Nov21381 Most Innovative AI Based Digital Health Start-Up 2021 tenacio is a science-driven company with the mission to “get research into practice” so that patients with cardiovascular diseases receive optimal therapy. It utilises the latest medical developments to provide an individual risk assessment and curated treatment recommendations. Its diverse team brings all their insights together to develop and commercialize Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) which addresses a high unmet need of physicians. Patients treated with its solution platform OptiCor™ will experience a longer, healthier live. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death globally and is responsible for $1 trillion in healthcare spend. Many events such as myocardial infarctions, strokes, hospitalisations, and premature deaths are preventable with optimal therapy. However, many patients do not receive optimal therapy because it is very difficult for physicians to identify the best treatment for an individual patient. They have thousands of therapy options and need to balance benefits and risks in complex, co-morbid patients. tenacio, the truly digital cardiovascular care company has developed a physician and patient centric solution and is dedicated to change this. tenacio transforms cardiovascular care by feeding clinical data, research data, imaging, lab results, guidelines, and data from wearables and medical devices using its proprietary, validated and superior algorithm into an innovative and individual risk assessment, state-of-the-art therapy recommendations and an impact simulation. Plus, it finally empowers patients to manage their own cardiovascular risk; it helps physicians and patients to access an optimal treatment for a healthier, longer life. tenacio’s philosophy is to work with a very experienced small leadership team and outsource work packages to keep a lean and flexible structure. The team works remotely from different places across Europe and the US and currently consists of the following five members. Co-founder and CEO, Dr Georg van Husen (MD, PhD) is a medical doctor by training and started his professional career in cardiology. He then worked as management consultant with McKinsey & Co, from which he joined the pharmaceutical industry. After various roles at the global headquarter and in the US, and as general manager in South Africa, he became global SVP and franchise head of cardio-metabolism until he left to establish tenacio. Co-founder and Chairman of the Board, The Rt. Hon. Professor Ajay the Lord Kakkar (PC, BSc, MBBS (Hons), MA (Oxf), PhD) is a professor for surgery at UCL in London and a globally recognised researcher in thrombosis and anticoagulation. He also serves as Chairman of UCL Partners Academic Health Science System and is the Director of the Thrombosis Institute. Lord Kakkar is also a member of the House of Lords. CTO, Mathias Ottitsch (MBA, PhD) has a background in technical physics. After working for McKinsey & Co., Matthias has had various roles in IT and operations including EVP in a TecDax company, operations executive at Amazon and Marleyspoon, and chief platform officer at Mercateo. VP Head of Medicine, Yvonne Njage (MD) graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. She worked for the NIH, McKinsey & Co., Roche, and Gavi, the vaccine alliance. She still practices part-time in Philadelphia. Chief commercial officer and Head of US, Edgar B. Rey is a very experienced senior executive in the US cardiovascular medical device industry and has worked for several companies in executive marketing and sales leadership roles, including nContact, Atricure, and CorMatrix Cardiovascular. He is a radiologic and cardiology cath lab technologist by training. All team members are dedicated to improving the lives of patients with cardiovascular disease and the still emerging software-as- a-medical device. Dr Georg van Husen said, “We observed that several prediction algorithms which were already used in patient care had to be pulled because of flaws and biases. We therefore spent a lot of time and resources to ensure proper validation of our proprietary algorithm and are pursuing regulatory approval so that our customers can rely on our treatment recommendations.” tenacio is now planning to extend its current product focus beyond AFib, and has started product development for its next cardiovascular indication. Georg said, “We always start by looking at the unmet needs of our customers and patients, the existing science and then think about how we can make a difference. The analysis of big data and development of new insights and predictions plays a major role in understanding and managing the complexity of patients and cardiovascular diseases.” Company: tenacio GmbH Contact: Dr. Georg van Husen Email:
[email protected] Website: www.tenac.io The tenacio team (left to right): Mathias Ottitsch (CTO), Yvonne Njage (VP Medicine), Georg van Husen (CEO); not shown Edgar B. Rey (CCO & Head of US), Ajay Kakkar (Chairman of the Board)