Driven by a passion for innovation, Antonia Riva-Frizberg is transforming healthcare. As the CEO of Lumetry Diagnostics GmbH, Antonia’s journey into the medical tech world began with a fascination for how breath gas analysis could revolutionize diagnostics. Her business expertise and entrepreneurial spirit have been key to her success in the healthcare industry.
Antonia’s background includes significant leadership roles in various startups, where she developed a keen sense for business development and competitive intelligence. Her global education and experiences in cities like London, Shanghai, and New York have shaped her vision for Lumetry Diagnostics. With a mission to make lung health monitoring more accessible and effective, Antonia is leading the charge to improve the lives of millions suffering from lung diseases.
Let’s explore Antonia Riva-Frizberg’s journey and learn how Lumetry Diagnostics is set to change lung care worldwide!
Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your journey to become the co-founder and co-CEO of Lumetry Diagnostics?
I had always had the urge to drive innovation within the DACH Region and one day, I came across an Austrian startup team that used breath gas analysis to identify women’s fertile days. Amazed, I completely fell in love with the technology and joined the team. It was during this experience that I began to grasp the cast insights we can derive about our bodies through breath gas analysis, particularly when combined with AI. Also, part of that team was my co-founder Christian Neubauer. With the COVID pandemic, it became evident that we should use our knowledge on breath gas analysis to do more. Thanks to the trust and support of our investors, medical experts and a group of inspiring people we then started Lumetry, with the goal to become the number one lung monitoring platform in the world.
What inspired you to focus on developing innovative solutions for COPD patients, and how does this align with Lumetry Diagnostics’ mission?
We want to become the number one lung Monitoring Platform in the World. So, when we started, we tried to find out where we could have the biggest impact from the start. Together with Medical experts and after market research we soon realized that COPD is the disease we want to Focus on first. It is the third leading cause of death worldwide (WHO). Suffering from COPD leads to a Risk of hypercapnia (increased levels of pCO2 in the patient’s blood). Untreated this can lead to cardiac arrest, heart failure or worse. However, the only way to monitor the pCO2 in a COPD patients’ blood is to do an invasive blood gas analysis, for which patients have to go to the doctor and the doctors need to have the expensive equipment to analyze the results. We knew that with our experience, we could make a better, non-invasive, user-friendly solution to solve this problem.
Can you tell us more about the pCO2-Tracker and how it aims to revolutionize lung monitoring for COPD patients at home?
We replace the pCO2 blood gas analysis for patients with COPD with a simple natural breathing exercise. It’s easy, affordable, and user-friendly, so it can be used both at home and at the doctor’s office. Finally, our solution includes both AI-supported spirometry and capnography functions so that we can not only detect and monitor hypercapnia but also screen and diagnose COPD itself.
As a leader with a background in biomedical engineering, how has your expertise influenced the development of Lumetry Diagnostics’ products?
I am not an engineer, but my co-founder Christian Neubauer always says that the skills he acquired at his previous positions, including AVL and breathe ilo have been invaluable. It helped him learn what it takes to develop a respiratory measurement device that is also successful on the market. The latter is important for the entire team.
In the end, Lumetry is a product that combines hardware with complex sensors, software development for the application app, and data analysis. We have developed sophisticated algorithms specifically for interpreting measurement data. So, Proficiency in various technological domains, coupled with expertise in lung health, has been essential to effectively manage our requirements and understand our product comprehensively.
What have been some of the biggest challenges Lumetry Diagnostics has faced, and how did you overcome them?
I think one of the biggest challenges we come across regularly is balancing short-term and long-term goals. This is particularly difficult in the heavily regulated industry of medical technology, where one cannot simply change features from one day to the next. Especially here it has been key for me to have Christian as a strong co-founder & Co-CEO, an active and supportive advisory board and a strong team. In shorter and longer sessions, we look at the pros and cons and try to take the best decision possible for both short- and long-term goals whenever possible.
How does Lumetry Diagnostics collaborate with healthcare providers and institutions to ensure the effectiveness and adoption of your technologies?
We have worked with COPD support groups, medical experts and known clinics from the start. We collaborate with them to gather constant qualitative and quantitative feedback on our market approach, design and solution. In the end they shape Lumetry with us. Finally, we collaborate to gather clinical data and prove the effectiveness of our solution.
As a female entrepreneur in the MedTech industry, what advice would you give to other women aspiring to make an impact in healthcare?
I guess some of it is true to men and women entrepreneurs, but I think it’s particularly important for female founders: you don’t have to do everything alone.
- Build a strong community of stakeholders around you to get started. You cannot have enough people to support you and give you honest and fair feedback when it’s needed.
- Have a strong co-founder and build a strong endurance team.
Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals for Lumetry Diagnostics, and how do you envision its impact on the global healthcare landscape?
While we start our adventure in Europe we want to become a global leader of lung care, improving the quality of life for the million patients around the world suffering from various lung diseases such as COPD, asthma, pneumonia etc. We believe one day every household should have access to our solutions, one way or another.
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