As of publishing, there are over 1.9M confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally. Economies are experiencing drop-downs, unemployment rates are increasing, and many of us have been on lockdown for several weeks, while the healthcare systems across the globe are looking to somehow manage a pandemic.
Although most businesses are facing massive challenges and changes on all levels, we are proud to see German Accelerator startups working hard to innovate, step up and provide support during these unprecedented times.
German Accelerator Companies Joining the Fight Against the Virus
Meet some of our German Accelerator life sciences and technology companies that are currently leveraging their medical, innovative, and scientific competencies in the battle against the coronavirus. Here is how their expertise, products, and professional networks allow them to bring unique problem-solving approaches to the global fight against the pandemic:
3YOURMIND (Silicon Valley Class 2016-4, Berlin) is an enterprise software that allows customers to quickly add industry 4.0 services to their production processes, streamlining industrial 3D printing.
3YOURMIND’s response to COVID-19: 3D printing companies around the world are manufacturing additional supplies but often there is a missing link to connect that output to the locations where the parts are needed. 3YOURMINND set up a dedicated response platform to organize 3D printing production and distribution of parts needed to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Ada Health (Life Sciences Class 2017-2, Berlin) is an innovative health technology company, who launched a conversational health companion app to empower people with personalized medical insights to then identify and offer appropriate next steps.
Ada Health’s response to COVID-19: Ada Health has developed a COVID-19 screener to end the guessing games, check symptoms and find out what to do next.
terraplasma medical’s mobile wound care device (©terraplasma medical)
AMBOSS (New York Class 2017-4, Cologne) is a breakthrough medical knowledge platform changing the world of medical education. The platform provides the essentials of medicine in a single tool that future doctors can use for in-depth studying, reviewing on-the-go, and acing the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) exams.
AMBOSS’ response to COVID-19: AMBOSS is providing free ventilation training and other COVID-19 related tips for medical students and doctors around the globe.
Lipotype (Life Sciences Class 2017-4, Dresden) has developed Shotgun Lipidomics, a mass spectroscopy-based technology for lipid identification and absolute quantification in basic and clinical research. This technology empowers researchers in the biotech, pharma, food, and cosmetics industries.
Lipotype’s response to COVID-19: The company is certified to analyze samples infected with SARS-CoV-2. In addition, they are looking into lipid metabolism as a druggable target for coronavirus infections.
OakLabs (Life Sciences Class 2019-4, Hennigsdorf) is run by a team of quantum physicists, biochemists, and biologists that work on biomarker signatures of superior accuracy for companion diagnostics (CDx) using AI & machine learning.
OakLab’s response to COVID-19: OakLabs developed a test kit (RT-qPCR) that can be ordered on their website and then processed by OakLabs. Results will be delivered on the very next business day.
Personal MedSystems (Life Sciences Class 2016-1, Frankfurt) has developed CardioSecur, a mobile ECG system, that allows both patients and physicians to perform instant heart checks wherever they are. CardioSecur measures 15 leads (viewpoints) of the heart whereas a standard ECG only measures 12.
Personal MedSystems’ response to COVID-19: Heart patients are at an increased risk to fall severely ill with COVID-19 and the mobile Tele-ECG “CardioSecur” can help patients with heart conditions to receive care by detecting possible complications without having to leave home. This minimizes the risks of exposure and the likelihood of an infection with the coronavirus. Telemedicine in action.
Smart Reporting (New York Class 2018-2, Munich) offers a digital health solution for structured medical reporting. Currently, more than 99% of medical reports are free-text, which poses severe problems to quality, reproducibility, and efficiency in the healthcare system. Smart Reporting offers an intelligent software for physicians resulting in improvements in quality and efficiency.
Smart Reporting’s response to COVID-19: Smart Reporting is joining the global efforts against the coronavirus by offering free structured reporting templates for radiologists.
Smart Reporting offers free radiology structured reporting templates for radiologists (©Smart Reporting)
Spindiag (Life Sciences Class 2017-4, Freiburg) addresses the challenge of patients introducing drug-resistant bacteria into hospitals, allowing to test on the spot whether or not a patient needs to be quarantined before entering a hospital.
Spindiag’s response to COVID-19: The diagnostics company developing point-of-care solutions to control infectious diseases, is working on a rapid test for coronavirus and has just received €6M in development support from the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
terraplasma medical (Life Sciences Class 2019-4, Munich) has developed a portable medical device for wound care using cold atmospheric plasma. Their device is used by medical experts for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds.
terraplasma medical’s response to COVID-19: The company is running preclinical studies in Munich and Regensburg to test the use of cold plasma technology in ventilated patients. The idea is to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract by using specific adapters that can be put into the patient’s mouth. Besides reducing the viral load, cold plasma can inactivate multi-resistant bacteria in the upper respiratory tract, thus helping to prevent bacterial pneumonia, which leads to 50% of the fatalities.
