Partnerships

Holistic Disease Management for Cardiovascular Diseases

According to World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases account for 30 % of all global deaths.

We are looking for holistic patient management solutions for cardiovascular patients which can support them in managing their chronic conditions and achieving a better health outcome by addressing one or all of the objectives below:

1. Monitoring health status and sharing with the patient and care providers
2. Supporting lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of secondary events
3. Early detection of secondary event risks. We are interested in solutions that cater to patients with thrombosis, heart failure or cardio-renal diseases.

Patient Medication Adherence

Promoting adherence to cardiovascular medication is a critical part of helping people at high cardiovascular risk to protect their hearts. However, there are multiple factors that could lead to medication non-adherence and reduce therapy outcomes for patients.

We are looking for solutions that can improve medication adherence through approaches beyond pill reminders, sensors, interactive diaries, etc.

We are interested in but not limited to solutions for specific geographies including China, Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Italy.

Acne Diagnosis and Symptom Tracking

Acne is prevalent in women, especially adolescents. Approximately 90% of teenagers have acne, with half of them still experiencing symptoms as adults. Anxiety, depression and a reduction in social functioning have shown to be a consequence of acne.

Choice of acne therapy should be principally based on the type of lesion and the severity of the acne.

We are interested in solutions that help women to self-diagnose the form of acne they suffer from and to monitor symptom development over course of chosen therapy.

According to the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), Digital Therapeutics (DTx) deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions to patients that are driven by high quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a broad spectrum of physical, mental, and behavioral conditions.

We are looking for impactful DTx that can be applied in the Cardio-renal, Oncology and Women´s Health areas.

Disease Awareness Among Patients in Africa

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent the leading cause of death globally, responsible for 40 million (70%) of the world's 56 million. WHO estimates that deaths from NCDs are likely to increase globally by 17% over the next 10 years, and the African Region will experience a 27% increase.

We are looking for digital health solutions to enable disease awareness in Africa to support prevention or early screening, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. We are interested in but not limited to solutions for Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Healthcare Affordability in Africa

Africa carries 25% of the world’s disease burden but its share of global health expenditures is less than 1%. Scarce public funds and unpredictable donor aid often result in high out-of-pocket expenditure that pushes many people into poverty.

We are looking for companies which improve affordability of healthcare for patients in Africa. These could include a range of solutions that use novel financing or insurance methods. In addition, we are looking at solutions that support participants across the pharmaceutical supply chain (such as wholesalers, pharmacies) with novel financing methods. We are interested in, but not limited to, solutions for Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

It is estimated by Global Burden of Disease study that 1 in 3 people are affected by mental or neurological disorders across their lifespans.

Help us make an impact through neurotech that can help people diagnose, prevent, treat or manage their conditions. 

Monitoring Cognitive Functions in Prostate Cancer Patients

Mental, memory and cognitive impairment, fatigue, seizure, fall, and dizziness could be underestimated side effects for patients treated for prostate cancer and impact their quality of life.

We are looking for solutions for monitoring and/or avoiding those neural impairments. We are looking for solutions that engage patients over a long period of time (2-3 years) and can easily share information with treating clinicians and healthcare professionals for follow-up and treatment optimization.

Remote Monitoring of Disease Progression in Wet Age Related Macular Degeneration (wAMD) or/ Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

Currently, patients on injectable treatments for wAMD and DME have pre-scheduled appointments with physicians for getting their injections in clinics/hospitals. However, some patients might need to see their physician earlier or later, depending on disease progression, to achieve better outcomes.

We are looking for easy to use solutions which allow patients to monitor the status of their eye condition at home and, based on the results arrange a more customized appointment, as needed.

Screening for Eye Diseases (including diabetic retinopathy DR), Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and Wet Age Related Macular Degeneration (wAMD)

Typically less than half of diabetics have an annual eye exam to check for diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). A key barrier to screening is additional doctor appointments when affected patients are in the workforce.

We are looking for screening platforms that can be deployed in the primary care setting to increase efficiency of screening and the number of people screened.

Vision Assessment Approaches Including Visual Acuity Assessment

Eye diseases are common and can go unnoticed for a long time. Early detection could reduce eye disease burden and vision loss. The most common vision test, letter chart acuity, requires clinic space. In addition, letter chart tests assess only a small retinal area and do not tell about the function of the surrounding retina which may result in not predicting some consequences of vision loss and/or not detecting some vision disorders.

We are looking for innovative approaches that improve upon the current vision tests by assessing structural integrity of the retina and its function together as well as minimizing space required for tests in clinic.

Patient flow management for eye clinics / hospitals

An aging population, increasing prevalence of diabetes and higher awareness about eye diseases are increasing the number of patients visiting eye clinics/hospitals. For some eye therapies, patients need to come to the clinic on an ongoing basis for eye evaluation and for receiving the treatment.

Clinics find it hard to manage patient scheduling as for some therapies different patients may have to come back after different time interval and be assessed as well as treated within the same appointment. We are looking for patient flow management / scheduling solutions, especially in Australia, Canada, France,  Germany, Spain, Switzerland and UK, to help clinics become more efficient in helping patients.

Improved Care and Early Detection of Disease Recurrence for Patients with CTEPH (Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension), a rare pulmonary diseases

CTEPH, even after surgery might persist in patients or may return requiring further treatment. (There are limited specialist surgery centers for CTEPH. Post-surgery, regular follow-up or coordinated care of patients by specialists and community physicians can be a challenge.)

We are looking for solutions, especially for the US, that can support early detection of disease recurrence and support coordinated care by patient’s various care providers.

Measurement of Endogenous Vascular Nitric Oxide (NO)

There is no cure for PAH (pulmonary arterial hypertension), but several medications are available to help slow the progression of changes in the pulmonary arteries and help reduce symptoms. An ability to detect NO could help identify PAH patient types that would respond to a certain treatment over other. Currently, there are limited diagnostic tools which can measure endogenous vascular Nitric Oxide (NO).

We are looking for a quick, effective, and convenient solution that physicians or patients can use to help detect endogenous vascular Nitric Oxide more comfortably.

Solutions to Structure Radiology Data Pool

Finding a disease early on can have a great impact on treatment and Radiology plays a critical role in assisting the customer with disease diagnosis.  Bayer Radiology has access to imaging and meta data on thousands of images growing every day. This data can be utilized for multiple purposes such as to develop screening tools for early identification of disease in patients, provided the usage complies with local privacy laws and our contractual commitments with the customers.

We are looking for solutions that

• Regularly comb through our data pool (when data is added)
• Deliver statistical snapshot reports on the available data
• Find connections between different data types and send alerts
• Automatically suggest structural and informational optimizations of the data pool
• Address the goal of making data ready for use with/for end user applications (including AI/ML applications)

The data should, at all times, be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) and must comply with local laws.

IV (intravenous) Placement Facilitation

In certain cases there is difficulty when putting in the IV, causing pain and discomfort for patients. Veins can be difficult to find in obese patients, young or petite patients, chemotherapy patients, and older people.

We are looking for solutions to facilitate IV placement and reduce patient discomfort. We are interested in devices, sensors, software, and / or algorithms to facilitate successful venous location, assessment, access, and injections.

Breast MRI Image Analysis and Interpretation

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women today. Mammograms have long been the standard tool for breast cancer screening. Studies however have shown that mammography has a decreased sensitivity to detect cancer in women with dense breast tissue (fibroglandular density).

We are looking for solutions that can improve breast cancer screening by analyzing and/or interpreting contrast-enhanced breast MRI images of women with heterogeneously dense (category 3 or C) or extremely dense breast tissue (category 4 or D).

Digital Contraception

As digital health technology is increasingly guiding healthcare decisions, women are adopting digital health solutions to manage reproductive health. In 2018, FDA approved first mobile medical application for use as method of contraception.

We are looking for digital contraception solutions that offer women effective methods of contraception.

Inform about Presence or/and Functioning of Intrauterine System (IUS)

Women using IUS (intrauterine system) often mention the fear of carrying something foreign in their uterus. Uncertainty whether their IUS sits correct after placement can also prevent women from considering an IUS.

We are looking for solutions that can enable women to be aware of the presence and functioning of the IUS.

Engage and Inform Health Professionals

Women are not always fully informed of the full range of contraception options and their benefits and risks.

We are looking for solutions that engage and enable health professionals (such as nurse practitioners, doctors, and specialists) to stay up to date with information on contraceptive methods to better help women understand their options for contraception and reproductive health.

Advances in voice technologies are enabling innovation in healthcare such as simplifying patient–provider communication and developing vocal bio-markers for disease diagnosis. We are looking for healthcare companies which are utilizing voice-tech to improve health and well-being of people.