Berlin is the attractive location for Digital Health Innovation

The Cluster Management Healthcare Industry Berlin-Brandenburg - HealthCapital has conducted an inventory of the digital health ecosystem in the capital region. This was collected with the aim of showing and identifying a qualitative snapshot as well as the strengths, characteristics and development potential of the digital health ecosystem in Berlin-Brandenburg

The result: The capital region particularly scores points as an attractive location and through the close networking of the stakeholders in the ecosystem. Both criteria received above-average positive ratings.

Ten reasons for successful digital health innovations in the capital region can be derived from the results:

• Strong startup culture

• Innovation centres and clusters

• Medical research and excellence

• Promotion of the healthcare industry

• International networking

• Diverse solutions

• Willingness to invest

• Interdisciplinary cooperation

• Patient orientation

• High density of events
   

Ecosystem and innovative technologies as success factors

The results of the survey include over 70 representative stakeholders and digital health projects from Berlin-Brandenburg. Two topic areas were considered, the “Digital Health Ecosystem of the Capital Region” and “Digital Health Technologies”.

An important concern for the study was to represent the diversity of the ecosystem in the capital region adequately. For this purpose, a total of 19 digital health experts from the Berlin-Brandenburg region were involved, representing the various interest groups in the ecosystem.

The expert group examined selected digital technologies that are important for the digital health ecosystem in terms of their level of maturity and visibility in the capital region. The acceptance of new technologies was rated as comparatively high. The most present technologies are solutions in the area of AI-supported data and image processing. Chatbots and Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) and telemedicine were also rated above average. Distributed Ledger Technology also opens up new opportunities for secure data exchange and active data donation in the healthcare sector.

Dr. Kai Bindseil, Head of the Healthcare Industry Department at Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH: “The capital region has long been considered the German hotspot for digital health solutions. The wide range and excellence of the research institutions, companies and projects presented in this study clearly demonstrates this. Networking platforms such as the DMEA, numerous cluster events or the Barcamp Health-IT create ideal opportunities to network regionally and internationally. The attractive location of Berlin with its art and culture continues to attract talent. It is now important to work on bringing the innovations to users and patients.”

Ute Mercker, Investment Director, IBB Ventures: “Berlin has the strongest ecosystem for digital health in Germany, as startups here are in dialogue with all stakeholders in the healthcare sector, such as insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and researchers. This is a great advantage for investors, as the founders have the necessary medical-regulatory as well as the digital and commercial know-how.”

Brief descriptions of selected technology projects from the inventory

TEF-Health: The EU-funded project “Testing and Experimentation Facility for Health AI and Robotics” (TEF-Health) aims to facilitate and accelerate the validation and certification of AI and robotics in medical devices. Currently, 52 partners in nine countries are involved. Information: www.tefhealth.eu

MUT: The Berlin-Brandenburg Digital Health Future Region (ZDG) project examined telemedical solutions for inpatient care in rural healthcare regions of Brandenburg from 2020 to 2022. The aim was to develop an intelligent system for the telemedical co-care of high-risk cardiological patients. Further information: www.mut-zdg.de

BloG³: From 2020 to 2023, using the example of discharge management in oncology, a blockchain-based data platform was designed that enables cross-organisational and cross-sector provision of health data for relevant service providers. The project consortium comprised ten partners, including the Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Further information: www.blog3.de

The inventory was carried out in the second half of 2023 with the support of the innovation agency Startup Colours UG. It was published online for DMEA – Connecting Digital Healthcare 2024 on the website of the Cluster Healthcare Industry Department Berlin-Brandenburg – HealthCapital.

Further information can be found here: Inventory of the digital health ecosystem | Cluster Healthcare Industry Department Berlin-Brandenburg (healthcapital.de)

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