

Focus 1: Children’s health

iNICU !!!WINNER OF THE #FTR4H INDIA AWARD !!!!!


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.

growupright


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.

Focus 3: Women’s health

Doc n me

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.

Focus 4: Cardiology, trackers, sensors

Cardiotrack


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.

A3RMT

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.

Track my beat 


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.

Top 5 things on healthcare business in India

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in India, IoT, MEDICA, Mobile.

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.

3 reasons why wearables are dead

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in Data, IoT, Trends.

Wearables and measurements. Which Point of Care devices are just gadgets and which ones bring actual better outcomes for patients? Here’s what’s wrong with wearables.

 

1. Questionable data gathering

When used for prevention, it has become clear by now, that a person gets tired of using a wearable or a health app in only a few months. It is important to note that this holds true mostly for relatively healthy people, not patients with serious illnesses.

2. We are measuring what we can, not what we should

British researcher Prof. Dr. Anthony Turner, Head of The Biosensors and Bioelectronics Centre at Linköping University Sweden: “we haven’t yet made the sensors we really need, we are using the sensors that we happen to have.” That is why in recent years investors have been more interested in other sensors: ingestibles, implantables, etc..
We are entering an era of sensors for complex chemical reactions and molecular recognition in the body. “This requires more regulation and caution in testing and development,” says Prof. Dr. Turner. However, we can expect more significant improvements and outcomes.

3. Questionable measurements

Apart from data being questionable due to inconsistent data gathering by the user, another issue is data reliability. If you wear your phone with a tracker and two tracking wearables for activity measurements, you are bound to get different results. Similar is true for home Point of Care devices. Are they then useful or harmful?
If you will ask laboratory technicians, they will tell you that Point of Care devices are far from laboratory accurate. But in which cases is that relevant? As Prof. Dr. Turner says, “from a laboratory perspective and for research purposes you always look for the best. However, Point of Care devices for patients just need to be good enough for managing conditions and early warnings. Personal devices for diabetes are not as accurate as clinical laboratory, but it doesn’t matter – they are good enough for management decision.”

You can listen the whole conversation with prof. dr. Anthony Turner here.

 

So what can we conclude out of all this? Wearables are simply a step in the evolution of health technology. Sensors are still promising us all a bright future. They bring:

1. Automation

More and more of them are embedded in the environment. Measuring is becoming seamless, taking away the issue of consistency with gathering data.

2. Savings

Biosensors have had a very long and successful history of miniaturization. “It took 20 years for that to happen for wearable blood glucose monitors, while glucose meters evolved from a huge instrument of 40,000 dollars to a device which today costs 7-17 dollars,” illustrates Prof. Dr Turner. For inventors, the biggest issue is, what kind of business model will work. But the final judgement from a financial perspective is clear: massive savings could be achieved.

 

Want to know more? Tune into the sixth episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health podcast. You can find, listen, subscribe, rate, follow, share the podcast in Soundcloud or in iTunes.

Future 4 Health - © Mikko Lemola/Shutterstock

5 reasons why hospital mHealth apps are a win for patients and doctors

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in Mobile, Trends.

There are currently more than 260,000 mHealth apps on the market, according to data from Research2guidance. Whereas this may be exciting news, the sheer number may also be overwhelming for patients and doctors. How can you know what is useful and what is not? One way hospitals are solving the app reliability challenge is by building in-house innovation incubators.

To get to know how that works, listen to a conversation with Ashish Atreja, the CTO of Sinai AppLab at Mount Sinai, in the fourth episode of Medicine Today on the Digital Health podcast.

He are 5 reasons why in-house innovation incubators are good news.

1. Accelerating change

Innovation arms in hospitals are exciting because they help introduce novelties into the rigid healthcare systems.

2. Providing reliability

New solutions are designed by high profile specialists in hospitals. Consequently, solutions are tested inside the hospitals and perfected before they are put on the market.

“I would never give or prescribe medicine to any of my patients that has not been approved in some formal capacity. Why should I prescribe an app?” says gastroenterologist Ashish Atreja, MD, MPH. If you’re a startup, he might take a look at your solution. Why?

One of his jobs as the CTO of Sinai AppLab is onboarding new technologies built by startups outside Mount Sinai. After all, he emphasizes, “it’s impossible for one incubator to do and know everything.”

Ashish Atreja

3. Ease of recommendation

It is easier for doctors to recommend in-house solutions, because they have better access and understanding of the innovation process and reliability of an app compared to the flood of other mhealth digital health offerings on the market.

As Ashish Atreja explains, Mount Sinai even build a platform which allows physicians to prescribe evidence based apps. “We curate the best apps based on the evidence, security and safety. There’s a whole team of people rating the best apps, looking at the published evidence and bringing them to the market place.”

4. Financial benefit

Innovation arms generate new revenue streams for hospitals.

5. Encouraging innovation

When a support environment for creativity is in place, doctors who want to innovate can test and develop their ideas. They also get all the entrepreneurial support in scaling and improving their ideas, so they can reach patients faster.

In 2012, Cleveland Clinic experts designed the Medical Innovation Playbook – a detailed report on the diverse and rapidly evolving technology commercialisation programs of the USA’s top medical centres. It includes an overview of nearly 10,000 invention disclosures, 6,400 patent applications and almost 2,000 issued patents.

Want to know more? Tune into the fourth episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health podcast. You can find, listen, subscribe, rate, follow, share the podcast in Soundcloud or in iTunes.

India’s LinkedIn of Healthcare in the making

Written by Tjasa Zajc on . Posted in India, MEDICA.

India has more than 5 million qualified professionals working in the healthcare industry. There are around 1 million doctors and 2.5 million nurses. This workforce is growing at a rate of more than 10% per annum.

If India is a puzzle to you, this short interview with Mayank Sharma, one of the owners of Medhoop – a platform for healthcare professionals and industry in India, will give you a nice introduction into the current state of the trends in the digital health startup community in India. And why it is a good investment to take part in events such as Medical Fair India 2017, held from 6-8 April in New Delhi.
“We aim to create an ecosystem in the healthcare industry for all the industry stakeholders. Everyone, from medical students, colleges and teaching institutes, healthcare providers, Health-tech, medical devices and consumables industry, thought leaders and startups, can connect seamlessly and grow together,”  This is Sharma’s brief description of Medhoop. The size of the country is keeping the healthcare industry in India fragmented. The disconnect is making the industry inefficient and uncompetitive. For this reason, digital health development is so much more promising here.

 

Let’s start with the basics. What are the three digital health trends to watch out for in India? 

Mayank Sharma, one of the owners of Medhoop.
The Indian healthcare industry is now growing 360 degrees. Healthcare providers are not only focusing on developing world class healthcare physical infrastructure, but also on integrating technology. All this aims at making treatment and information closer to patients. Among major trends I would highlight mobile health (mHealth), on-demand healthcare, EHR/EMR solutions, healthcare aggregators and telemedicine.

 

How developed are these segments?

The mHealth space is probably the hottest in the segment. It is being further augmented by wearable gadgets that monitor health statics on a real-time basis. There are startups integrating existing technologies with concepts like telemedicine, doctor on call and remote monitoring of patients. On-demand healthcare is fit for an urban population which seeks everything instantly. If possible, they want it available on their smartphones. Startups understand this need. EHR industry is on the rise, looking to capture all the information they can. Not only to provide better health care for patients, but also for system improvements. From cutting treatment costs, research purposes, giving patients access to their health records online, to changes in regulatory environment.

 

What does the startup community in India look like? 

“Today India is among the top countries in terms of growth of startups. It is exciting, buzzing with innovation, passion and energy.”

India has been a country of startups for a long time. But the real recognition is happening now – with the rise of Startups Unicorns. We have Flipkart, Snapleal, Taxi aggregator Uber (prime competitor to Uber in India), online payment solution Paytm. Social media and growing internet penetration has opened an altogether new growth avenue for startups.

 

What about the digital health community specifically?

The digital healthcare community in India is growing at a very rapid pace. From hospital/doctor appointment booking solutions, EHRs, diagnostic lab aggregators, mobile health devices – innovation and new ideas all around. Today we see a lot more entrepreneurs in the digital health and healthcare space compared to 5-8 years ago.

 

What contributed to this acceleration?

At first, the healthcare community has been hostile to new technologies and experiments due to the inherent nature of its business. But slowly, the awareness levels and aspirations of doing things faster and better is positively affecting healthcare innovations and digital health technology. Companies like Practo have already made it big and are serving international markets already.

 

Which cities are leading in terms of accelerating innovation? How does Delhi rank in this community?

Bangalore leads the list, closely followed by Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Not surprisingly, we also have beautiful healthcare and health-tech ideas coming out from comparatively smaller cities like Jaipur and Ahmedabad. I myself come from Hathras, a very small town, and now residing in Delhi, so let’s say innovation has no boundaries.

 

What were the digital health biggest investments in 2016? 

There is significant development and a number of startups working on services like pharmacy or lab services aggregators, remote monitoring healthcare devices and online doctor or hospital discovery. Startups which attracted major investments in 2016 were majorly from the SaaS segment. Practo, Healthkart, 1mg, and Goqii were among the front runners in a list of healthcare investments by investors.
“There is significant development and a number of startups working on services like pharmacy or lab services aggregators, remote monitoring healthcare devices and online doctor or hospital discovery.”

Which are your Top 3, 7 or 10 startups for 2017? 

This is a tough question for such an exciting space like digital healthcare in India. But if I divide the digital healthcare space into segments, I would say the following:
In-Doctor Network space: the two companies clearly standing out are DocPlexus and Curofy. Both of them are fulfilling the need of doctors to be able to consult cases online right from their mobile phones and build their own professional network. It would be interesting to see what route they take next.
In-Doctor Discovery segment: booking platform Practo had disrupted the industry before anyone could even think of an idea such as online booking of appointments. Lybrate (online doctor database gives you access to over 90,000 highly trained medical experts) has been able to stick it out in 2016 and will, it seems, continue to do so. Then there is CrediHealth, with the tagline ‘Your Medical Assistance’ doing exactly the same. Within its services, it offers second opinions, doctor selection and surgery planning to an altogether other level. I am sure these companies will be further innovating and disrupting this space.

 

Where can Startups present their solution to the wider public? Are there many events such Medical Fair India?

There are multiple events on medical equipment, lab equipment, medical specialty-specific devices and pharma in India.

 

You are a partner of Medical Fair India. Where do you see the benefit of this collaboration?

It matches with our belief that as a healthcare ecosystem partner, we have a responsibility to represent all the healthcare stakeholders and engage with them. This year Medical Fair India combines equal opportunities for healthcare companies as well as medical and healthcare technology startups, which is an encouraging trend.

 

What can startups expect from Medical Fair India? 

The most important part of such expositions and fairs is networking with various industry stakeholders. Participation offers understanding of new dimensions of the industry, understanding the demands, meeting customers, buyers and a lot more. This season Medical Fair India integrates FTR4H (Future For Health) platform where healthcare technology startups can participate. Medhoop also plays a critical role of bringing these startups to forefront, connecting them with industry, prospective customers, investors and a lot more. Among other things, we are organising mentorship hours for startups. So there is a lot for startups to gain.
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