Digital health will play a decisive role in the post-Covid era

Barcelona, April 20, 2021

Technology plays a crucial role in the health area. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has proved the need to implement a digital health system that facilitates patient-centered, accessible, safe and more efficient care. This requires a firm commitment to telemedicine, applications, artificial intelligence or Big Data to maintain continuity of care and facilitate disease prevention thanks to data analysis.

For this reason, Genesis Biomed and DKV have made a joint commitment to promote digital health through DKV Innolab.

DKV Innolab has been conceived as a space located in the modernist complex of Sant Pau, in Barcelona, to generate practical knowledge, research and analysis of emerging trends involving end-users, professionals, associations and companies from different areas to create solutions in smart positive health. Elena Torrente, Digital Health Development Deputy Director DKV, describes DKV Innolab as “the new space for innovation in digital health, has a Living-Lab environment where we recreate a virtual consultation and a home where simulations and user tests with digital health solutions that are produced in the market will be carried out. We basically dedicate ourselves to two large areas: open innovation and research”.

GENESIS Biomed’s experience as a consultant in the biomedical sector joins the DKV Innolab project, allowing both initiatives to come together in a cooperation agreement addressed to the digital health area. For Natalia de la Figuera, Managing Partner and COO of GENESIS Biomed, with this agreement with DKV we aim to contribute with “all our knowledge in the business development area, especially in the entrepreneurship part, searching for the best business model to reach the market and also for everything relating to training in these areas”.

The initiative takes advantage of the explosion that digital health is experiencing both in Spain and in the rest of the world, accelerated by the emergence of Covid-19. Most of the innovation projects in health are advancing and a good number of investment rounds are closing. In fact, during 2020 there were a record number of investments, for example in the Rock Health 2020 Market Information Report, investments in digital health in the US increased by 72% compared to 2018. Investors have discovered the potential of the health sector that COVID-19 has highlighted.

About the companies

Grupo DKV is part of ERGO, one of the largest insurance groups in Germany and Europe. It has several companies in Spain that covers and insures different aspects, including DKV Servicios, specialised in health and wellness services, which develops digital health solutions.
In Spain, DKV is established throughout the national territory with a wide network of health insurance offices (https://dkvseguros.com/seguros-medicos-particulares/) and clinics, where almost 2,000 employees work who provide services to around 2 million customers.

GENESIS Biomed is a company specialised in providing services to newly formed companies, both spin-offs and start-ups, mostly from universities, research centres, hospitals, and technology centres (https://genesis-biomed.com). With headquarters in Barcelona and offices in Madrid, GENESIS Biomed is a national benchmark with a clear international vocation, firmly committed to entrepreneurship and business development in the biomedical sector. Created in May 2017, it has already raised over 60 million euros and has worked on 130 innovation projects of different types.