Line Health: Taking care of you

“Scratch your own itch” is said of the way most startups come to be. Solve a problem you have yourself. In the case of Line Health it was a family member’s itch they resolved to scratch. Once, a while ago, Diogo Ortega’s grandmother swaps a pill by accident. This got the coder thinking of a solution to avoid this from happening again: a smart pill dispenser and an app that goes with it, that reminds you when it’s time for your next medication.

So, in 2013 Pharmassistant was born. With the prize money from “appy day”, a hackathon, Diogo filed for a patent for his prototype and continued to work.

2014 was a team growth year, as they won yet other prizes, and in August they moved to Berlin to take part of Bayer’s acceleration program. In December, they were back in Portugal and were incubated at Startup Lisboa, where they are still.

2015 kicked off with a series of successful test trials, and important contacts with the United States University of Texas.

In September 2015 Pharmassistant ceased to exist. The company changed look, name and some of its scope and is now called Line Health. They set up additional headquarters in the United States and are launching a pilot there very soon, in partnership with one of the biggest private hospital networks.

According to CEO Diogo Ortega, “to increase the patient engagement is to put the patient in the center. In order to do so, the providers are now investing in empowering patients with tools so that they can better follow their doctor’s prescriptions: such as taking medication, tracking their blood pressure or even taking a walk everyday”.

They went beyond the smart pill dispenser, with the app that tracks several aspects of the patient’s health activity.

If successful, Line Health will improve the quality of life of a portion of the 133 Million chronic patients in the USA, who account for 83% of all healthcare spending in the country.

These days, the company is preparing the go to market strategy with the help of the University of Texas.

These issues may not touch many young hearts yet, but if you’ve got older parents or grandparents like Diogo and me, it should make you turn your head and pay attention. And, rest assured, you’ll get there one day.