START-UPS MADE IN AUSTRIA: VIVELLIO

This month’s interview we held with Fabian Lichtenstein, CEO and Founder of Vivellio, a smart health management platform which helps you to be more connected to you doctors and have all your medical and health related content in one place.

What is your company doing?

We create solutions that facilitate communication in the healthcare sector, strengthen health competencies and enable people to manage their own health in a self-determined manner. In doing so, we focus around the ongoing development and expansion of our health management system “Vivellio“.

As a personal health manager, the Vivellio app supports its users in owning, organizing and understanding their health data in a self-determined way. Whether findings, medications, vaccinations or doctor’s appointments – with Vivellio, users have access to their health data at any time in a simple and clear manner.

In addition to the app for private individuals, we are also developing and distributing a software solution for doctors that greatly simplifies doctor-patient communication through an intelligent interface. All information is automatically presented to the doctor visually and sorted and processed according to its relevance.

When was your company founded? What were the biggest challenges to overcome then and what are now?

The company was founded in September 2018.

The biggest challenge back then was to break down our vision (“[…] to increase subjective well-being and to relieve healthcare systems while increasing their efficiency […]”) into a product that puts people at the center of their healthcare and, as a first step, solves the problems in doctor-patient communication.

Today, we face the challenge of integrating other medical professionals into our system, in addition to physicians. In addition, Vivellio is growing and getting hundreds of new users every day. We place particular emphasis on customer feedback and constantly incorporate it into the further development process of the Vivellio app. This gives our users the opportunity to actively shape Vivellio as we go. For example, we launched our digital mother-child passport and a pregnancy guide.

How was the idea born?

Healthcare systems around the world are facing ever greater challenges. While the number of patients is rising, the resources of both public and private care systems are becoming increasingly scarce.

In addition to demographic change (changes in the age structure of the Western population) and the rise in lifestyle diseases, the main reasons for this are the associated increase in healthcare costs and the associated financing bottlenecks to maintain healthcare systems.

These challenges are accompanied by inefficiencies in doctor-patient communication, as well as avoidable multiple examinations and misdiagnoses.

The basic idea behind Vivellio was born: A system to increase the individual (patient’s) own empowerment and a fundamental redesign and improvement of communicative processes between affected persons and experts. In this way, each person should be able to proactively and self-determinedly take responsibility for their own health management and be supported in the necessary, but currently very neglected, adherence and prevention.

Who is behind the Start-Up?

Vivellio was developed by experts from the fields of medicine, medical technology, IT security and mobile design: In addition to Fabian Lichtenstein, qualified health care professional and CEO, Susanne Lichtenstein MSc contributes her experience in the development and implementation of communication and marketing strategies in her role as COO. Prim. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Bolz, private physician and head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kepler University Hospital, contributes comprehensive medical know-how as well as experience in research and development. DI (FH) Dr. Michael Ring complements the team with his professional expertise in the fields of regulatory affairs and approval for medical devices. Furthermore, the experienced and renowned Netural GmbH (headquartered in Linz) contributes with its participation in the company the decisive part to the technical implementation of the project.

Wer sind eure Kunden?

On the one hand, health-conscious people who want to take their health into their own hands. On the other hand, however, also chronically ill people, parents as well as relatives of people in need of care. Vivellio can be a great support for everyone in managing their own health.

In the B2B area, our main target group currently consists of physicians, especially doctors in private practice.

What is your business model?

Our app Vivellio is basically free of charge. If you want to create additional profiles for your own children or relatives in need of care, share them within the family and manage them together, you have the option of taking out a subscription for Vivellio Premium.

Doctors can also use the Vivellio WebApp free of charge for the first 30 patients. After that, it is possible to use the entire system with an unlimited number of patients by taking out a membership.

So, there is a freemium model on both sides.

How did your start-up grow?

With the market entry of our app in the entire DACH region as well as the upcoming market entry of our physician solution, the company is growing and is in an exciting phase.

How is the Covid-19 pandemic influencing your company?

The Covid 19 pandemic is also a challenge for us – but it also has benefits for the company, as it has become clear how fragile our healthcare systems are and how important digitization is in this area.

An was arbeitet ihr zur Zeit?

The Covid 19 pandemic is also a challenge for us – but it also has benefits for the company, as it has become clear how fragile our healthcare systems are and how important digitization is in this area.

How do you see your future? Which goals do you pursue?

Vivellio is designed to enable everyone to self-manage, understand and improve their health. This is exactly where we see Vivellio becoming even stronger in the future, as we have set a new research focus on the screening and prevention of diseases and are continuously developing Vivellio further.

What should one know about entrepreneurship in Austria?

In Austria, there is generally more skepticism about new innovations and ideas. However, there are also great funding programs through e.g. the FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency), AWS (Austrian Business Service) or incubators such as Tech2b or Inits. There you get professional support – both through know-how and coaching as well as monetarily through grants and loans.

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to be an entrepreneur?

I think persistence & resilience are two qualities that are especially important for entrepreneurship. You are confronted with numerous challenges and setbacks – staying power and the willingness to give everything are extremely important!


????(c): Vivellio

Share on linkedin
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp