Preventicus: Avoid strokes with the Heartbeats app

The Startup Preventicus focuses on educating patients about strokes and enabling independent measurements with the help of the Heartbeats app. In an interview, Bastian Mayer, Account Manager at Preventicus, explains their solution and that close cooperation with German health insurance companies and continuous optimization is their long-term goal.

How would you explain your solution in three sentences to a colleague from the healthcare sector?

"Preventicus is a young medical technology company whose main business area is the individual support of patient pathways for health insurance companies in the field of cardiovascular diseases. Our focus is on educating patients about strokes and enabling them to take their own measurements using the Heartbeats app. In suspected cases, these are evaluated by telecardiologists and the patient is given an appointment with a cardiologist within 14 days."

Preventicus Heartbeats App

What problem motivated you to start the company?

"There is a lack of opportunities for education and secondary prevention in standard care in Germany. Cardiovascular diseases are often asymptomatic and are too rarely recognized. Patients with symptoms receive 24/48-hour ECGs, which often overlook sporadic cardiac arrhythmias. Preventicus offers a screening tool with a 14-day tele-ECG that confirms atrial fibrillation in over 90% of cases. Long waiting times for patients are reduced to 14 days thanks to Germany-wide cooperation with cardiologists. Users do not need any additional hardware and the user-friendly app strengthens health and digital literacy, which is an increasing problem, especially for people aged 55 and over."

How do you convince a pharmaceutical company, a health insurance company or another potential client to set up a pilot project with you?

"Preventicus Heartbeats is a class 2A medical device and unique in Europe. Our extended managed care system offers a comprehensive treatment pathway from screening to diagnostics. Preventicus Heartbeats also enables individual adaptation to the strategies of health insurance companies and the integration of existing treatment pathways. We have extensive experience in working with 17 insurance companies."

Who are your current customer (groups) and who do you want your potential customers to be?

"Our main customers are the health insurance companies that provide the app to their policyholders. These are essentially limited to high-risk groups aged 55 and over. In Germany, 2.7 million people suffer from atrial fibrillation and around 900,000 of these cases are not detected as part of standard care. We are currently active on a national level and are already working on geographic expansion. Our product range will also be expanded in the future."

User of the Heartbeats app

Where do you see yourselves in 3 years and how can 5-HT support you?

"Our long-term goal is to work closely with the German health insurance companies and to continuously optimize RhythmusLeben in order to optimally meet the needs of users and health insurance companies and ensure nationwide coverage. Thanks to its reach, 5-HT can support us in our activities in the German market and internationalization."