May 2026: Invited Talk by Mr Rainer Herzog (Digital Health Partners) on DiGAs in Germany
7 May 2024 12.15, The talk given by Mr Rainer Herzog, the Founder and Managing Partner of “Digital Health Partners” is titled “DiGAs in Germany – a golden opportunity for digital health apps? Did the DiGA initiative establish itself in the German healthcare system and created business opportunities for digital health app providers?”
Content Since October 2020, digital health applications (DiGAs) can be prescribed by doctors and psychotherapists and reimbursed by public health insurance companies in Germany. With this move, the German healthcare system has taken on a (rare) pioneering role in international comparison. For health app developers and digital health start-ups, the DiGA initiative was promising lucrative business opportunities. However, DiGA did not prove to be a sure-fire success. It soon became clear, that obtaining the necessary certification is costly and sustainable pricing is difficult to negotiate with payers. Moreover, there have been serious issues with compliance on the patient side as well as acceptance with doctors and prescribers. This has led to several DiGA application providers forced to leave the market because they could not attain a sustainable business model.
This lecture will look at:
• What do digital health app developers & providers need to do to obtain DiGA approval and subsequent reimbursement?
• What do they need to consider when entering the German market through DiGA and what are alternative market entry options?
• How can health app providers build a sustainable business model?
• What are the hurdles & challenges to use DiGAs and how does this affect their use and acceptance in patient care and therapy?
• How can those hurdles be addressed and solved in the future?
• How do similar health app initiatives in other countries such as France or Belgium look like and compare?
Bio Mr Rainer Herzog is providing advice to healthcare organizations on building and implementing their digital health and patient engagement strategies and offerings. He also serves as a mentor and investor for digital health start-ups. As senior healthcare and digital health executive, Rainer possesses well-established experience in driving innovation and building new businesses. He has worked in various international senior management positions in the life sciences and telecoms industries, as well as with consulting firms and stakeholder organizations. He has a thorough understanding of the nature and complexity of healthcare and associated aspects of transformation.
Mr Rainer Herzog has been leading international projects with multidisciplinary teams and successfully steered two major European Union projects in mobile health (MobiHealth and HealthService24). Later on, he founded Munich-based “Digital Health Partners,” offering digital health consultancy and interim management services to different healthcare stakeholders, especially in the areas of digital health and patient engagement. He holds a degree in European Business Administration from Middlesex Business School in London, UK, and from Reutlingen Business School in Germany, and he also earned a certificate from the INSEAD Young Managers Programme.
The lecture will take place on Thursday, 7 May 2024 12.15, at UNIGE, Battelle A, room 404 and will also be streamed on zoom at https://unige.zoom.us/my/katewac.