DTx Europe: Berlin 2023

Lars Hunze born 1986; studies of law at the University of Greifswald and the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, France (2006 – 2011); First State Exam in law (2011); research assistant at the Chair of Public, European and Comparative Law (North-East Europe) – Mercator Chair, University of Greifswald (2012 – 2016); legal trainee at the Court of Appeal in Berlin (2016 – 2018, placements i.a. at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Permanent Representation of Germany to the Council of Europe); PhD in constitutional and comparative law (2017); Second State Exam in law (2018); Senior Policy Advisor at the Federal Ministry of Health (since 2018); Deputy Head of Unit at the Federal Ministry of Health (since 2022).

Dennis Hermann is responsible for Medical Affairs, Market Access, Business Development and Sales and Marketing. His responsibilities include regulatory affairs and commercialization of Kaia Health’s products in various national healthcare systems. Prior to assuming his new role, Dennis Hermann was initially involved with new market development for Kaia Health as Vice President of Finance & Business Development. He joined Kaia Health from Oro de Cacao AG, where he served as COO and member of the Executive Board.

Dennis Hermann holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen, followed by a Master’s degree in “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” from ESADE Barcelona. Dennis Hermann is focused on expanding the integration of Kaia’s therapies into the German healthcare system and driving the development of new markets and indications.

Karolin Neubauer works as Chief Medical Officer at Sympatient, a leading Germany DTx provider for mental health care. Karolin has many years of experience as a mental health care practitioner in different treatment settings as well as in developing and implementing innovative health care solutions. She holds a PhD in clinical psychology and has worked as Medical Director and Head of Innovation for Fresenius’ subsidiaries Curalie and VAMED Health Germany.Today, Karolin is responsible for Sympatient’s medical strategy and passionate about applying digital interventions to improve access to effective and efficient mental health care.

Project Director at the Digital Health Delegation (DNS) of the French Ministry of Health and Prevention, Vincent Vercamer is in charge of market access for digital medical devices, and in particular the PECAN Fast track which aims to reimburse innovative DTx. He also coordinates the G_NIUS platform, which saves time for digital health innovators in their go-to-market efforts.

Dr. Palacios serves as the Chief Science Officer at Bright Therapeutics, developers of leading DTx products including Recovery Record for eating disorders and Recovery Path for addictions. He drives clinical research, data analytics, and promotes the science of digital health across commercial, clinical, policy and academic landscapes. Prior to Bright, he played a pivotal role in advancing the research strategy at SilverCloud Health up to acquisition and integration into Amwell. A medical graduate from Mexico, he furthered his studies in London with postgraduate training in Psychiatric Research and earned a PhD from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience. His notable accolades include the 2017 Young Investigator of the Year award by the European Association of Psychological Medicine. Passionate about expanding access to digital health solutions globally, Dr. Palacios has been featured at numerous academic and non-academic international events and in top-tier journals such as Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, and the British Journal of Psychology. He loves to share insights from his research and underscore the need for collaborative approaches to enhance the reach of evidence-based digital interventions.

Gandolf is founder and managing director of Fosanis which is the company behind the oncology digital therapeutics platform Mika. Mika was the first DiGA in oncology on the BfArM list but has decided to not pursue this path anymore and withdrew. Mika has supported >100.000 patients internationally going through cancer, is backed by strong clinical trial results and partners with leading cancer centers and drug manufacturers. Gandolf is an engineer by training with a PhD from ETH Zurich and active in digital health since 2011.

Emanuela Kufel is an entrepreneur and an advocate for universal mental health care. After years of working for the NHS and NIHR, she started her own company, Prosoma, supporting the mental and behavioural health of cancer patients. Her interests lie in fem tech, med tech, and digital therapeutics.

Daphne Petrich leads international expansion at HelloBetter, a prominent European DTx company focused on mental health. After identifying a significant unmet need in the sexual health space, she drove the launch of HelloGina, marking HelloBetter’s entry into the US. HelloGina is an evidence-based digital program supporting women who experience painful intimacy (vaginismus). Passionate about bringing evidence-based digital solutions into the standard of care, she also advises on international regulatory strategy, most recently contributing to HelloBetter’s Breakthrough Device Designation by the FDA.

Adham Kassab is a digital health enthusiast and expert. Over the last 10 years Adham has had a wealth of experience in digital health, holding a variety of positions both in big pharma such as Roche as well as in leading start up businesses such as mySugr. Currently, Adham is CEO at one of the leading DTx companies in Germany – Selfapy.

Adham is a pharmacist by training with a postgraduate degree in harmaco- and Health-Economics from the University of Cardiff in Wales, UK.

Jens Nörtershäuser has over 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors and in the field of digital transformation. Prior to founding Kranus Health in 2020, he worked as an Executive in Business Development for Palantir Technologies and dealt with Real World Evidence in the pharmaceutical sector, among other things. Jens has held executive positions at Amazon and McKinsey & Company where he spent several years advising pharmaceutical and healthcare companies across Europe. Jens holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School and a master in Bioengineering from KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).

Alex Naoumidis is the co-founder & co-CEO of Mindset Health. Building off a passion for behavioral science and lived experience with a chronic gut health condition, Alex started Mindset Health to help people with IBS & other health concerns learn to live well and manage their health through hypnosis-based digital therapeutics.

Dr. Ian Wood is UK Medical Director at Big Health, the global provider of digital therapeutics for common mental health conditions. Ian leads Big Health’s UK clinical operations, with a focus on implementation and partnerships to get evidence-based treatments into the minds of clinicians and hands of patients at scale. Big Health holds the first-ever national reimbursement contract for digital therapeutics, in partnership with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government. All 4.5m adults nationwide have access to Sleepio (for Insomnia Disorder) and Daylight (for Generalised Anxiety Disorder). In May 2022, Sleepio became the first-ever digital therapeutic to receive positive guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England. After evaluation of Sleepio’s clinical and health economic evidence base, NICE found that Sleepio is more clinically effective and cost-saving compared to standard of care.

Ian joined Big Health in 2018. He is an NHS GP and is also Clinical Director at EMIS Group PLC, the leading provider of healthcare software and systems in the UK.

Francois Vonthron is the co-founder and CEO of Mila, a DTx company dedicated to developing access to care for children with neurodevelopment disorders. Mila’s medical device combines a technology targeting key neurological processing systems with an engaging video game experience. This unique integration features music from major partners and has succeeded in reducing treatment drop-out rates to just 2%. Before his role at Mila, Vonthron was a researcher in musical acoustics and data sciences. He holds degrees from Ecole Polytechnique in France and the University of California, Berkeley.

Michelle has been COO at Vivira Health Lab since 2020 and has held a number of responsibilities over time, across Product, Market Access to People, Data and CRM. Before that Michelle worked at various start-ups and most recently invested in early-stage start-ups as part of the investment team at VC-fund Global Founders Capital.

Will Goddard is UK Managing Director at Big Health, the global provider of digital therapeutics for common mental health conditions. Will leads Big Health’s UK business, with the goal of securing national NHS reimbursement for Big Health’s treatments and driving patient uptake in partnership with NHS services. Big Health holds the first-ever national reimbursement contract for digital therapeutics, in partnership with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government. All 4.5m adults nationwide have access to Sleepio (for Insomnia Disorder) and Daylight (for Generalised Anxiety Disorder). In May 2022, Sleepio became the first-ever digital therapeutic to receive positive guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England. After evaluation of Sleepio’s clinical and health economic evidence base, NICE found that Sleepio is more clinically effective and cost-saving compared to standard of care.

Will joined Big Health in 2019. His background is in digital health and healthcare consulting with the NHS.

As co-founder and managing director Christian is in charge of sales, market access, and reimbursement for Sympatient – the first digital anxiety clinic. He has a strong passion for solving complex problems in healthcare systems to ultimately enable better access to care for patients. Christian holds a degree in economics from Jacobs University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and has been a visiting student at Harvard University.

Baudouin is a General Partner at Karista, early stage Venture Capital firm established in 2001, and investing across Western Europe in breakthrough healthcare, digital and deeptech companies. Karista has pioneered Digital Health investment in Europe, as from 2006 (led the Seed round of Voluntis). 

Joining Karista in 2014 Baudouin is focusing at Digital Health and HealthTech investments. He seats at the Board of several Karista portfolio companies including Implicity (Digital Health, France), MoveUP (Digital Health, Belgium), Kranus Health (Digital Health, Germany), HTC Assistance (MedTech, France), Tricares (MedTech, Germany), Watchfrog (Service biotech, France).

Baudouin holds a MSc in Engineering from the University of Technology of Compiègne and graduated from ESSEC Business School. He is also alumni from University of Waterloo (Canada).

Anne has a background as a medical doctor and as well as a BSc in Business Administration and Philosophy from Copenhagen Business School. She has extensive experience in clinical and medical leadership and has held various positions within clinical development in Novo Nordisk, LEO Pharma and biotech in Denmark and in the US.  Anne currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at Hedia where she drives the creation of clinical studies and real-world evidence to meet regulatory requirements and commercial needs.