November 16, 2019

The big day arrived at last: our gardeners travelled to Berlin to reap the first harvest of our Digital Garden, powered by Almirall.

From November 13th to 15th, the prestigious AXICA Convention Centre, located next to the Brandenburg Gate, was the venue for the main global conference dedicated to Digital Health innovation: Frontiers Health 2019. The event was a unique experiential platform for learning, exchanges and inspiration, uniting 700 delegates from 30 countries, more than 120 speakers, 60 investors, 190 large companies and over 130 start-ups. And there we were, with Almirall’s Digital Garden making its debut as a digital health accelerator.

To prepare the ground, so to speak, the Digital Garden team held a beer tasting to honour the capital where the event was held. The Digital Beer Garden was attended by a Who’s Who of the Digital Health ecosystem to chat over a pint and share with us their advice and thoughts of accelerators and the future of digital health.

The next morning, we would meet at last with our final first cohort, participants in a nine-month accelerator program slated to start in January 2020 at the Barcelona Health Hub.

More than 40 start-ups had shown interest in joining the programme, but only 4 could earn a spot in our Garden. We preselected eight from among the many applicants to present their business model to the expert investor jury. The pitch event bloomed with creativity and collaborative spirit.

The First Harvest includes:

Haut.Al: This platform created in Estonia develops Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to recognise skin diseases. Haut AI recognizes conditions based on machine learning of a database of more than 100,000 images.

Derma2go: This innovator helps both patients and dermatologists. The app samples the patient’s skin through an image, provides a description of the problem and gives the patient a dermatological diagnosis within 24 hours. It aims to serve as triage tool and to cut costs and waiting times for appointments in response to the shortage of dermatologists.

Intrepid Analytics: This app improves and speeds up recruitment to clinical trials through a website that can attract a larger and more diverse patient group, speeding up trials and reducing the risk of additional testing. The project aims to be a gateway through which patients can gain faster access to clinical trials.

UVisio: It seeks to inform users about their skin’s ultraviolet (UV) exposure. The platform requires the user to wear a portable device that operates as a sun-exposure monitor, called the Sun Clip. The Sun Clip enables the app to measure an individual’s UV exposure and then give them advice on how to protect themselves.

All share Almirall’s purpose of transforming the patients’ world by helping them to realise their hopes and dreams for a healthy life, through a focus on digital innovation as a tool to accelerate the delivery of breakthrough solutions.

“Our commitment to innovation goes beyond our investment in solutions for medical dermatology, we are convinced that building a future in collaboration with digital health leaders is one of the best ways to address the needs of our patients. We are so pleased to launch the Digital Garden and demonstrate what digital innovation can bring to medical dermatology,” explained Francesca Wuttke, Almirall’s Chief Digital Officer.

About Frontiers Health

Frontiers Health is a global event in digital health innovation with a strong focus on digital treatments, breakthrough technologies, healthcare transformation, investment and ecosystem development. Conference activities explore guiding themes inspired by healthcare trends and innovation topics in multiple engaging formats

• Digital Therapeutics (DTx)
• Breakthrough innovations
• Scientific and Clinical Validation
• Business Models and Reimbursement
• Strategic Partnerships
• Digital Transformation
• Funding, M&A, path to value
• Health Insurance Innovation

The event offers a fine balance between hands-on working & learning sessions in break-out rooms alongside inspirational plenary sessions and networking moments over lunch and drinks.

Learn more about the Digital Garden’s First Harvest