Digital health in Switzerland

Digital health is any healthcare application or solution that uses software or a combination of software and hardware to solve a health challenge.

An example from the healthtech niche: Nutrix uses a high-tech nanosensor placed on a person’s tooth to detect the glucose level in the saliva. The sensor transfers the data to an external app for simple and accessible surveillance.

Nutrix is also branching out in other healthtech branches like AI for personalized medical guidance and creating the world’s first non-invasive cortisol monitoring sensor.

Digital health is an umbrella term for many fields. Some are mobile health apps, electronic health records, wearable devices with sensors, telemedicine and personalized medicine.

Every industry profits from advancing technology

The first documented telemedicine treatment took place as early as 1897. During a telephone consultation with a doctor, a child was diagnosed with croup. The viral infection of the respiratory tract manifests itself by a characteristic barking cough.

Since then, in addition to technologies developed specifically for medicine, advances from other industries have been adopted wherever possible. Healthcare, as every other industry, profits from advancing technology:

When we started harvesting steam for energy, we started powering factories and trains. Microchips are in almost every device now, from toasters to cars and smartphones. All our devices are connected wirelessly. Healthcare is no exception.

Microscopes to analyze blood samples, x-rays to see inside the body, radio waves to transmit data between the various machines around a patient’s bed. These applications in healthcare were made possible by new tech.

But technological progress has been going slower than in other industries. Why?

Because healthcare is all about ethics and adhering to strict standards and norms to safeguard lives and safety. That means strict regulations, slow approvals, many players involved and the need for a lot of financing.

Now, healthcare is catching up

We’ve seen a rapid acceleration of development in the digital health space in the last few years. Especially with COVID, hurdles have been softened, funding is more accessible than ever and constraints like limited physical interaction or the shortage of healthcare personnel have become a fertile ground for innovation.

This comes with the understanding that digital health is the way to serve patients’ needs better, quicker and at less cost than ever before.

Digital transformation is high up on the agenda of most life sciences companies.

The regulatory environment is changing rapidly, accelerating the digital health trend. We’re also seeing a much larger number of early-stage investments than just four years ago.

Let’s look at Roche and Novartis as an example, the two biggest life sciences companies in Europe.

One of Roche’s top priorities is personalized healthcare. The goal of personalized healthcare is to more effectively screen, diagnose and treat the right people at the right time with the right method.

Novartis uses artificial intelligence to make sense of huge amounts of health data that could never be interpreted by humans alone.

With the further removal of regulatory barriers and increased investments and collaboration, we’ll see an even faster acceleration from major and minor players in digital health.

My chest hurts for the third time this week as I lay down to sleep. I launch the telemedicine app and connect with a doctor within a few minutes.

He tells me to put on my medical bracelet and swallow a smart pill. Both use sensors to gather data on my body. The data is wirelessly transmitted to my digital health records in a shared database.

An AI analyzes the data and suggests some causes for my pain to the doctor. The AI also rules out many diseases based on the vast amount of gathered data and my existing health record.

The doctor agrees with the AI’s diagnosis of high blood pressure, clicks a button on his screen, and tells me to go to sleep. I can collect the medicine tomorrow in any pharmacy near me.

In the morning, I go to the pharmacy, show my health insurance and ID card. My prescription pops up on the pharmacist’s computer. The insurance already paid for it.

I grab the medicine, go home and start the cure.

According to Galen Growth, Switzerland is Europe’s fifth-largest digital health market.

source: H1 2021 Report: Europe Digital Health Ecosystem Key Trends

And the market is far from saturated.

Companies worldwide choose Switzerland for their headquarters because of its easy regulations, vast funding opportunities and market diversity.

If you launch a product or service successfully in Switzerland, chances are it works in Italy, France and Germany. That’s especially important for the highly consumer-focused industry that is digital health.

As the region’s innovation promotion agency, Basel Area Business & Innovation offers consultation and connections to help companies, entrepreneurs, and startups launch and grow innovative ventures. The DayOne Accelerator, as an example, has expanded its offerings and is supporting startups and companies that specialize in the fields of prevention, diagnostics and treatment, no matter where they are located.

We provide introductions and help you build your network, we host events and workshops, and we help you get access to resources from funding to mentoring for startups, accelerator programs, and collaborative workspaces.