The people behind healthcare innovation: Interview with Gloria Seibert, CEO and co-founder of Temedica

As part of my work, I have the privilege of speaking with many inspirational innovators. In this series of conversations, I set out to learn a bit more about the people behind the companies, products, and services you read about. Each short interview follows a similar format: six questions and six answers about their experience, their opinions, and their learnings.

 The latest conversation is with Gloria Seibert, CEO and co-founder of digital health company Temedica.

Tobias: What’s your story, how did you become an innovator in healthcare?

Gloria: When I started my professional career at the early age of 20 in consulting, what became evident right away was that around half of the projects were about digitization. We developed digital strategies for car manufacturers and banks, introduced digital processes in the energy industry, and set up an ecommerce strategy for a travel agency. During that time, I was confronted with some serious cases of illness among my family and friends. What I discovered was that digitization (which everyone was talking about) had not yet arrived in the health industry—and certainly not to support the patient. This left me very frustrated, and led me to study software development in Silicon Valley. I didn’t simply want to accept the status quo and, if I wanted to help change it, I needed to have more than a basic understanding of technology.

Back in Germany in 2016, together with some friends, we developed the idea for Temedica. We wanted to position the patient as the focus of our work: better patient information, better patient support, and overall better patient care. Back then, hardly anyone was talking about digital health. In fact, in Germany we were perceived as a bunch of exotic nerds. Fast forward four years to today and Temedica operates multiple digital patient companions, three of them being reimbursed by health insurances, addressing several (chronic) diseases, and serving hundreds of thousands of patients.

Tobias: Where do you see the field of digital health companions moving to in the next ten years?

Gloria: I think that the year 2020, accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, is when we will finally have cracked the hard nut of healthcare digitization. Over the next few years, many outdated structures within the industry will visibly break down and new innovative models will emerge in their place. Digital healthcare companions, as well as real-world insights we haven’t seen before, will play an increasing role. Currently, these digital health companions are basically working as stand-alone-solutions; however, we expect that they will be connecting much more closely with classic therapies—thus achieving maximum additional benefit.

Tobias: Looking more broadly, what are the biggest opportunities and obstacles you see for innovation in the healthcare environment?

Gloria: Digitization has ushered in a new age from which no industry is excluded. As with previous waves of innovation, digitization has disrupted fast-moving markets (such as the retail sector with e-commerce) and gradually spread to other more regulated industries. Today, the “bang” of digitization has also reached the healthcare systems, and everybody involved is being called upon to rethink the old and invent the new.

Personally, I see two particularly big challenges in the digitization of healthcare systems. On the one hand, we are dealing with the most valuable good of mankind: health. There must be no “trial-and-error” mentality here; above all, innovations must be safe. At first glance, this seems to work contrary to the velocity and some mantras that digitization brings with it.

On the other hand, the healthcare sector is characterized by numerous interdependent stakeholders that form the overall system. A small (well-intentioned) change in one place may cause obstacles and blockages in other places. This makes it complex for new players in the market.

Through COVID-19, however, we have also seen how quickly an industry can change if it is forced to do so. And digital technologies not only provide us with unprecedented opportunities in these times of pandemic, they also open up new potential to improve processes, and reduce inefficiencies and overall costs 

 Tobias: When you look at the health system as a whole (providers, payers, doctors, patients) where do you see most openness for innovation?

Gloria: The healthcare industry is a multi-stakeholder industry: in each sector there are innovators and those who are critical of new technologies. Over the past few years, I have learned that, as a new player in the market, you need to do a lot of convincing in many directions, particularly critical voices. I think COVID-19 has shown us all how quickly solutions can be found if everyone pulls together. I hope that we can keep this mindset as a long-term learning from the crisis.

 Tobias: What’s the single most important thing that policymakers could do to enable digital transformation of the health system(s)?

Gloria: The law on the reimbursement of health apps in Germany has given digital health an enormous boost. Thanks to the initiative of the German Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, digital health apps and telemedicine are on everyone’s lips. And it is not only in the health industry that there is discussion and debate about the value, benefits, and need for such solutions. This public discussion has turned a former niche area into a serious industry, and the latest developments around COVID-19 are right now accelerating this trend even more.

From my point of view, it is important that dialogue continues, and that new solutions and ideas are thought through to the end. This is the only way to establish new structures and to anchor digitization in the system in a meaningful way for everyone.

Tobias: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were starting out as an innovator and entrepreneur?

Gloria: The last few years have been extremely instructive, both regarding my personal development and definitely also my learning curve. Above all, I have learned to bite the bullet and question things again and again. Being an entrepreneur is hard and it takes the right mixture of criticism, resilience, and curiosity. This is a journey that never ends.

Regarding domain-specific know-how, I think it was somehow good that we started out completely open and unbiased. As a result, we were able to draw a picture of our own and test our ideas and hypotheses without any prejudice.

For more information, see Gloria Seibert and Temedica 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and his guest contributor and do not reflect the views of McKinsey & Company.