Lindera AI-based 3D motion analyser reduces the risk of falls for seniors
Could you please introduce yourself and your start-up Lindera to our readers?
My name is Diana Heinrichs, and I started Lindera. It is the first digital AI-based 3D motion analyser that reduces the risk of falls for seniors in a measurable way. Our medical app exceeds all clinical methods in precision and efficiency and was developed using practical experience. But our AI can do more than that: It is our Swiss Army knife for precisely assessing movement and will be used in clinical and therapeutic areas in the future.
Where did you get the idea to start Lindera?
The initial spark for developing a fall-prevention app was my experience with my grandmother. For more than seven years, a mobile care team and my mother supported her in her everyday life. This setup allowed her to remain active in the family. However, the elephant in the room was falls, especially when heart failure, incontinence, and impaired vision were added to the mix. But my family was able to solve the issue of falls as well as the accompanying anxiety. We analysed the various risk factors together and eliminated them again and again over the years – with technical aids as well as support from caregivers, doctors, and therapists. But my grandmother is not an isolated case. To this day, I am motivated to bring this teamwork to millions of families and caregivers worldwide.
I originally started my career in the IT industry, where I previously worked at Microsoft. That’s why I wanted to solve the issue of fall prevention technically and analytically. In 2017, I developed Lindera, software that supports professionals, caregivers, and relatives that provide care by analysing movement and providing concrete measures for fall prevention.
What is Lindera’ vision?
We want to be able to steer quality management regarding falls and mobility better and set new global assessment standards. Because we’re offering the best tool: With our 3D technology, we outperform all clinical procedures and the gold standard in measurement accuracy, GAITRite. Movement assessments are mostly a care sector concern – outpatient and inpatient care facilities. But mobility assessments are also essential in physiotherapy and (acute) rehabilitation, neurology, and orthopaedics and affect all ages. We aim to simplify, accelerate, and specify labour-intensive and billing-relevant documentation processes in medicine and care and to do so simply with an app-based smart mobility assessment that uses a smartphone camera.
We are enabling a new way of working within nursing and helping an industry plagued by a shortage of skilled workers, a lack of recognition, and overwork to gain a new sense of self-confidence. This is important in the medium term to make the profession more attractive than it currently is. In addition, Germany is still lagging in digitalising the healthcare sector when compared with the rest of the world.
To grow nationally and internationally and to integrate our technology into new fields of application, great experts are supporting us:
Rheingau Founders has been with us for four years. During a Series A financing, we won the family office zwei.7 as another supporter of our mission. Partner Karsten Wulf is an advocate of digitalisation in the healthcare industry and believes there is a need to catch up, especially in nursing. With our AI and his know-how, we are paving the way for Europe-wide expansion.
How difficult was it in the beginning, and what challenges did you have to overcome?
At a start-up, there is a new challenge every day. In the beginning, we were told that app-based 3D motion analyses were not possible, but we solved that problem. Then, we heard that different health insurance companies don’t cooperate because they compete against one another. Now, we have made the issue of falls a solvable one with a whole range of health insurance companies across Germany. We have an enormous shortage of skilled workers in care, just like in tech, and yet, we see that there are solutions, strong teamwork, and fresh minds at every age.
Who is your target audience?
We develop applications for professionals and caregivers in medicine, therapy, and nursing. Because we believe that care networks – from relatives to caregivers and all the way to therapists and doctors – are central to using our SturzApp as a coordinating link.
In addition to the SturzApp, we have other solutions in our portfolio. Our LTech software development kit is aimed at medical device manufacturers and health app developers. They can easily integrate our 3D technology into existing health apps or care documentation systems and benefit from our intuitive software. For example, orthopaedic patients or athletes can complete systematic exercises with the help of our 3D technology. Our AI can match performed poses with the correct position via video recording and provide real-time feedback.
What is your start-up’s USP?
Our unique selling point lies in the fact that we have mastered 3D on smartphones. This means that users no longer have to align themselves in front of the camera and restart again and again if they go out of frame, which is an important criterion for senior citizens. In addition, 3D also means that we provide precise gait parameters, which are the foundation for being professionally recognised by doctors. Putting a few strokes on the body without validation would be just as diagnostic as stirring blood with our fingers and making decisions based on that.
Can you describe your typical workday?
Every day is different. One constant is probably the journey on my racing bike to the office or customer appointments in Berlin.
Where do you see yourself and Lindera in five years?
In five years, we will have integrated our patented AI movement assessments into almost every medical and care-related healthcare setting in the DACH region. With the expansion experts at zwei.7, we are taking over international healthcare markets with our digital solution. In this way, we are making a decisive contribution to bringing social care into focus, relieving the workload of trained staff, and providing quality-assured support for transition management between clinics and follow-up care. We are also helping to make occupational fields in nursing more attractive thanks to smart tools and inspiring junior staff to work in modern nursing. In addition, we are successively setting new standards in quality assurance in healthcare across Europe.
What three tips would you give founders?
One of my role models is Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. If a penniless employee, an English teacher, can build a global digital company within a communist country, then there’s no stopping me: Why can’t this also happen in Europe? There’s a passionate video from his start-up days, where he gets families, friends, and colleagues excited about his idea. For me, bringing people along, developing a clear business model, and constantly evolving with customer requirements are the keys to founding a company.
More information in the YouTube Video
Thank you Diana Heinrichs for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
