Many new opportunities in health tech and care

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 6 pm in the small ballroom of the UAS Technikum Wien, a new episode of Start me up Monday will offer the opportunity to be informed about the latest developments in the field of HealthTech / Care and to exchange ideas with experts, industry representatives and start-ups. We conducted an interview with Vice Rector Stefan Sauermann in advance.

How great is the potential of “HealthTech / Care in the start-up sector? Which innovative start-ups already exist and where is there still room for new developments?
Stefan Sauermann: Together with the federal states and social insurance organizations, the Ministry of Health has developed the slogan “Digital before outpatient before inpatient” for the healthcare sector. On this basis, we are currently seeing many reports, discussions and activities with which these organizations are also implementing concrete measures. The Future Health Lab and LinkedCare fit in perfectly with this.

So if “digital” is to bring greater benefits to the healthcare sector, there are many ways in which start-ups can get involved with devices and software. There are already many start-ups in the healthcare sector, and there will certainly be even more in the future. There are already many start-ups in incubators and networks that have already brought exciting solutions to the market, in many areas from medication and care to temperature monitoring.

In Germany, digital health applications (DiGas) already make it possible to prescribe apps in a similar way to medication. Health insurance companies then cover the costs of the app. We are already hearing ideas to quickly implement DiGas in Austria too. This also opens up many new possibilities.

What does Linked Care mean and how does it benefit care services, relatives, clients, doctors and other organizations involved?
Stefan Sauermann: LinkedCare is an FFG-funded flagship project that aims to ensure the flow of information for the continuous provision of information in mobile care, support and therapy. Care organizations together with software manufacturers and universities have collected requirements and developed more precise descriptions of required functions and specifications. A test phase will start at the beginning of 2024, during which the most important functions will be tested in practice. The handling of medication is currently the focus of interest in LinkedCare. LinkedCare is also cooperating with international partners here, e.g. in HL7 and IHE.

Interested parties can also actively participate in LinkedCare, e.g. in the specification of IT interfaces. LinkedCare wants to establish a sustainable process with all those involved, which will gradually supplement the IT systems beyond the project until “digital” in care is generally known, can be used easily by all those involved and has become a matter of course.

What are the major challenges facing the HealthTech / care sector over the next few years – and how can they be solved?
Stefan Sauermann: Austria and the EU have excellent prerequisites, both in terms of care and medicine, technology and legislation. A lot of preliminary work in all these disciplines over the last few decades has produced viable foundations and results. ELGA and eCard are internationally leading examples from Austria. In my view, the challenge is to bring this knowledge together, take the existing building blocks in hand and implement solutions together. Those affected must actively participate, from patients, carers, doctors, device and software manufacturers, start-ups and industry, to management and politics. Data science is also needed to recognize effects based on the data in existing IT systems and to track effects over time. All of this is well established and proven in itself. The trick now will be to combine the different competencies. We have already demonstrated a great deal of talent in Austria. We will manage that too.

Find out more at the event, where Stefan Sauermann will be joined by experts such as Konstantin Pollanz (HerzensApp GmbH, co-founder & Managing Director) and Herwig Loidl (LOIDL Consulting & IT Services GmbH, project partner in LinkedCare). Future Health Lab will also be represented on site. More information here:

https://www.technikum-wien.at/events/start-me-up-monday-healthtech-pflege/ (This website is displayed in German)