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.

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.

How to Make the Strategic Innovation Partnerships Work for You

Sweden has signed innovationspartnerskap with three countries - Germany, France, and India - since 2017. As described on their website, the purpose of the partnership is

"to work together and, through innovation, address the challenges of the transition to[wards] a more sustainable welfare society, create new jobs and maintain social cohesion [sic]."

While the dialogue between governments has been ongoing and some research collaborations among institutions have taken place, there has been little engagement with the third pillar in triple helix: the private sector. Aside from a few projects within clean energy financed by the state, few incentives have been created to encourage companies to leverage the partnership. This, however, does not mean that there are no exciting exchanges taking place.

Below are highlights from visits made by all three countries in the month of June.

Germany

Minister Barbara Klepsch, State Minister of Social Affairs and Consumer Protection of the Free State of Saxony, led a 30-person strong delegation under the theme: Digitization in Health Care.

Photo from https://www.ltu.se/

“This trip is [...] particularly important to me, and I very much value thisopportunity of being able to strengthen the relations between Saxony and Sweden and to engender new collaborations."

The delegation - organised by Tysk-Svenska Handelskammaren and consisting of state, agency, insurance, and company representatives -  visited a number of Swedish companies along with Socialdepartementet, eHälsomyndigheten, the Royal Palace, and universities in Stockholm and Luleå. Swecare had the privilege of welcoming the delegation on its first day and presenting an overview of the Swedish health care system - our strengths, challenges, and vision.

One delegate felt both slightly disappointed and genuinely inspired that Sweden was not as digitised as he had feared, making collaborations on equal terms more likely.

France

Little did we know that when we invited CEO Pascal Roché of Ramsay Générale de Santé, current owners of Capio, for a half-day seminar in Stockholm, it would lead to one of the most interactive events of the year, with both presenters and audience engaging with complete frankness and good humour. Swecare and Business Sweden France hosted the event as a continuation of the conversation from the  conference in Paris on "Innovation in health: A French-Swedish dialogue” with more activities planned for the Fall.

Key take-aways:

• From Pascal: Ramsay Générale de Santé reduces queues and costs by operating more efficiently due to successfully implementing small innovations across all their units. He advises President Macron as to how this can be done within France's public hospitals as well.
• From Jan Gustavsson, Vice President Worldwide Sales for ScandiDos: If you are going to do business in France, keep a significant buffer for administrative costs which should be outsourced.

Macron mentioned health care twice during his five-minutes at the joint press conference held with Löfven early June. This is clearly a prioritised sector for France.

India

On the occasion of the India-Sweden Year of Health, the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs welcomed a high-level delegation from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur led by its Director, Professor Sanjeev Misra. As part of this visit, Swecare organised an intimate round table for its members.

The aim of our close collaboration with AIIMS Jodhpur is to lay the foundation for scaling Swedish solutions and products to other AIIMS, with the exception of New Delhi, across India: 8 already functioning, 9 in the process of being built, 4 more planned. This also gives us the opportunity to operationalise the Innovation Partnership.

The 5-person delegation met with government agencies and institutions in Stockholm and Uppsala. They also had the opportunity to test VR tools and visit Swedish companies already engaged in projects in Jodhpur.

Next Steps

We are already planning the next activities in all three countries so please email us at Swecare if you want to be involved!