From a hackathon idea to an integration with a medical device maker.

The idea: all your test results in your pocket

Your medical results are scattered. One clinic keeps some, a lab hands you others on paper, and the paper gets lost. The next doctor sees only part of the picture.

HealthDrive collects every result in one app on your phone. Only you can open them, and they stay with you when you change doctors or move to another country.

I built the first version of HealthDrive at HackFS 2022, an international online hackathon, and won a prize.

The team behind Filecoin, which hosted the hackathon, awarded HealthDrive a grant for three more months of work. From then on, the project ran on the prize money and the grant.

Dx365, a medtech startup from Berlin, makes DxReader: a small device that tests a drop of blood from a finger, for example for the vitamin D level. DxReader stood in 15 pharmacies, where anyone could walk in and take a test. The result came after about 15 minutes, printed on paper.

I teamed up with Dx365 and connected HealthDrive to their device, so the result went to the phone instead of the paper. Here is the whole flow with a real DxReader:

1. The customer scans a QR code. While the test runs, the pharmacy's screen shows a QR code. The customer scans it with HealthDrive and can leave. No waiting in the pharmacy.
2. The result arrives as a notification. When the test is done, the pharmacist sends the result with one click. Seconds later, the customer's phone shows a notification.
3. The app says what to do next. If a value is too low, the app says so and offers two next steps: book a doctor's appointment or order supplements.

To bring HealthDrive to more devices, I went to Arab Health in Dubai, one of the largest medical trade fairs in the world. There I made contact with 26 makers of medical devices that could connect to HealthDrive the same way DxReader did, and sent each of them a pitch deck.

HealthDrive was published in the App Store and Google Play. Anyone with an iPhone or an Android phone could download it.

At Bits & Pretzels HealthTech I talked to founders and other people who build digital health products. Those conversations made one thing clear: a medical startup needs a founder full time. I had a full-time job, and HealthDrive was a project for my evenings and weekends.

What HealthDrive taught me about medical data

HealthDrive started as a Web3 project. The results were stored in Filecoin, a network of computers around the world with no single company in charge. That gave the patient full control, and it was what the hackathon and the grant were about.

Then I took a close look at the law. For medical data in Germany, the GDPR is only the base. An app that tells a patient what a blood value means can count as a medical device under the EU Medical Device Regulation, with its own approval. A health app that doctors can prescribe, a DiGA, also needs a security certificate from the BSI, the federal office for IT security. And for apps paid by public health insurance, health data in the cloud may only be stored in Germany, the EU or a country with equal protection (§ 393 SGB V).

A worldwide network of computers with no one in charge cannot promise any of this. It cannot even delete a patient's data on request, which the GDPR requires. With this technology, HealthDrive could never become a medical product that follows the law.

So I stopped. What remains is a working prototype that ran with a real medical device, and my first deep look into data protection. Today I check the rules for a client's data before I choose the technology, not after. HealthDrive is still one of the projects closest to my heart.

What this means for your project

• From an idea to the stores. I take a product from the first version all the way to the App Store and Google Play.
• Your app works with what you already have. HealthDrive works with a partner's medical device. Your app can work with your devices, your systems or your partners in the same way.
• Data protection from day one. Before we choose the technology, I check which rules apply to your data, so the product can grow without a rebuild.