Teams of researchers, doctors and students pitched their medtech startup ideas to investors and industry experts at this year′s MedTech Demo Day. The “Back in the Game” app impressed the most this year. Developed by a research team at the University Hospital of Tübingen, it is intended to help people suffering from depression. The Demo Day is organised by the MedTech Startup School and BioRegio STERN Management GmbH in cooperation with the Medical Innovations Foundation, the University Hospital of Tübingen and the University of Tübingen’s Technology Transfer Office.

The Demo Day was being held for the fourth time and saw a group of young researchers from Tübingen present “Back in the Game” – an app that aims to help people with depression. The mobile phone game is a joint development by psychologists, neurobiologists, doctors and gaming specialists to assist patients while they are waiting for their treatment to start and also to prevent relapses. Professor Christian Plewnia, who heads the University Hospital of Tübingen’s Neurophysiology & Interventional Neuropsychiatry group, is supervising the team of developers.

The Demo Day took place on 15 October 2018 and provided a thrilling conclusion to a 100-day accelerator programme for selected teams pitching their laboratory/practice-based healthcare ideas to potential investors, business specialists and health experts. Prior to the event, the young researchers from a whole host of different sectors had worked on their business models with economists, scientists, doctors and lawyers – a process during which they gathered the necessary startup know-how. Amongst other things, they were required to prepare a business case and perform a market validation. At the Bootshaus am Neckar in Tübingen, they were then thrown into the lions’ den, as it were, unveiling their proposal to an audience from the worlds of business and science. All the guests were then able to vote for their favourite, with the majority opting for “Back in the Game”.

As Dr. Klaus Eichenberg, Managing Director of BioRegio STERN Management GmbH, explains: “We’ve been supporting the MedTech Startup School from the outset because good life science ideas are reliant on professional backing if they are to become a successful startup. The fact that many of the projects from previous years have already made significant progress is testament to the quality of the programme.”

The MedTech Startup School, the Startup Booster and the Medical Innovations Explorer together form the Baden-Württemberg Life Science Accelerator. The school is supported by the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing, the German Federal Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, and Baden-Württemberg’s state startup initiative with resources from the ESF.