The German MedTech company InLine-Med from Magdeburg has beat a number of promising start-ups to win the Pridatect Privacy Grant. We recently met with co-founder Sinja Lagotzki, who explained to us InLine-Med’s current challenges, why data protection is essential in the MedTech industry and what the Pridatect Privacy Grant means for the company.
The Google Maps of MedTech
InLine-Med deals with interventional radiology, which is a complex group of techniques that employ medical imaging – like MRIs or CT scans – to guide minimally invasive surgical procedures. The image is used to place and insert the needle accurately within the body.
“The difficulty is that you have a 2D image and you have to transfer it to the 3D patient – and that’s where we come in” Sinja explains to us. “To do this, we have developed an intuitive planning and navigation software [for the human body] – a bit like Google Maps.” The radiologist defines the start and target points of the insertion, while the software calculates an accurate trajectory of the needle. In addition, InLine-Med offers disposable products that can be used in combination with their software – adding further value. This allows radiologists to perform interventions safely, accurately and easily.
Intuitive solutions instead of "fancy" technologies
Sinja and Sebstián came up with the idea for this solution during their studies. “One of our professors taught us right from the start: Go to the clinic. Look for problems, and solve those problems. Not just any potential problem that comes into your mind, where you just say that it could be a fancy technology,” the medical technologist explains to us. “We want to create intuitive solutions that apply to the radiologist’s workflow and don’t replace them, but support them in the best way possible.”
As is the story of many innovators, the path was not straightforward: Sinja and Sebastián initially started with a robotic arm and, through many conversations with medical experts, the team has bit by bit arrived at their current solution. Founded in 2019, the start-up now consists of 10 employees and is about to enter the production phase.
The importance of data protection in MedTech
Since the product is not yet on the market, InLine-Med has – up to this point – mainly dealt with internal HR-related data protection issues. However you can’t avoid this topic for too long, because in the MedTech industry you need many certifications to be able to launch the product on the market. On the one hand, the start-up needs a Quality Management System, which heavily features data protection by design. On the other hand, there is the product certification. The more patient data they use, the more risky it is for the company. At the same time, they have always tried to collect as little data as possible in accordance with the basic GDPR concept of data minimisation.
Pridatect Privacy Grant for InLine-Med
“The goal is to pass the certifications by the beginning of next year and then enter the market. The Privacy Grant comes just at the right time, because we are dealing with these topics right now and Pridatect can give us great support,” Sinja tells us. Pridatect has always stood out in her previous research on data protection solutions, and she has always enjoyed taking part in our webinars covering various data protection topics.
We will provide InLine-Med with our data protection software free of charge for one year, offer expert advice, provide an external DPO for the company and much more. We are very pleased to be able to support InLine-Med in ensuring data protection for the next generation of life-saving technologies!