Digital therapy for millions of insured persons
In our ageing society, back pain is one of the most common complaints in Germany – affecting more than 26 million people every year. The eCovery therapy app being listed as a DiGA means that most Germans can now receive immediate digital help for lower back complaints without much effort. The app offers a customised, 12-week training programme with targeted video exercises and documents the user’s progress. This opens up a new treatment option backed by science for millions of people with statutory health insurance, which can be used flexibly and from any location.
Anyone with statutory health insurance can take advantage of this digital therapy free of charge if they have received a corresponding diagnosis and prescription from their doctor. The costs of the app are also covered for almost all privately insured persons after prior consultation with the respective health insurance company.
Digital health applications are becoming increasingly important and are being prescribed more and more frequently, not least due to the growing shortage of specialist doctors and therapists. In the medium term, appropriate solutions can help to relieve the strained healthcare system.
Shared vision for the future of digital therapy
adesso ventures has been supporting eCovery since 2021 not only as an investor, but also with expertise and as a technology partner. Specifically, adesso is supporting the start-up in developing a backend for its applications and in implementing important DiGA-relevant components, including the DiGA MIO (Medical Information Objects) toolkit via an FHIR interface. Together, the partners are also two-time winners of the HEALTH-X dataLOFT research project. The companies are jointly shaping the health data space of the future based on the Gaia-X framework – with the aim of being able to exchange data from digital prevention and therapeutic services with therapists via a secure and standardised platform in future.
In addition to the therapy app for the lower back, which is provisionally being listed as a DiGA, eCovery currently offers three other therapies (upper back, knee, and hip) and three online prevention courses (full-body strengthening, spinal gymnastics, and back school). Thanks to individual partnerships with statutory and private insurers, including Techniker Krankenkasse, AOK PLUS, HanseMerkur, Signal Iduna, Hallesche, and Barmenia, these solutions are already available to many insured persons.
