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).

Tobias Möllers is the deputy head of the Unit for Digital Health and Nursing Applications at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. After a Bachelor in Public Health and Master in Epidemiology, he obtained a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from Heidelberg Univeristy/German Cancer Research Center and worked as a Post Doctoral Researcher at the German Cancer Research Center. At the Unit for Digital Health and Nursing Applications his main responsibility is the assessment of the clinical evidence and evidence generation plans.

Tamir is the Head of Tech Business Development at NHS England’s Innovation, Research, and Life Sciences Directorate. In his current role, he promotes national policies that support the scaling of digital health tech across the NHS. With 15 years in HealthTech, Tamir has not only shaped national policies and delivered national strategy and transformation programmes, but also secured over 70 national deals with innovators, focusing on Pharma companies, to give more than 2 million patients access to cutting-edge innovations. Tamir is a former management consultant with international healthcare experience and an MBA.

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.

Kathrin Pfeiffer is the Head of Market Access at the Sympatient, a Hamburg-based digital health Start-up. After a medical apprenticeship and studies in medical technology, she worked as a scientific assessor at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices for more than seven years. Among others, in the areas of approval of clinical trials with medical devices and vigilance.
As the deputy head of the unit DiGA Fast-track, she was intensively involved in the development of the German fast-track processes at the institute, helped to design it and assessed the first reimbursable DTx in Germany. She now dedicates herself to solving the worldwide psych crisis by being responsible for the reimbursability of Sympatients digital solutions.

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.

Alexandre Capet heads the Strategy & Operation at MindMaze, a leading neuroscience digital therapeutics company. With 25 years of experience in Life science, Alexandre has dedicated the last 12 years to digital health, both in large organizations (Sanofi, Bayer) and scale-up companies (like Volutis, where he served as COO).

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.

Simon Spahrkäs is a psychologist and a researcher with a passion for finding innovative and effective DTx solutions for cancer fatigue, a debilitating condition that affects millions of cancer patients and survivors worldwide. He holds a PhD in medical sciences from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, where he conducted a first randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the efficacy of Tired of Cancer’s Untire app, a digital intervention that helps users cope with fatigue and improve their quality of life.

As the Head of Research at Tired of Cancer, Simon coordinates and executes various international research projects, collaborating with academic and clinical partners, ensuring the quality and validity of the data and results. He also engages with regulatory authorities like the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), driving the DiGA application process to ensure nationwide access to the fully reimbursable Untire app in Germany.

Together with his team, Simon contributes to the continuous development and improvement of the Untire app, applying his expertise in clinical epidemiology and psychology and his skills in problem-solving, communication, and business insights. Simon believes that the Untire app has the potential to transform psycho-oncology care and empower many patients across the globe.

In addition to his role, he contributes as a member of the digital health organization SVDGV, where his primary focus lies in evidence generation and DiGA initiatives

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).

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.

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.

Francois Vonthron is the co-founder and CEO of Poppins (formerly 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.

Dr. Arnar is the Chief of Cardiology at Landspitali – The National University Hospital in Iceland and is a
Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland. He is a consultant to deCODE
genetics/Amgen and an advisor to Sidekcik Health. Dr. David O. Arnar completed his MD from the
University of Iceland. He also holds a PhD from the University of Iceland and an Executive Master of
Public Health degree from the University of Reykjavik.
Dr. Arnar did his postgraduate training at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City in
the United States in internal medicine, cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology.
Dr Arnar is the past-president of the Icelandic Society of Internal Medicine. His research interests
include the genetics of arrhythmias and precision medicine. Dr. Arnar is also leading a large digital
medicine research project in colloboration with the digitial solutions company Sidekick Health.

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.

Erki has been involved in healthcare and life sciences for over twenty years starting from 1999, when he assumed the position of CEO of Quattromed. From 1999 to 2013 he helped the company grow from University of Tartu spin-off company to biggest regional laboratory operating in three countries and employing over 200 employees. Quattromed was acquired in 2013 by Synlab.

Since 2013, Erki has been investing into early stage healthtech companies.

Erki is the Founder of Health Economy Association (established in 2019) and first HealthTech-related business accelerator Health Founders (established in 2020).

Since 2019, Erki has acts as a venture partner for Europe for Singapore-based Verge HealthTech Fund and joined the team as managing partner in 2022.

Jonas Albert is the Managing Consultant for the Digital Health Business Unit at the consulting firm “fbeta”, one of the founding members of the DtX Consulting Alliance. He has a background working as a paramedic with the German Red Cross, doing in-house process optimization for a University clinic in Germany and working for over 6 years as research lead for European digital health research projects in Brussels.

In his role t fbeta he has been working with numerous stakeholders in the German healthcare system, including industry, the Federal Ministry of Health and the federal institutes involved in healthcare delivery or regulatory  approval of care innovations as well as many of the statutory health insurers. Jonas work within the dtXca focusses on supporting industry players who produce, manufacture and/or provide services and products in digital health and digital therapy on their way to reimbursement.

Megan Simpson is Chief Commercial Officer at Tired of Cancer. Megan and the team improve quality of life and fatigue for over 40,000 cancer patients and survivors globally through their digital therapeutic, the Untire app.

With a unique background in health sciences and innovation combined with her experience as a cancer-carer and ambassador for a digital poverty charity, Megan brings a different perspective to the DTx industry. She draws from her personal and professional experience to implement high impact digital health solutions addressing unmet needs and delivering commercial success. She holds championing inclusivity, diversity & equality, leading with integrity and lessening health inequalities at the core of all her endeavours.

Dr. Ariel Dora Stern is the Poronui Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School and a Faculty Member of the Harvard-MIT Center for Regulatory Science. Ariel’s research focuses on technology management and innovation in health care, using methods from econometrics and data science to curate and analyze novel datasets. From 2020-2021 Ariel served as the Director for International Health Care Economics at the Health Innovation Hub, an independent think tank of the German Federal Ministry of Health focused on digital transformation projects. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Society for Digital Medicine and advises numerous health care startups. In 2024, is slated to assume a chair at the Hasso Plattner Institute, where she has been named an Alexander von Humboldt Professor.

Oliver Schmalz is a specialist in internal medicine, hematology and oncology and has been working as a chief phycician for Onclogy and Palliative Care since 2012. Since 2021 he is head of department of the Clinic for Haematology, Oncology, Clinical Infectiology and Palliative Medicine. Together with his working group he established the Cancer Center in Wuppertal in 2020.

His research focuses on clinical studies in the area of ​​solid tumors and hematology as well as innovative care concepts in the area of ​​data and quality management. He is particularly interested in improving therapy adherence and side effect management of modern oncological therapies under the challenges of increasing outpatient care and the shortage of skilled workers.

Dr Richards leads on the strategic research objectives for SilverCloud by Amwell. He is Director of the e-mental health research group in the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. Since 2002, he has been extensively involved in clinical research, development and implementation of technology delivered interventions for mental health. Over the last 15 years, Derek has built a team of world-class scientists whose published work is cited widely and whose impact has spearheaded continued innovation in digital mental health care.

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.

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.

Dan has been working as a researcher with SilverCloud by Amwell for 9 years and has managed, designed and executed on some of the pivotal trials that have substantiated the SilverCloud suite of interventions as evidence-based. As a Senior Digital Health Scientist, he currently contributes to the overall strategy and vision for the Amwell Science team, as well as leads on the conduct of various research endeavours. He holds a PhD in psychology from Trinity College Dublin and is deeply passionate about the intersection between digital therapeutics and implementation science. Dan firmly believes that understanding the transition of digital therapeutics from “bench to bedside”, and the associated implementation factors that influence this process, will be the next big hurdle to overcome for digital healthcare.

Dr. Laura Wiemer is an accomplished Senior Medical Director and Urologist with a strong
background in the field of urology and medical research. With a career spanning several
prestigious institutions in Berlin, Germany, and a track record of academic excellence, Dr.
Laura Wiemer has become a recognized expert in the healthcare industry.

Dr Angel Enrique has more than 10 years’ experience in conducting research and implementation of digital mental health solutions through a combination of academic and industry experience across Europe and US. He is currently working as a Senior Digital Health Scientist at Amwell. In his role, he contributes to the strategy and vision of the Amwell Science team and leads research studies focused on the generation of evidence for the SilverCloud® by Amwell platform. Dr. Enrique also collaborates with other areas of the business by leveraging science to generate actionable insights and consults with customers as a subject matter expert. He is passionate about the continuous innovation and optimization of digital mental health products. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology focused on evaluating digital mental health interventions in different populations.