How Swedish Scale-Ups fit into the Future of Digital Health

Sweden Germany Innovation Partnership: eHealth

One Day in Berlin

Objective

Digital health start-ups and businesses will play a crucial role in transforming health care to better take advantage of the technical progress by developing new innovative products and digital health solutions. Given the challenging regulatory framework of the health care sector but also the high potential, start-ups and businesses in digital health will profit substantially from exchanges, networking and cooperation between each other and with relevant stakeholders. This visit is part of ongoing discussions on discuss how Germany and Sweden can make sure to share our innovative businesses across borders and help them connect to a larger market both within the home countries and abroad.

Swedish Scale-Ups

• Cambio Healthcare Systems
• Coala Life
• KRY / LIVI
• Zenicor Medical Systems

Agenda

Morning - Presentations by German government officials for the Swedish Digital Health Companies

• Overview about the Digital Hub Initiative focusing the Digital Health Hubs by Germany Trade and Invest
• Presentation on the Fast Track for Digital Applications by the Ministry of Health
• Presentation on the Federal Funding Advisory Service at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy

Networking Lunch at the 

Swedish-German Business Day

Afternoon - Breakout session on eHealth and the German-Swedish Innovation Partnership

• What are the main challenges in the German market
• What are the strengths which Swedish companies could learn from
• How will the new regulatory changes regarding eHealth change the health care landscape
• Which collaborations would be most beneficial in order to ensure German and Swedish innovations can be tested within the existing system
• Next steps: exchange of innovative companies during a Digital Health Camp in Q2 2020

Informal dinner with representatives from 

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Main Take-Away

The upcoming Digital Care Act (Digitale Versorgung Gesetz – DVG) is a new administrative pathway to accelerate digitalisation and initiate "fast track" to reimbursement. It is only the first of many steps that Germany will take in order to harness new digital opportunities in order to provide citizens with the best health care (and preventive measures) while ensuring data and patient protection. There is scope for Swedish digital companies to be part of this process as the policy landscape evolves.

Thank you!

We could not have arranged this without the support of the team at GTAI and Business Sweden in Berlin! Look to this space for upcoming events (most likely April and/or May 2020) or get in touch if you would like more information.

The Future of E-health in Belgium - part II

This week we had the opportunity to hold a seminar together with the Embassy of Belgium and the Wallonia Export Investment Agency who had the pleasure of inviting Swecare member companies within Health Tech for an executive eHealth seminar and possible B2B meeting with OZ Consulting, specializing in eHealth strategies and opportunities in Belgium/Wallonia.

The aim of the seminar was to enlighten the eHealth strategies at work in Sweden and the innovations within the digitalization of healthcare services and possible partnership opportunities within the Belgian healthcare system.


The interest for these kind of seminars is quite popular among our members. Not only for networking but also for building credibility about different healthcare systems. It was nice to see Zenicor Medical Systems, WeCare AB, Predicare, Doctrin, and AsthmaTuner / Karolinska Institutet.

The Belgian side opened the seminar with Cynthia Slomian, OZ Consulting. She presented the eHealth strategies and opportunities in Belgium/Wallonia and their report project where they want to highlight Swedish disruptive companies.

This report project aims at showcasing companies and policies abroad in the realm of EHealth innovation. The report will be presented at the yearly gathering of “Digital Patient”, a network of French, Belgian and Luxemburg hospitals end October 2019. This symposium could also be an opportunity for exposure for Swedish companies.  >> Download report

Cynthia explained more about the national project “eHealth Hubs & MetaHub” coordinated by the eHealth platform. The platform is meant to make medical results from hospitals (and in the near future medical laboratories) available to any caregiver who currently is treating the patient. For detailed information see https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/fr/esante/professionnels-de-la-sante/hubs-metahub/presentation-generale.

Cynthia also spoke about the initiative of the Federal Belgian Government mHealthBELGIUM, which is the Belgian platform for mobile applications that are CE-marked as a medical device.

Before mHealth solutions are implemented, they will have to go through a validation pyramid to fast-track these applications. This evaluation model analyses whether an application is safe, secure and provides benefit to the patient, caregiver or the healthcare system. No more delays of valuable innovations accessing healthcare. Please visit www.mhealthbelgium.be for more info, FAQs and how to apply, etc.

Next speakers were Mathilde Faure, MyData-Trust who presented the importance of #GDPR for the health data in the life science sector and Shampa Bari, Regional Director at Swecare who gave a short introduction about Swecare and our mission.

After a short coffee break it was time for Malin Amnefelt, Coordinator at Vision for ehälsa 2025. She talked about their vision for #eHealth and #Digital #trends and that we need to see that there's a change in perspective. The patient is in the team and we need to look more at the needs of the patient.

Next speaker was Marcus Hjorth from Inera, a private company owned by Swedish county councils, regions and municipalities, as well as the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). The owners have tasked the company with developing joint digital solutions that will help to streamline their operations. They have more than 40 #digital services to offer, among them the Swedish Healthcare Guide online, 1177.se. Sweden's national hub for advice, information, inspiration and e-services for health and healthcare. The general public is welcome to call 1177 for healthcare advice twenty-four hours a day, year-round, all over Sweden.

The last speaker was Björn Nordlund from AsthmaTuner. AsthmaTuner by MediTuner is a digital solution developed in close collaboration with the Swedish healthcare industry. It was created with the goal of helping patients take control of their asthma, simplifying the process and increasing efficiency for caregivers. Asthma is a chronic disease that affects around ten per cent of the population, there are major savings to be made by reducing handling time and achieving a system that provides more precise information on the patient’s lung function and symptoms. Mr. Nordlund showed us their remarking results in reducing the number of health care visits than with traditional non-digital self-management. 

Amandine Pekel, Trade and Investment Commissioner from the Embassy of Belgium wrapped up and invited all participants and members of Swecare to join them at Medica, visit their booth and their special Belgian Happy Hour. 

We say a big thank you to the Embassy of Belgium for making this an interesting event for our members!

For further information please do not hesitate in contacting the team at Stockholm-Wallonia Export Investment Agency via their email.

Should you wish to see the presentations, email Swecare.

Health Tech Scale-Ups in Germany

Operationalising the Innovation Partnership between Sweden and Germany

Swecare had the pleasure of supporting Socialdepartementet and eHälsomyndigheten with one of the workshops which took place during the Roundtable on the German-Swedish Partnership for Innovation in eHealth on Monday. Being able to use our vast and diverse network within the life-science ecosystem in Sweden to make sure that relevant interests are represented during such high-level discussions is one of our defining assets.

Ministers Lena Hallengren and Jens Spahn opened the Roundtable by stressing the need for cooperation between our two countries in order to maintain international competitiveness during these digital times. Both ministries were present in force leading the discussions of 54 participants during the course of the 4-hr afternoon meeting. The palpable commitment of all the public sector representatives, ranging from government officials, academic experts, to trade associations, during our the dialogue underline the scope of our engagement.

In the workshop on Digital Health Start Ups and Businesses, led by the charismatic Josefina Nungesser, Director of the Digital Hub Initiative at Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), we discussed the new regulation passed by Germany allowing doctors to prescribe digital apps with health benefits which can then be reimbursed by the national health insurance system. From the Swedish side Swecare, IT&Telekomföretagen, HealthTech Nordic along with German counterparts from Bitkom, The Federal Ministry of Health, The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, Charité, decided to organize a start up exchange during 2020. Targeting perhaps 10 new innovative companies ready to scale from each country, we will create a 2-day program, one day in each of our countries, where we will engage with key stakeholders in the scale-up journey:

1. Science and innovation parks
2. Test beds in or near university hospitals
3. Regulators
4. Potential investors

Get in touch if you are one of these new digital companies! Initiatives from the other groups will be communicated once we have the final report from the Roundtable.

At dinner after a long afternoon of discussions - graciously hosted by the The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)

Photo Credit: Embassy of Sweden in Berlin

During our short trip to Berlin, Swecare, at the initiation of Business Sweden, also gave its larger member companies an opportunity to present their success stories and challenges in the German market to Minister Lena Hallengren, the Swedish Ambassador to Germany, and State Secretary Maja Fjaestad. Digital solutions for nursing homes and patient registries came up during these discussions and we hope to include these multi-nationals as we operationalise our partnership. The established companies have access to considerable resources - expertise, financing, network - that they are ready to share as we work towards common goals.