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Tech startup founder creates digital COVID-19 diary after contracting virus
Dominik Burziwoda, CEO
PerfoodMillionFriends
Lübeck area, Germany
Find here for the protocol >> https://bit.ly/2B55Z2D
Dear all,
I’d love to share my COVID-19 story with you. I am founder CEO of the German digital therapeutics startup MillionFriends. We’re actually developing personalized low-glycemic diet therapeutics for a set of target diseases.
I returned from skiing in Austria two weeks ago. Three days after my return, I wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay home. My skiing vacation was very relaxed and besides some casual dinners and the gondola, I was not really exposed to many people.
At the time I developed fever, which was Wednesday 11th March, I was quite certain that I couldn’t have caught the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, as I didn’t want to infect people, I tried to get tested immediately. As Austria was not a risk-region for Germany at that time, the authorities refused my request and I stayed home for another two days. On Friday evening, Austria was reclassified as a risk-region, and on Saturday the 14th I went to get tested for SARS-CoV-2 immediately in the morning.
Find here for the protocol >> https://bit.ly/2B55Z2D
In the evening I received a call that my results were positive and I should stay in quarantine and maintain a fever and symptom diary. I was already picturing the authority offices getting flooded with papers of symptom and fever diaries.
Since I am founder CEO of a digital therapeutics startup, I knew that we had the technology to offer a digital solution for this. Our app is usually used in our personalized nutrition therapy program. We offer a personalized low-glycemic diet to fight diseases such as diabetes, but which is also offered as a weight-loss program in a wellness setting. Next to our food tracking function, we had a symptom-, medication- and activity-tracking tool included in our app.
For six months, we had developed a feature for a digital guide that accompanies patients through the entire treatment program. However, this feature was still in beta. I asked our software engineers to figure out whether we could do an early launch and offer the symptom-and fever-tracking tool to all COVID-19 patients. After one week of work, we released the feature yesterday morning and immediately had hundreds of downloads.
Find here for the protocol >> https://bit.ly/2B55Z2D
Patients can now track the symptoms, add their contact information and medical history, and share this via email and an xls-file with their physicians and health authorities. Patients can also give research consent, and universities and research institutions could use the data for developing therapies, finding cured patients and better understand[ing] the virus and the progression of disease.
I am feeling better, and you can see my fever development below. After 10 days, I am free of any symptoms and sincerely hope that we will be a bit of help in these challenging times. I wish everyone that captures the disease all the best.
Stay healthy,
Dominik
More info: bit.ly
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
