IT and mobile revolution has changed the landscape of many businesses and healthcare too is not an exception. Whether it is an X-ray report, a MRI report, or just a normal pathological lab report every data can be stored digitally or even on cloud with just a few clicks of a device. All these reports and patient history generate mammoth amount of data every year which often get stored in a closed eco-system and remain dormant. Stakeholders thus cannot process and derive meaningful insights from this valuable data as they don’t have access to the comprehensive record of any individual.
To alter this scenario and to revolutionize how personal health data is exchanged, stored and monetized, healthbank got incepted. The firm empowers all the healthcare stakeholders by providing an open eco-system that enables users to securely store and exchange data with a range of healthcare, pharmaceutical and wellness & lifestyle service providers – at the user’s request. healthbank provides an independent and neutral solution, that only the user has access to yet provides access to a vast amount of health services in the open eco-system.
Incepted in 2013, this Switzerland based health-tech firm is gaining popularity with its leading-edge healthcare solutions. Today, healthbank consists of two symbiotic organizations:
- healthbank cooperative is the core solution which stores patient data on a fully secure digital platform – governed by people (members). What makes it unique is healthbank cooperative is owned by the people, controlled by the people, and the profit also goes back to the people.
- healthbank innovation AG as the platform manager – responsible for the development of services, apps, integration of partners, and data processing on behalf of the user.
About the Company
This Switzerland based firm was founded when an international team of 28 academics, entrepreneurs and experts of the healthcare industry came together with the intent to give back the control of personal health data into the hands of its rightful owners i.e. the people. The company’s vision is to empower people across the globe to exchange their health data, on their uniquely neutral and independent platform.
Uniqueness of healthbank is its policy of ‘one-person-one-vote’ which develops a greater sense of trust among all its stakeholders and encourages greater participation. This policy is one of the prime factors behind healthbank’s stupendous success. When it comes to health data, they put people at the center of every maneuver.
Their ultimate aim is to bring together market players and help them to participate in an open eco-system connected to the healthcare market. They believe that open ecosystems are more efficient than closed ones. Therefore, health service providers benefit from joining healthbank and will be able to integrate their service with customer data and other service providers to more comprehensive solutions.
Benefits of its Eco-system
Technological Security: Through a full-fledged end-to-end encryption as well as a high-security software architecture concept, healthbank provides the right ecosystem partnership to safely manage health data for ecosystem partners that rather want to focus on their first-class services and products than on data back ends.
Full Independence: healthbank provides a truly open and neutral ecosystem that comes with long-term stability as well as competition on the platform itself.
Real World Patient Information: As soon as the users give their consent, the app service provider can integrate dozens of other data sources to enhance their own services through big data, artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms.
Full GDPR compliance: Due to its detailed, informed and dynamic consent management, which puts the user in the middle of the decision process to connect, store and share personal data; healthbank helps achieving full GDPR compliance for their application partners from the ecosystem.
Future Endeavors
The company will soon follow a much more robust architectural approach and will raise its data security to the utmost level through end-to-end encryption The range of functions for users will also get expanded. The health platforms get refurbished to integrate further partners and applications from the health sector quickly, efficiently and more securely. With the new software architecture and the implemented security mechanisms, healthbank is ready to connect further partners and applications with a healthbank account.
- Their two award-winning apps “CatchMyPain” and “PainCompanion” will soon be integrated into the healthbank. Users suffering from severe or chronic pain can benefit from the long-term pain documentation in the future and continue to share their experiences and thoughts.
- healthbank works closely with the Swiss app developer “Rehaptix”. Rehaptix monitors the rehabilitation of patients with motor disabilities due to a neurological injury such as stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease. All data generated in the app is securely stored in the healthbank and can also be passed on to other people.
- healthbank plans to integrate fitness trackers into the healthbank in the near future. With this service users can connect their fitness tracker with the healthbank. And if a user changes the tracker, this will no longer be a problem in the future – the data and the connection to the healthbank will remain intact.
The trailblazer behind its Success
Reto Schegg, Chief Executive Officer, has proficiency in eHealth projects. He was involved in many of the big eHealth initiatives in Europe in recent years. Holding master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering, Business Administration, and Business Law, he has been responsible for international health tech business lines and sales teams. Reto drives the idea of encouraging citizens to make better decisions about their own health in order to receive the best possible care.
