The Munich-based startup Deepc brings artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare together. This enables the healthcare startup to automatically highlight abnormal findings in health data, thus supporting physicians. An interview.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
We are Franz Pfister (32, doctor, MBA, data scientist), Julia Moosbauer (25, data scientist), Paul Mayer (33, software engineer) and Michael Meyerhoff (56, long-time healthcare executive). Our Passion for Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and the conviction that we can sustainably improve healthcare with the help of AI brought us together as Deepc.
We like to compare Deepc to a spelling aid that highlights anomalies (such as transposed letters or spelling errors) in hundreds of pages of text. We apply this principle to medical data: Deepc searches large volumes of health data for abnormal findings and reports them back to the doctor in real time. This supports physicians in making diagnoses.
Detect rare diseases with the help of Deepc’s AI and a good doctor
In our first use case, the technology is being applied to MRI and CT imaging data of the human brain. Here, we support radiologists with our AI software in their diagnostic work. Sounds exciting? It's getting even better: The initial development phase is complete, and the prototype is currently being tested at the Rechts der Isar Hospital.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
No, absolutely not. Existing AI solutions are isolated solutions: They are limited to a few common diseases (e.g., multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, strokes). That would be as if your spelling aid could only detect comma errors! DeepC takes a generalist approach: The system can detect all diseases, especially very rare diseases (so-called orphan diseases).
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
- Understanding the target group: finding out the needs of the target group through intensive discussions and numerous interviews
- Use funding opportunities and network: Use public funding opportunities, the excellent startup network and accelerators and incubators in and around Munich
- The team: a complementary team that fights together for its vision and shares the passion for the product
Can Deepc win the $5 million competition?
4. Let’s get to the point: How is business going?
We are currently preparing our market entry and are already working with several pilot customers. We also recently achieved a major success: Three years after the official launch of the competition, we were named one of four wildcard teams in the hotly contested '$5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE' selected. We are now among the last 34 teams (out of an initial 1,000 participants) from ten countries competing for a total prize money of five million dollars.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Franz, Julia, and Paul grew up in and around Munich, and Michael is in his eighth year here. We love Munich as our home, but also value it as the location for our startup. Munich offers us excellent access to the best graduates from the universities LMU and TUM. Deepc particularly benefits from its proximity to Munich's highly respected hospitals (including Klinikum Rechts der Isar and Klinikum Großhadern).
Munich's economic infrastructure, with its focus on technology and medicine, offers us many opportunities for exchange and potential partnerships. At the same time, it helps us advance product development quickly. A creative and thriving startup scene, strengthened by various funding and accelerator programs in Munich, is worth its weight in gold for every founder.
And what better place for an after-work beer with the team than a Munich beer garden?
“AI is only safe when humans and AI form a team”
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We are convinced that AI can only be used successfully, safely, and profitably when humans and AI work together as a team. This insight and implementation is one of Deepc's success factors: We are developing a hybrid approach in which physicians and intelligent algorithms work hand in hand.
Systematic tasks—like systematic data screening in our case—will be handled by AI. Complex, unsystematic tasks that require transfer thinking, experience, and the highest level of expertise will continue to be handled by physicians. The AI backs up the physician, and the physician takes over when the AI reaches its limits. So, clearly: Unicorn!
7. Hiking or beer garden?
Hiking with beer at the hut.
