Health tech makes for a coveted space for healthcare and technology to join forces and empower humanity to sustain in a way that was previously unfathomable. Epitrack.Tech is a Brazilian startup in the digital health segment focused on digital disease detection (DDD) and health on-demand. We speak to Mariana Nacarato, Head of Marketing at Epitrack, to talk us through their unique health tech venture and to sharetips for health tech businesses that are just starting up. Read on!
What inspired you to start Epitrack? Tell us the story.
Epitrack started out as a spin-off from a research group based in Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, the largest biomedical research center in Latin America. Founded in 2013, we are based in Recife, known as the ‘Brazilian Silicon Valley’. Also, quite recently, Epitrack raised investment from Criatec 2 in partnership with Bozano Investimentos in a Series A round.
Over the years, Epitrack has become a reference in the construction of crowdsource-based platforms and epidemic intelligence and developed the world’s first application of participatory surveillance in mass gatherings, called ‘Saúde na Copa’ (Brazil).
Tell us about your hackathon, Epi hack. How has it contributed towards developing a stronger health tech community?
Epihack™ Rio was the first hackathon in Brazil and the Americas. The main objective of the event was to gather technology and epidemiology to create new ideas and approaches to solving the problems that exist in the world of public health. 80 developers and epidemiologists from 12 different countries attended this event. Epitrack was responsible for the curation and intellectual content, as well as the development of the technological platform used during the event.
Could you share 5 pro-tips for health tech businesses that are just starting up?
- Data-driven Company: We live in a digital health age. You must consider the importance of data to know more and better about your business, customers and your impact in healthcare. If you don’t give much value for data, do it now!
- Science-based Business: Evidence and scientific relevance. What makes you different is the capacity to generate knowledge from your products to your customers. And a scientific mindset will help you acquire this knowledge whenever you need. Publishing peer-reviews can also improve the relevance and evidence of your business to the market.
- Social Impact: Your business must make a real impact on others. Invest your efforts on things that will make a difference. Design your products to create value for society by solving real problems (for e.g. in health, diseases and deaths are real problems).
- People and context: Your team should have health professionals. Trust me, the best developer in the world can’t make the best health solution if they don’t have the context about health. And a good way to get this context is to have health professionals nearby, bringing insights and inputs that could be a real differentiator about your products.
- Purpose: Working in health doesn’t always generate much money. However, you shouldn’t forget your purpose. Many people can have their lives changed by the solution you’re developing. So, keep your purpose on track.
Epitrack – eHealth for better Health – Epitrack
Always disrupting public health through Digital Disease Detection
What are your future plans for Epitrack?
Spreading out across the globe. We really want to be a global reference for Digital Disease Detection, impacting more people and making the difference in more communities. We just launched a new product in Brazil, Clinio, that changes the game of healthcare access. We want to give people the opportunity to live with dignity, free of diseases and access to proper assistance when they need.
Why did you choose a .tech domain name? How is it helping you develop a unique online brand?
We’ve chosen a .tech domain because we are essentially driven by technology. Our technological and scientific approaches towards health problems make us a unique company and the . tech domain helps us with our market positioning.
Starting a health tech business? Build it on a .tech domain!
