Preventive healthcare in the mail

The start-up Probatix from the Charlottenburg Innovation Centre develops simple blood tests for home use

Blood, urine, stool—once exclusively examined at the doctor’s office, these tests can now be done from the comfort of one’s own home. With his start-up Probatix, Daniel Werner wants to simplify healthcare and strengthen prevention.

Let’s be honest: When was the last time you had your cholesterol checked? Long-term blood sugar? Thyroid function? “Going to the doctor, especially for prevention, can feel like a project,” says Daniel Werner. “It’s not easy to get an appointment for both the sample collection and the follow-up consultation.” For many, those hurdles are enough to delay things until the body starts sounding the alarm.

Mathematician and computer scientist Daniel Werner wanted an easier way to keep tabs on his health, and, in 2019, founded the start-up Probatix. “We started with lifestyle checks like vitamin levels,” he says. “That was relatively quick to roll out and not too tricky in regulatory terms.” The first step. “Through our platform, we want to make healthcare in Germany more flexible—and help avoid visits to the doctor if they’re not absolutely necessary.” According to his vision, this includes routine blood tests, picking up a home kit for bowel cancer screening, or discussing more inconspicuous results with a medical professional.

“Plenty of people already monitor their weight or blood pressure at home,” says Werner. “We want to make lab diagnostics just as accessible.” Reducing the strain on GP practices is only part of the idea. “By making testing as simple and convenient as possible, we want to raise awareness for prevention and early detection.”

Probatix’s blood tests work with capillary blood. While a doctor taps into a patient’s vein, these tests take blood from the tiny vessels in the fingertip, or ‘fingertip pad’ as the experts call it. “Most tests look at six to eight markers,” explains Werner. “This typically requires about half a millilitre of blood—around eight to ten drops.” The sample can be collected by a healthcare professional at a pharmacy—or by confident users at home. A quick prick with a lancet, a few drops into a small tube, seal it up, and pop it in the post. “The samples are analysed on standard equipment in specialised labs,” he says. “The machines there are calibrated for capillary blood and deliver reliable results.”

It’s not just our blood that reveals what’s going on inside the body. Urine and stool samples can also offer crucial insights. That’s why Probatix’s offering includes tests for things like HPV (human papillomavirus) and early detection of colorectal cancer. Here, too, sample tubes are filled at home and mailed off to the lab. “The processed results are then made available through the user’s account,” says Werner. “You can see whether your values fall within the normal range. With multiple tests, you can even track trends over time.”

Most of these tests are not yet part of the standard coverage of statutory health insurance providers in Germany. However, they can be offered as additional services through individual agreements. “We handle management of those agreements for our partners, so their insured members can use our tests easily and reliably,” says Werner. Probatix is also engaged in lobbying efforts. “We’re working to get more preventive tests included in the standard coverage,” he says. “Things like lipid panels that can flag cardiovascular risks, or long-term blood sugar tests that point to early-stage diabetes.”

Probatix isn’t Werner’s first business venture. Before, he developed software-as-a-service platforms through a different start-up, also based at CHIC, the Charlottenburg Innovation Centre, a place he remained loyal to. “As a born-and-bred Berliner, it was never a question of where to found my company,” he says. With a grin, he goes on saying: “It’s just a happy coincidence that Berlin also happens to offer the best conditions for start-ups. Even if I hadn’t been born here, I probably would’ve ended up moving here anyway.” 

Kai Dürfeld for Potenzial

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