Start-up Skinuvita wins Witten Prize for Health Visionaries

The start-up Skinuvita has been awarded the Witten Prize for Health Visionaries by Witten/Herdecke University for its special commitment to combating chronic skin diseases. "The focus on a real problem faced by many patients, the digital innovative strength and the sustainability aspect were particularly impressive," praised Professor Sabine Bohnet-Joschko, Chair of Management and Innovation in Health Care, on behalf of the jury. Two other start-ups also received prize money for their concepts. The prize, endowed with a total of 10,000 euros and under the patronage of Professor Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is donated by the university's support group and is organised and moderated by students every year.

A total of eight finalists competed against each other in the pitch competition on Thursday, 4 November 2021, to present their innovative prevention and treatment solutions for chronic diseases and win over the six-member jury of experts from science, business and healthcare. The spectrum ranged from sleep disorders (Bodyclock), skin diseases (Skinuvita) and tinnitus (tinus) to rheumatism (Abaton), chronic kidney disease (medipee), diabetic foot syndrome (foot), walking disabilities (Autak), multiple sclerosis and cancer (fimo Health). In keeping with the theme of this year's competition "Fighting Chronic Diseases", the student organisation team from Medicine, Psychology and Management had set up a boxing ring for the pitches.

In the end, the following start-ups were able to convince the jury and thus climb onto the winners' podium:

With a digital home therapy system for people with chronic skin conditions that enables safe and efficient phototherapy in the comfort of your own home, the start-up Skinuvita takes first place and prize money of 5,000 euros. More information: www.skinuvita.de

With a technology for an innovative sleep aid for tinnitus, the start-up Tinus won second place with prize money of 3,000 euros. Tinus has developed a patent-pending technology that enables music and sounds to be transmitted via a pillow using vibration and physical contact. More information: www.tinus.one

Third place, endowed with 1,000 euros, goes to Medipee for the digitalisation of urine analyses at any location. Urine or urinalysis has always been one of the basic diagnostic tools in medicine. Urinalysis is indispensable, especially for diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract. Digital urinalysis allows clinical pictures to be recognised more quickly and therefore treated more effectively. More information: www.medipee.com

Minister Pinkwart emphasised the importance of digital innovations in the health care system

As patron of the award, Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, emphasised the importance of innovative solutions in the fight against chronic diseases: "Digital innovations are a growth driver for the entire health management sector and supplement care with digital and individualised services," said the Minister. "I am delighted that Witten/Herdecke University is awarding the Witten Prize for Health Visionaries for the seventh time this year and honouring pioneering projects."

Winning teams can present themselves as lighthouse projects

The Witten Prize for Health Visionaries was launched by Prof. Dr Sabine Bohnet-Joschko in 2015 and was planned, organised and implemented by an interdisciplinary team of students in cooperation with the ATLAS Digital Health Management project, which is funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to the prize money, the winners will have the opportunity to position themselves as a lighthouse project in ATLAS Digital Health Management. They were also invited by Minister Pinkwart to the NRW joint stand at the international medical trade fair MEDICA.

The jury includes Prof Dr Sabine Bohnet-Joschko (Witten/Herdecke University), Dr Sebastian Dries (Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering), Matthias Hoffmann (Grubengold GmbH), Stephan Kohorst (Dr Ausbüttel & Co. GmbH), Dr Oliver Gröne (OptiMedis AG) and Barbara Steffens (TK Landesvertretung NRW).