Background: Very often side effects are the consequence of poor therapy management. That is why the patients' feedback on his or her therapy is crucial in the course of clinical development in order to avoid further side effects and therefore better manage the therapy. Until now, this feedback is handed in by the patient in written (or electronic) form. Manually filling in the feedback forms takes a lot of time and patience.

Quality of life (QoL) data are important outcomes during clinical development of a new pharmaceutical product; these data are important for both regulatory and access (pricing and reimbursement) processes. Gathering these data using written or electronic forms is very resource intensive for both clinical trial subjects (patients) and researchers (HCPs). We aim to monitor QoL by using easy to measure parameters that can be monitored in a non-invasive way using devices like activity trackers.

This leads to the following questions:

• How can we monitor QoL without asking patients or their caregivers to complete forms?
• Which solutions could provide autonomous measurement and monitoring of a patient’s vital parameters beyond heart rate and sleep (e.g. hormones and state of mind) without the need of manual documentation?

How can these measured parameters automatically be transmitted to the respective clinical research in order to optimize clinical development?

"Patient-centered communication is defined as healthcare that establishes a partnership among practioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients’ wants, needs, and preferences and that patients have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care.”
(Mazor KM, et al. Assessing Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Stakeholder Perspectives. J Oncol Pract. 2013;9:e186-e193)

Background:

This statement highlights the enormous importance of effective communication between patients and medical staff. However, the focus on related standards and their actual implementation require significant improvement. Some guidelines already contain a number of precise proposals to describe specific processes to support HCPs in communicating with patients, but there is a lack of methods and techniques that would facilitate their actual implementation: in part because the medical staff lacks time and communication skills or empathy.

This leads to the following questions:

• How can we ensure open, individual, respectful communication between healthcare professionals and patients - from initial diagnosis to finding suitable treatment options and discussing palliative care (by telephone, in person, via digital channels)?
• How can we maximize the quality of the information provided to the patient?
• How can we avoid and more quickly identify psychosocial stress symptoms such as emotional imbalance and patient insecurity?
• How can we make more effective therapy decisions and empower patients to improve their own quality of life?

How can we bridge communication barriers between patients and the care team?

Drug-drug interactions are a preventable cause of illness and death in patients. Drug-drug interactions can result in adverse drug reactions leading to emergency department visits, hospitalization, or extension of hospitalization in patients.  Patients may not be aware of over-the-counter medications that might interact with their prescribed medications, or they do not know how to identify which over-the-counter medications can be taken with their prescribed medications. The resulting harm to lives and burden on health care systems make this a critical challenge to address.

How can we design an easy-to-use patient tool to help people prevent drug-drug interactions, including over the counter drug-prescribed drug interactions?

The event is for free and we provide food and beverages.

We want you to have an incredible networking and learning opportunity. Our intention is that you meet some amazing people that you might actually start a company with, build relationships with coaches, and learn from your peers. The event is intended to be a collaborative forum for sharing, learning, building, and having fun. As such, by registering as a participant, you acknowledge that any ideas shared by you or anyone else over the course of the event are contributions to the overall experience and community. If you as a participant are worried about someone stealing your ideas, please reconsider your participation in the event itself or simply refrain from sharing specifics about your idea. As a member of your startup community, you agree to be inclusive of any and all people and their ideas. You agree to act professionally, treat everyone with respect, and treat the event facilities with proper care. You agree that you are responsible for any accidents or damages that you cause. You also agree to not hold the HPI or the organizing team, or any of the event supporters liable for any loss, damage, injury, or any other unforeseeable incident.

By participating at the event, you grant the HPI permission to capture photo/video of the event and to use this material for further own marketing purposes. However, we will not give this material to 3rd parties.

• laptop
• power cord
• a lot of energy and creativity and good spirit

• There are principally two options to participate: a) you present a busines idea on the challenges and find a team to work with you OR b) you come to the weekend to join a team
• Either way. we recommend to do some research. Market research and background information will give you a better understanding of the problems you are trying to solve. 

The event will take place at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Campus Griebnitzsee, at the main building, 3rd Floor. Address: Hasso Plattner Institute, Prof.-Dr.-Helmert-Straße 2-3, 14482 Potsdam.

You can find more information about how to get there here.

Attendees are responsible for booking their own transportation and lodging (if needed). If you are traveling and unfamiliar with the location, reach out to us to ask for nearby recommendations. As accommodation we can recommend the hostel Potsdam-Babelsberg. 

No. You can only work on ideas that are related to the challenges provided by our partner but you can see that the topics are quite broad and can accomodate a wide range of ideas.

No, but we encourage you to do so! You can pitch an idea you've been thinking about for years, or something last minute you think of during the event. It's a great experience and invaluable practice for public speaking. Just make sure that your ideas are in the realm of the challenges.

Participants who attend the event are expected to participate all of the time. This is important not only to preserve the spirit of the weekend but also to minimize distractions/disruptions for working teams.

The "event language" will be English. German language skills are not required.