Unique Care App for Cardiac Patients

Healthcare apps are on the up: fitness trackers, nutrition or exercise apps are being downloaded from appstores in constantly increasing numbers of smartphone users. But alongside these lifestyle apps is a rising tide of those designed to diagnose and treat medical conditions or to journal and monitor symptoms. Celloon GmbH has developed an app for post-operative cardiac patients. 

According to celloon GmbH CEO Mirko Kisser, the healthcare market is growing steadily and we’ll see even more apps and fitness gadgets emerge in the next few years. Smartwatches can already record cardiac patients’ heartbeat, and Google has apparently developed contact lenses that measure blood sugar. There are now ultrasound devices, no bigger than a computer mouse, that you can pair with your smartphone in order to save and send images. Kisser says that the digitalization of medicine opens up a host of opportunities for mobile apps.

“Digitalization is changing our workplaces and the way companies operate. Mobile technology is one of the key drivers. Our web and mobile apps come into play wherever there’s a need to expand processes or applications as a result of the rapid increase in access to mobile channels,” he explains.

Innovative apps for the healthcare market

The Saxony-Anhalt developer is now focusing more intensively on innovative apps for the healthcare market, particularly B2B applications that are tailor-made for customers rather than downloadable from an app store. “We recently developed a special cardio care app for a heart clinic. The next step is a clinical trial,” says Kisser. Patients with cardiac support systems like artificial hearts need close monitoring after surgery. Current post-op care practice for these at-risk patients is to call them or have them visit the hospital regularly for check-ups. But celloon’s bespoke app means the clinic can monitor them daily.

“The app works like a journal. It’s intuitive and simple, designed with seniors in mind. Each person’s data are sent to the clinic every day and evaluated by doctors, which means they can keep an eye on their patients’ condition remotely,” explains Kisser. For example, the app can also take photos of the exit point of the line that powers an artificial heart so that physicians can immediately spot any localized inflammation. Future versions of the app may even be able to assess patients’ vital signs on site. This digital post-operative care for cardiac patients is a world first that Saxony-Anhalt can be proud of. “Other clinics around the world are involved in trials for a variety of things, but nothing in app form like our product,” says Kisser.

A Halle native, Kisser is also Deputy Chair of the Connected Health working group for the German Digital Media Association (Bundesverband digitaler Wirtschaft – BVDW). The companies in the group are working on digital technologies for more efficient, accurate and personalized healthcare.

celloon, a small business based in Halle, began developing programs for cell phones some thirteen years ago before smartphones hit the mass market. Back then, the term “app” hadn’t even been coined! So celloon GmbH was one of the first companies in Germany to spot the potential of innovative applications for cell phones and for today’s smartphones. Healthcare is just one of the firm’s fields of activity.

Saxony-Anhalt: a great environment for startups

Celloon GmbH is a classic startup. By the time Mirko Kisser completed his design degree in 2003, he’d already decided he was going to develop digital marketing solutions for businesses. And he recognized that Saxony-Anhalt offered outstanding conditions for getting his idea off the ground. Supported by the “Exist” startup initiative at Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, Kisser began by developing the first-ever patented QR codes for business and personal applications. He later expanded his portfolio with mobile-optimized business websites and then smartphone apps. After his first company, Kisser founded celloon GmbH in 2009 at Halle’s Middle German Multimedia Center (MMZ), an entrepreneurial hub designed to foster the media and creative industry in Saxony-Anhalt.

Mirko Kisser and his team have long since been developing solutions for the healthcare market, including projects commissioned by Halle’s Martin Luther University and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design. For example, one of celloon’s special apps digitalizes the care processes for artificially fed patients, from creating recipes and ordering the necessary ingredients from pharmaceutical wholesalers, to delivering products to the relevant pharmacy and providing instructions for use. Another simplifies the digital processes for an international medtech manufacturer that produces ventilators for hydrocephalus patients. The possibilities for digital medicine are endless. 

Author: Michael Falgowski

celloon GmbH
Geiststraße 22
06108 Halle (Saale)
Telefon: 0345 27979100
Gründer und Geschäftsführer Mirko Kisser
www.celloon.com
E-Mail: post.ignore@celloon.de