A new location for an established event: last Wednesday, BCN and the national Burda media groups BurdaStyle, BurdaLife, BurdaNews and BurdaHome held the fourth Healthlab by Burda aimed at healthcare decision makers. This time, the exclusive platform for information, inspiration and networking hosted 120 leading industry representatives at Hoch5 in Munich. The day’s discussions tackled many questions. How digital will healthcare become? To what extent will patients determine their own treatment in future? And which business models are shaping the market?
A shared journey
In his presentation, Burda Board Member Philipp Welte drew parallels between media and healthcare and the fundamental changes both industries are facing thanks to digitalisation. The “Pharmacy Future Pact” concept (Zukunftspakt Apotheke) between Burda and the pharmacists’ association NOWEDA is a role model for this collaboration.
“We are confronted with the same huge challenges. And I am convinced that the future will see us tackle them together.”
From incurable to curable? A discussion on gene editing
A broad range of specialist presentations moderated by Bunte editor-in-chief Robert Pölzer showed how digitalisation is influencing healthcare. University professor Simone Spuler, who researches the causes of genetic muscular atrophy and therapies for sufferers, spoke about the opportunities presented by the “Crispr/Cas9” gene editing tool.
Fitness as a new religion
Natalia Karbasova (Burda Bootcamp), founder of the Burda Fit Tech Summit, explored how we can keep ourselves as fit as possible to avoid needing medical treatment and presented the latest well-being trends from Silicon Valley. For young people in particular, being the best version of yourself is part of everyday life. This can benefit boutique fitness concepts, community-based fitness and home fitness programmes – such as a virtual mirror that corrects you as you exercise.
The self-determined patient
“We are only scratching the surface of digital medicine”, said doctor Nora Zetsche. Veta Health, the company she founded in New York, collects data from wearables, from the electronic health cards already introduced in the USA and from patients’ everyday lives (for example on medication use) and analyses it for doctors. The app “accompanies” a patient from the moment they leave the hospital, ensures transparency and helps them to manage their own treatment. This saves on treatment costs and improves the quality of treatment. Veta Health has 40,000 users already and aims to expand in Germany too.
“The healthcare industry is already one of the top sources of revenue in the advertising market. Numerous Mylife health initiatives and the discussions at the Healthlab will help us to continue growing in this industry in 2019.”
Data: it’s all about how you use it
As emergency surgeon and start-up consultant Dominik Pförringer summarised in his humorous and pointed talk, data is not the oil, but the crude oil of modern times. “Does the data control the doctor or does the doctor control the data?” he asked, analysing the state of things. “The intelligent handling of data determines where the journey will take us.”
“An institution”
The fourth Healthlab was received very well by those in attendance. Marco Scott, managing director of the Mediaplan agency, commented: “I never miss the Healthlab by Burda. Its blend of networking and specialist presentations has made it an institution.” Initiator and BurdaLife managing director Kay Labinsky was delighted by the feedback:
“It confirms that this type of exclusive platform – where the healthcare industry comes together to exchange ideas – is relevant, and that we are right to aspire to a leading role here as a media and tech company.”