Onlinedoctor takes over start-up A.s.s.i.s.t

The teledermatology platform buys the AI start-up that wants to diagnose skin diseases using cell phone photos. Onlinedoctor wants to compete with Google.

The Onlinedoctor platform is buying the Tübingen-based start-up A.s.s.i.s.t, completing its first acquisition in the company's history. Both companies are active in the field of dermatology and develop concepts to digitize the diagnosis of skin diseases. With the acquisition, the health start-up aims to bring the first AI-supported medical product in the field of teledermatology to market maturity and thus compete with Google's Dermassist.

Onlinedoctor offers a platform on which people can upload photos of affected skin areas and answer questions about them. A dermatologist is then supposed to respond within 48 hours. The start-up A.s.s.i.s.t., founded in 2021, has developed a diagnostic tool that enables an AI to make an initial assessment of skin diseases by analyzing images. The prototype already recognizes 30 different skin diseases with an accuracy of 85 percent. "With this technology, we can now bundle the knowledge and experience of our specialist network in an AI and make it available to each of the 600 dermatologists who work with us. This combination of medical expertise and technology supports the work of doctors and increases the quality of diagnosis," says Philipp Wustrow, co-founder of Onlinedoctor.

Wustrow founded Onlinedoctor together with Tobias Wolf and Paul Scheidegger in 2016. The company cooperates with around 600 dermatologists and 40 health insurance companies. With the acquisition of the Tübingen-based start-up, Onlinedoctor is gaining expertise in the field of artificial intelligence. To make the technology ready for the market, the founders now want to collect clinical data and further develop the product.