Johanniter, RoX Health, Luscii and DoctorBox agree to collaborate on an innovative digital care concept in the field of haematology and oncology
Berlin, 23 May 2024
The partners are working together on an innovative project for the remote care of haematological and oncological patients. As part of a structured treatment pathway, patients record therapy-relevant parameters in their own home environment during ongoing systemic therapy and transmit them digitally to the Johanniter specialists treating them at the certified Oncology Centre of the Johanniter Clinics Bonn under the direction of Professor Ko. The data transmitted by the patients includes independently measured vital parameters (e.g. body temperature or blood pressure) as well as information on their current condition, any symptoms or side effects.
Luscii is contributing its telemonitoring platform (SaaS), certified as a Class IIa medical device, to the project, which patients can use to digitally transmit information about their condition to their medical treatment team. DoctorBox enables blood to be taken in local pharmacies and ensures the smooth exchange of diagnostic data between the hospital, laboratory, pharmacy and telemonitoring platform. The remote care of patients close to home is intended to reduce travelling distances, speed up test results and make medical care more accessible for patients overall.
Patients use DoctorBox to make appointments once or twice a week at a local pharmacy to have their blood taken. DoctorBox works together with local pharmacies and enables them to take capillary blood samples. DoctorBox also coordinates the digital recording of orders, sample logistics and the evaluation of results in the laboratory through to structured transmission to patients and the Johanniter treatment team.
The patient's details, such as fever, severe symptoms or side effects of haemato-oncological therapy, are checked by Luscii for their medical relevance immediately after entry and transmitted to the medical staff within a few minutes with a list of the respective alerts. Several levels of severity can also be differentiated so that highly relevant messages from patients can be prioritised accordingly.
The Luscii platform and DoctorBox software also allow healthcare professionals to respond directly to the alerts and contact patients digitally via (automatic) notifications, chats or video calls.
The innovative oncological care concept expands the usual therapy monitoring, for which patients currently have to repeatedly visit the medical facility in person, to include modern digital options. In addition to reducing the number of on-site visits required by patients, improvements in treatment outcomes are also expected. For example, early detection of relevant events with active initiation of appropriate measures could prevent the need for inpatient treatment in hospital or shorten its duration.
The aim of the care solution is also to relieve the burden on medical staff, who would then have more time to provide more intensive care for patients with severe symptoms by reducing the number of visits by patients on site.
The project also strengthens the area of alternative blood sampling - i.e. taking blood samples outside the doctor's surgery - and thus follows the trend set by the Federal Ministry of Health with the planned establishment of heart health and diabetes screening tests in pharmacies.
Enabling diagnostic preventive and acute care close to home, even in rural areas, strengthens patient care and establishes pharmacies as a new point of contact for healthcare services.
In summary, the implementation of such a haemato-oncological care concept, which combines remote monitoring of symptoms, vital signs and blood count values, could both increase the efficiency of healthcare providers and reduce the burden on patients. This could ultimately lead to better patient care with higher patient satisfaction.
‘In clinical studies in which telemonitoring was used to accompany systemic therapy, key added value was demonstrated compared to the respective standard care,’ says Prof. Dr Yon-Dschun Ko, Head of the Johanniter Oncology Centre Bonn/Rhein- Sieg, describing the motivation for the project. ‘We want to build on this evidence and improve oncological therapy.’
‘We are rethinking care at Johanniter. Hybrid, digitally supported forms of care are the future. We are delighted to be realising the project with these renowned partners,’ says Jeremy Dähn, Chief Digital Officer and Head of Digital Business Models at Johanniter GmbH.
‘Digital solutions can significantly support people in the management of their cancer - and therefore offer great potential. With our expertise and the overlaps with Roche's core business, we are helping with the business development and scaling of innovative digital care concepts,’ comments Dr Gregor Obernosterer, Business Development Director RoX Health, on the project.
‘The ability to take blood samples close to home in pharmacies represents a milestone for us in improving oncological treatment pathways. By using capillary blood, we can rely on the network of over 17,000 pharmacies throughout Germany to counteract the shortage of specialists in the healthcare sector and the inadequate provision of care in rural areas. Ensuring the quality of blood collection is our top priority. We are convinced that starting with oncological treatment pathways will pave the way for lower-threshold diagnostics, for example for preventive diagnostics, which can be better established in pharmacies in the future.’ Julian Maar, COO, DoctorBox
‘The future has already begun. The care innovation impressively demonstrates the performance and adaptability of the Luscii platform. Telemonitoring is also becoming a permanent fixture in Germany,’ comments Prof Dr Daan Dohmen, founder of Luscii, on the collaboration.
About Johanniter
The well-being of the people entrusted to us is an integral part of our DNA with the 900-year-old Johanniter tradition. Under the umbrella of Johanniter GmbH, we operate 12 hospitals, 9 specialist and rehabilitation clinics, 70 medical practices in medical care and therapy centres, 94 retirement homes, three hospices, three nursing schools and three central service companies with a total of more than 20,000 employees. They are among the more than 170 inpatient facilities of the GmbH and are thus an integral part of one of the largest Christian providers of health and care facilities in Germany.
They all share the principle of the highest medical and nursing quality standards - out of love for life.
Thanks to nursing passion, outstanding medical care and state-of-the-art treatment methods, many Johanniter facilities are renowned for their excellent and in some cases highly specialised specialist areas.
About RoX Health
As a healthcare venture builder, RoX Health supports the development of digital platform business models in the context of holistic healthcare.
We are the one-stop solution that helps startups and digital health solution providers navigate the digital health universe by connecting them with patients, healthcare professionals and the healthcare industry. As a team of experts from the digital health industry, we have the necessary access to all relevant players in Germany and bring a broad international network to the table. In this way, we combine the best of the start-up and corporate worlds for sustainable improvements in the healthcare sector.
About Luscii
Luscii Healthtech B.V. from the Netherlands is a leading provider of telemonitoring and digitally supported remote care in Europe. The company has over 15 years of experience in the digitalisation of healthcare. The Luscii platform currently maps 150 treatment pathways for various diseases and care scenarios. Specially adapted for the respective application or developed from scratch, the programmes enable medical monitoring of patients at home. Luscii is used successfully in almost all hospitals in the Netherlands. In the UK, the company is a partner of the British National Health Service NHS.
In Germany, Luscii works with the Essen University Medical Centre and the Mainz Pain Centre of the German Red Cross, among others. To date, over 25 million registrations have been made via the platform.
About DoctorBox:
Founded in 2016 by Priv. Doz. Oliver Miltner and tech entrepreneur Stefan Heilmann, DoctorBox is now one of the largest independent healthcare marketplaces in Europe. More than 1 million registered users use their DoctorBox health account to centrally manage important health data for their daily health management. DoctorBox is available in various languages, end-to-end encrypted and ISO 27001 certified. This means that the course of treatment can be better tracked together with the treating doctors and health can be sustainably improved for a healthier, longer life. In addition, DoctorBox users have the choice right from the start: they can either store their data locally on their own smartphone or use DoctorBox's high-security servers on German soil.
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