Interview | Tim Huse, Head of BIH Digital Health Accelerator, Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité (BIH)

Berlin-Brandenburg: an international start-up hotspot in the digital health segment
Credit: BIH-Thomas Rafalzyk

Berlin-Brandenburg is home to more than 700 start-ups and scale-ups in the digital health segment. This is the result of the stocktaking by Cluster HealthCapital on the region’s digital health ecosystem. A considerable number that was certainly not achieved just like that. That is why we talked to Tim Huse about what makes the region so successful at attracting digital health start-ups. Mr. Huse is Head of BIH Digital Health Accelerator at the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité and accompanied many start-ups on their way from research player to market participant.
 

Cluster HealthCapital has recently published an inventory of the digital health ecosystem in Berlin-Brandenburg in which you participated. In this inventory, experts rated the capital region as a particularly attractive location with a high degree of connectivity within the digital health scene. From your perspective, what are the outstanding factors of Berlin-Brandenburg as a location for digital heath start-ups?  
 
There are several key success factors for the emergence of new digital health companies in the Berlin-Brandenburg region: sound foundations, qualified talent, comprehensive financing options and a supportive ecosystem. The foundations include innovative ideas and pioneering technologies emerging from internationally renowned scientific and educational institutions, including two university hospitals. Together with experienced entrepreneurs from the e-commerce and FinTech sectors, these institutions provide a strong talent pool of founders and highly qualified employees. 

Inaddition, the cluster boasts a high density of seasoned financial and strategic investors. The ecosystem also offers important health sector players providing know-how, clinical studies, pilot projects and potential customers, including hospitals, doctors in private practice, health insurance companies as well as pharmaceutical and medical technology enterprises. Federal and state policy is strongly committed in the field of digital health and there are numerous offers for networking and supporting new companies. To sum it up, the Berlin-Brandenburg region is an international hotspot for start-ups, including those in the digital health segment. 

It is the stated target of the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité (BIH) to promote translational medicine in the field of digital health. What activities is the BIH Digital Health Accelerator pursuing to this end?  
 
Translational medicine is the BIH’s mission. The BIH Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) program is the first hospital-internal translation program of its kind in Germany and beyond. In concrete terms, we support innovators from the field of research and the clinical sector, also in collaborative projects with other institutions, in developing mostly regulated digital health solutions. Examples include clinical decision support systems, in-silico and in-vitro diagnostics, digital therapeutics and industrial solutions based on digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, sensor technology, bioprinting and augmented/virtual reality. Owing to this setup, the solutions developed are based on an in-depth medical understanding of problems, since they are developed and validated on-site in a clinical context by and in collaboration with users. 

Our aim is to transfer the developed solutions and products to the healthcare market and make them available to patients through spin-offs or licensing. We offer a structured product development program, funding, protected time for hospital employees, expert mentoring in cooperation with the Start2 Group, among others, access to talent, the industry and investors as well as an interdisciplinary working environment in the BIH Digital Labs Coworking Space at Charité Campus Mitte. Ten companies have already been spun off and we expect more this year. 
 

Since 2017, the BIH Digital Health Accelerator program has been supporting doctors and researchers of university hospital Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the BIH in advancing digital health innovations. x-cardiac and Aignostics are examples of successful spin-offs. Which key factors were decisive for this, also with regard to the regional ecosystem? 
 
The starting points for each of these projects were outstanding personalities who combined excellent clinical research with medical expertise and technological know-how. And then they had a brilliant idea to address a relevant medical need as well as a high degree of entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, they were supported by the heads of their departments, in this case cardiac surgery and pathology, for whom the development projects did not take second place to research and care. This approach has proven its worth in the BIH DAH program and it continuously enhances recognition of the value contribution of entrepreneurship in medicine. 

A further key factor was and is close collaboration with other institutions. In the examples mentioned, these were the Technical University Berlin (TU) and the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD). Other project partners have been the Humboldt University (HU) and the Free University (FU) in Berlin and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam. The decisive factor for the successful spin-offs themselves was and is the excellent cooperation with venture capital investors such as IBB Ventures and HTGF. 

How does the region’s digital health ecosystem profit from Cluster HealthCapital and where do you see intersections between the Cluster’s activities and BIH’s digital health initiatives? 
 
In my eyes, the region’s (digital) health ecosystem, including Charité and BIH, strongly benefits from Cluster Health Capital’s work at two levels. At regional level, Cluster HealthCapital is an active player in networking, but also in terms of content, fostering close exchange between politics, business and research for a joint development of the region. It also serves as a regional point of contact for international companies including start-ups, for questions surrounding relocation, recruitment of skilled workers and advice on funding and financing. At national and international level, HealthCapital represents the region and its players at events such as delegation visits and leading trade fairs. Thus, it contributes substantially to the branding of the region as an internationally visible digital health ecosystem. To sum it up, the activities of Cluster Health Capital are extremely profitable for the research and business location Berlin-Brandenburg. 



Personal profile: 

Since 2017, Tim Huse has been developing and leading the BIH Digital Health Accelerator @ Charité. Prior to that, he worked as a business consultant with a focus on strategy and innovation for 10 years in Boston, Florence and Stockholm. Engagements included Innosight, where he collaborated with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen. Mr. Huse holds a degree in Business Administration and is a fervent supporter of basketball club ALBA Berlin. He lives in Berlin with his family. 



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