Hamburg. Safer monitoring of breast cancer, better treatment of strokes, easier creation of doctor's letters using AI: Handelsblatt and Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) have honored three start-ups with the “Health-i-Award” for these innovations.
Since 2016, the initiative has been selecting thought leaders who want to use digital innovations to relieve the burden on the German healthcare system and improve care for people. The winners this year are myScribe, Catmedica and Ida.
“I don’t know of any award that attracts such a range of start-ups with different approaches,” said TK boss Jens Baas at the awards ceremony on Thursday evening in Hamburg. Many of the innovations from previous award winners have now actually found their way into healthcare and have saved enormous costs. However, Baas praised the current field of participants: The quality of the applications has increased significantly compared to previous years.
Kirsten Ludowig, deputy editor-in-chief of the Handelsblatt, emphasized the importance of the award for the visibility of start-ups: “We have to make visible where new approaches make a difference and promote their implementation.”
Ariel Dora Stern, Professor of Digital Health, Economics and Politics at the Hasso Plattner Institute, is supporting the award and the selection of the winners with her team as a scientific partner. Her conclusion: “Evidence is sexy.” A good idea is no longer enough in the healthcare system today. “Now people just want to see more data than they did five years ago,” she says.
In the eleventh year of the award, the jury once again evaluated many digital approaches that are intended to make the healthcare system better and more efficient. The criteria were novelty, scalability, patient benefit and a functioning business model. This is what distinguishes this year’s winners and their approaches.
Third place: myScribe
The first AI-generated doctor's letter in Germany is already in use in 16 clinics. The Mannheim start-up was founded by the doctor Ira Stoll and her husband, the software developer Lars Stoll. The idea came about while she was working at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Doctors spend hours every day writing medical letters because clinical data is spread across dozens of systems and formats. Ira Stoll gave up her job to solve the problem of bureaucracy in everyday clinical practice. With the myScribe app, doctor's letters are generated from existing data at the push of a button. This saves doctors two to three hours of time every day.
The jury was impressed by the combination of medical understanding, technological expertise and real implementation skills.
Second place: Catmedica
With the patented product Seal & Protect, the Mainz-based medtech start-up, in which the Rhineland-Palatinate Investment and Structural Bank has a stake, wants to fundamentally improve stroke treatment. The aim is to remove blood clots as completely as possible on the first attempt, says neuroradiologist Yasemin Tanyildizi. The prototype is currently in its eighth version and market entry could take place from 2031. Clinical studies on humans are still pending.
One in four people in Germany suffers a stroke in their lifetime. The jury was impressed by the innovative hardware product and the high potential in care – and all without AI.
First place: Ida
The start-up Ida by doctors Maria Karsten and Therese Pross has developed digital symptom monitoring for patients with breast cancer. Once a week they answer questions about symptoms in the app. Meanwhile, the algorithm detects in real time when the condition deteriorates critically and informs the treatment team directly.
Breast cancer patients see their treatment team every four to six weeks on average. In between, they are on their own. Symptoms often go unnoticed and unplanned emergency treatment occurs. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
This is where the spin-off of the Charité Clinic comes into play. “With Ida, oncological care in Germany becomes proactive, no longer reactive,” says the doctor and founder Karsten. The most important feedback for the team: The app gives the women a lot of support. “The need is so great and is only getting greater,” says Karsten.
In almost 900 patients in more than 50 German centers, Ida improved symptom control and quality of life by 29 percent, while saving costs.
The jury was particularly impressed by the evidence-based solution, which closes an obvious gap in the healthcare system, and by the convincing founders.
