One of the first questions a seasoned tech person would ask another tech person is: what problem is your technology solving?

At Startupbootcamp Digital Health Berlin, most of the startups in their autumn batch are tackling serious problems in healthcare with innovative technologies.

The event kicked off however with the introduction of a new fascinating technology that doesn’t really solve a burning problem but was no less stunning for it: A LASER HARP CONCERT!

And why did SBC decide to open their Demo Day in this way? In the words of managing director, Lars Buch: “Because we could”.

SBC Berlin 2017 Demo Day Laser Harp Concert 1 from Dana on Vimeo.

And I’m very glad they could because the entire audience was totally enraptured by it. The concert ended with a tribute to David Bowie and Depeche Mode who played at the Meistersaal, the venue that hosted us, in the 1980s. Check it out here.

The rest of the event continued on the same high note. Here’s a quick lowdown of my top 5 favourite pitches from SBC Berlin 2017:

BIOLUMO: A Polish biotech startup that is solving a most urgent problem in healthcare today, that of antibiotic resistance. Biolumo is building a fast point-of-care diagnostic machine for GPS to help them select proper antibiotics. And to really drive home how innovative their technology is: the traditional device used to solve this problem until now, the Antibiogram, takes at least 2 days to deliver results.  CEO: Olga Grudniak

BIOTX.AI is  highly sophisticated machine learning used in biomedical drug development. It works by identifying significant patterns in biomedical datasets. The cofounder who presented on stage, Dr. Joern Klinger, mentioned that they came up with a very precise algorithm for predicting Alzheimer’s disease that is more accurate than ApoE4 gene. So watch this space!

AISENS is developing smart sensors that allow rehabilitation from physical injuries everywhere with real time feedback. Their devices assess the accuracy of body movements and detect patients who don’t exercise properly, allowing them to improve.

 

HEDIA is a personalised and intelligent diabetes app that helps people with diabetes to live a more normal life. By combining seamless data collection from external sources, big-data modeling, and AI, Hedia provides personal insulin recommendation to the diabetic and hence help attain results on the A1c level.

TORAFUGU Tech is a health-tech business focusing on analytics for health and life insurers to increase product personalisation and improve the health and well-being of their members.

And if I could just squeeze another one in, it would be…

CardioCube is developing an innovative strategy of merging Electronic Hospital Record with continuous patient’s home medical data. It integrates Amazon Alexa for home medical data acquisition and cloud-based deep-learning/artificial intelligence algorithms to reduce unplanned hospital readmissions for cardiovascular patients.

You can read about the other startups here. And make sure to sign up for their next Demo Day on November 28th, 2018 (in an attempt to not coincide with Slush next year).

I don’t know about you but I’m definitely looking forward!