A Growth Engine for Europe

The MyTherapy app from smartpatient – a company founded in 2012 – helps patients to take their medication at regular intervals. “In the EU alone, 200,000 people die early every year because they aren’t taking their medication correctly,” explains CEO Sebastian Gaede. “With our free app, we are helping to prevent this.” Through the Google Launchpad programme, smartpatient was able to boost the app’s use in a very short timeframe. “We’re speaking to a very diverse range of groups. Someone who is diabetic and depends on insulin has very different requirements to a young woman who uses the app for the pill and hr MS medication,” says Gaede. “Launchpad – and particularly the UX review – really helped us to tailor our offering precisely to patients’ different needs, while keeping it scalable.” The MyTherapy user base is growing by 20 to 30% each month. The company is now aiming to launch in markets abroad. The various needs of patients continue to play a major role, including in the company’s collaboration with Google. “Particularly in terms of user experience, Google has given us long-term support – through both its technologies, like the continually evolving Android platform, as well as its expert advice,” concludes Gaede. For him, the fact that MyTherapy especially benefits people with chronic and serious illnesses is a key motivation. “We are always getting great feedback from users, and some of them aren’t very well. Being able to help these people is what drives us. It can also be quite moving for our team at times – for example, when a cancer patient relies on our app during their chemotherapy regimen.”