Entrepreneurship in Healthcare

Entrepreneurship is an opportunity for all of us: with innovative ideas for a better economy. In this way, a high added value can be created in the healthcare sector by entrepreneurs daring to walk the balancing act between entrepreneurial thinking and social added value. 

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations put “Healthy life for all – ensuring a healthy life for all people of all ages and promoting their well-being” as goal 3 on the agenda. It's an area that brings with it tremendous urgency for improvement and therefore great opportunity for market potential for entrepreneurs. 

In May last year we introduced you to Green City Solutions , a startup that uses a bio-tech filter to improve the air quality in our cities and thus the quality of life of the residents. In addition, there are many other German startups that have taken on the search for solutions for the third sustainability goal. We present some here.

MEDMIN - Future-oriented management for medical practices

The rapidly aging society, with the sometimes severe and chronic course of illnesses and increasing cost, bureaucratic and efficiency pressures, make the day-to-day business of doctors and clinics more difficult. Due to a family event, Harriet Kollmann encountered a multitude of challenges, which primarily concerned practice management. After working for years as a freelance practice consultant, Harriet thought about how she could meet the growing demand for her work and decided to found MEDMIN after completing the Entrepreneurship Masterclass . MEDMINis an online expert portal that relieves doctors and takes over all areas of modern practice management. In this way, physicians can give up all activities that do not deal with medicine and return to their calling - being a doctor.

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ichó - interactive support for dementia

The ichó therapy ball is intended to support people with dementia in memory training. The interactive ball lights up, vibrates, plays music and sounds. Fairy tales, movement exercises or radio plays are applications that have been developed together with therapists, doctors and scientists for a comprehensive and individual offer. With the help of the recorded data, insights into the training process of the users can be gained.

ichó systems GmbH was founded in February 2018 by Steffen Preuß, Mario Kascholke and Leftheri Efthimiadis. The work on the idea of ​​an interactive therapy began much earlier than some of the founders themselves became affected by family fates. When the illnesses of some family members became so significant, they began researching and developing at the university in 2013. The therapy ball is currently in the final stages of testing, but can already be pre-ordered on the company's website.

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Jameda and Doctolib - simply book doctor's appointments online

The start-ups Jameda  and Doctolib use simple means to eliminate a major annoyance for patients: medical appointments are made online. Online portals such as Jameda and Doctolib solve a time and organizational problem, especially for working people whose working hours fall within the same time window as the opening hours of medical practices. Patients can book the next free appointment with the desired doctor in the respective city with just a few clicks via the internet portal and the app. 

COLDPLASMATECH - cold plasma for the treatment of chronic wounds

Cold plasma - one may wonder what that can be. The following three states of matter may still be known from physics or chemistry classes: solid, liquid and gaseous. In addition, there are other 'non-classical' states of matter in science. Plasma is an energetically charged gas. The sun is also in the plasma state. COLDPLASMATECH is now making use of the cold variant, which is used in medicine, for example, in addition to being used in fluorescent tubes.

Photo © Nadine Bauerfeind

A wound that has not adequately healed six weeks after it was created is usually considered chronic. Cold plasma has been shown to inactivate germs that inhibit healing, such as are often found in hospitals. It has a disinfecting effect and at the same time activates the immune system. There are now a wide variety of devices that use this technology. Here, however, we are often talking about large and bulky apparatus. COLDPLASMATECH have therefore developed their product as a handy box with a square wound pad. This is suitable for the treatment of small as well as large wounds. 

In 2018 COLDPLASMATECH received the German Innovation Award.