Tablet instead of pen and paper: This is how Arne Peine digitizes the intensive care unit

Tablet instead of pen and paper
This is how Arne Peine digitizes the intensive care unit

March 13, 2024, 9:00 a.m

Intensive care physician Arne Peine has long experienced firsthand how difficult it is to be there for patients. He spent a lot of time transferring data from one monitor to another. He tells “So techt Deutschland” how he is currently changing that with his startup Clinomic.

In intensive care units, accuracy and usually speed are important for doctors, nursing staff and, above all, patients. But when intensive care patients are surrounded by up to 20 devices, things can get complicated. Until now, it has often been the case that colorful pens have been used as work tools, explains Arne Peine, founder and chief technology officer of the health startup Clinomic. Then nurses often say: “Your job is to write these numbers up there on a piece of paper.” The consequence: Doctors also spend a large part of their work doing paperwork and filling out Excel tables.

With Clinomic, Arne Peine and his co-founder want to change that. They have developed “Mona”, short for Medical On-Site Assistant, a tablet with software that is able to bundle data from various devices at the intensive care bed and prepare it clearly. Because the information that needs to be processed cannot be kept track of without technical help. “We’re talking about 1,000 data points per patient per hour. And as a doctor, I have 14 patients, so that’s 14,000 points.” The susceptibility to errors is correspondingly high, says Peine. He speaks from experience. Before he became a founder, Arne Peine worked as an intensive care physician in the hospital for a long time.

In addition to bundling and processing data, Clinomic also offers telemedical services so that doctors can exchange information with each other. This creates networks to discuss specific questions. The startup now also offers the medical service itself as part of the package. “That means we have very highly qualified doctors on site and our customers can, so to speak, book this so that they can also receive medical advice,” reports Peine. An interdisciplinary team of now 60 people is working on it.

With Arne Peine spoke Frauke Holzmeier and Andreas Laukat. You can watch the entire conversation in the podcast “This is how Germany techs” listen.