The digital medical device closes a gap in healthcare provision
Around 1.8 million people in Germany suffer from dementia, but up to 6 million already have early signs of the disease – the preliminary stage, a so-called mild cognitive disorder. Dementia is a chronic disease that develops slowly. Although there isn’t any cure for dementia, there are treatments that can alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life. However, there aren’t any approved treatments at this early stage. It’s only once dementia has been diagnosed and manifested that our healthcare system starts to treat it with such medication as anti-dementia drugs or physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
memodio’s interdisciplinary founding team of doctors and software developers has launched the memodio app into the market, offering a medical product that closes this gap in healthcare provision. It supports people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early onset dementia.
“It has been known for several years that a combination of different treatment elements can have a positive impact, the multimodal intervention, which means brain training combined with a sports programme for senior citizens as well as individual nutritional adjustments and support for social participation”, says Dr Doron Stein, who founded memodio together with his medical colleague Felix Bicu and software developer Paul Zimmermann.
Therapeutic support rather than a diagnosis
memodio isn’t offering any diagnosis here, but focuses instead on a treatment plan. “The users come to us if they have already been diagnosed – or act on their own initiative to counteract impairments at an early stage,” Stein says. The memodio app offers a high degree of individualisation in order to meet the different requirements. The training plan includes daily exercises lasting between 20 to 30 minutes. The exercises for brain training are adapted to the users’ progress and increase the levels of difficulty accordingly. The integrated sports programme includes training units with continuously increasing levels of difficulty. In addition, scientific questionnaires are used to record nutritional habits and thus provide personalised recommendations. Social participation and risk factors are also considered.
The combination of these elements has demonstrably had a positive influence on the course of the disease. memodio relies here on major international studies that have proven the effect of multimodal interventions in non-digital settings. “We have translated these interventions into digital code,” Stein says. However, the team is also aware that many people are critical of digital healthcare “Of course, it would be ideal in reality if physiotherapy, occupational therapy, a sports programme and nutritional advice could be provided at such an early stage of dementia. Unfortunately, this is utopian and the resources aren’t available. The app can compensate for this and offer real added value.” The majority of over-70s own a smartphone, which makes it easier to use the app. “We can’t cater for everyone, but pharmaceutical manufacturers can’t either.”
memodio is currently conducting its own efficacy study in cooperation with study centres and practices across Germany, and the results should be available by the end of the year. The app uses a playful reward system to motivate its users to maintain their daily exercises. A kind of memory tree grows from a digital seed with the daily units, and a reminder function with push notifications provides additional reminders.
The goal: comprehensive care
The healthcare system is still struggling to make such services available to the wider population. What’s more , the readiness to pay for digital healthcare services is rather low in Germany. It’s currently a challenge to talk to health insurance companies about contracts. According to Stein, his company’s goal is to make the service available throughout the whole country. Another option is for the app on prescription, for which approval can be obtained from the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices – even if priority is given to cooperation with the health insurance companies.
Dr Doron Stein himself has conducted research into dementia and published a white paper on care for early Alzheimer’s disease. He and his co-founder, the physician Felix Bicu, also have a family history of dementia and have sought solutions to close the gaps in care provision in the early stages. They were joined by the software developer Paul Zimmermann after a call for proposals at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). The company was launched thanks to the EXIST Business Start-up Grant, followed by other funding programmes such as the one administered by the Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg (ILB) and financing from the private sector. Since the demands made on medical products in the EU are high, the long road to approval is almost impossible to manage without having recourse to such start-up funding.
They were also able to make valuable contacts as part of the MediaTech Hub Accelerator. memodio was approved as a medical device to be launched on the market just 1 ½ years after the company had been established. The costs are already being covered for customers of health insurance companies such as AOK Rheinland-Saarland or Mobilkrankenkasse. AOK Plus policyholders are also provided with the app as part of the bonus programme.
Future prospects and research
Meanwhile, there is now also movement in the pharmaceutical sector, including the early stages, according to Doron Stein. There are now drugs appearing for the first time in the USA where antibodies are used against pre-dementia. This inevitably leads to a diagnostic consequence. Put simply, if something can be prescribed, then the complex diagnostic measures one has to go through beforehand are worth the effort.
So, it is conceivable that more people will be diagnosed with pre-dementia. This in turn means higher costs for diagnostics and medicines for the system of health insurance companies. This is where the memodio app can be an effective alternative to cover the care and prevent the disease. This is because 40 per cent of all dementia cases can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, social isolation or educational status. Comparable figures can only be found in the cardiovascular field. There will be a benefit for those who take the earliest possible action against cognitive decline.
Photo credit: © memodio
