Luxembourg healthtech startup VoiceMed will in December launch its new app helping empower people experiencing asthma to better manage their symptoms.
Founder and CEO Arianna Arienzo shared the strategy with Silicon on the sidelines of the Paris VivaTech conference, Europe’s biggest innovation fair.
VoiceMed grew out of a covid-related hackathon as a voice recognition application to detect infection status. “Because 5-10% of people generally have asthma, we got in contact with many people who have asthma that got worse due to covid or have asthma that was triggered by covid,” the founder explained, adding: “At certain point we understood our technology was much more powerful with people with asthma and that’s when we decided to change the focus and to adapt the technology to asthma.”
The app, aimed at adults aged 18+, will be released in Europe in English, followed by French and German language versions, with the UK being the first key target country.
With 10% of residents suffering from asthma, the UK has among the highest rates in Europe. As a B2G, Arienzo’s team is developing an agreement with the UK health system so that patients using their tools can be reimbursed by the NHS.
“We are in the process of getting this certified as a medical device.”
Arianna Arienzo
“We are also trying to explore Luxembourg. And once we’ve conquered these markets, then we want to move to Germany,” added Arienzo.
The app seeks to improve the quality of life for these people by enabling them to monitor their own lung capacity through a kind of breathing score, track their asthma attacks, and identify the triggers.
The Italian national, daughter of pulmonologist parents, said: “My parents always tell me, if you want to cure asthma, 30% is medicine and 70% is you as a patient doing your thing in order to be an active advocate of your disease.”
In line with this thinking, in September VoiceMed will launch Airlyn, an asthma coach to help people suffering from asthma by calming them down, thus reducing hyperventilation, and empowering them to do physical activities to improve their health.
“We are in the process of getting this certified as a medical device,” said Arienzo.
In the next three years, VoiceMed’s goal is to build a digital respirometer, “a medical clinically proven score, that can also be used in the hospital setting,” says Arienzo.
VoiceMed, which will graduate from Luxembourg’s Fit 4 Start acceleration programme at the end of June, is currently seeking seed investment for the launch. It is also looking for pulmonologists and other clinicians working with people who have asthma who are willing to support the startup in its clinical studies for a digital respirometer.
