Mehr Einsatz Wagen Folge 72: Shaping the future of Digital Healthcare with Dr. Katharina Schweidtmann, Head of Strategy at Doctolib

Host: Artur Olesz
Guest: Dr. Katharina Schweidtmann, Head of Strategy & Partnerships at Doctolib

 Episode Overview:

In this episode, host Artur Olesz speaks with Dr. Katharina Schweidtmann from Doctolib, Europe’s leading e-health platform, live from DMEA Berlin—Europe’s foremost digital health conference. They dive into how Doctolib is reshaping healthcare delivery through digital tools, AI innovation, and seamless patient-practitioner experiences.

About Doctolib

• Serves 80+ million users across Europe.
• Connects 450,000 healthcare professionals.
• Shares 9 million+ documents monthly.
• Focus: improving access and simplifying administrative processes in healthcare.

Dr. Schweigertmann’s Mission

• A physician herself, she’s driven to:
  • Enhance healthcare professionals’ daily lives.
  • Improve patient access and autonomy.

 Appointment Innovation

• Enhanced matching algorithms between patient needs and practitioners.
• Future focus: anticipating care needs, beyond basic search functions.
• Transition from appointment-only tool to a full clinical and administrative platform.

Product Evolution

• Expansion into practice management, clinical documentation, and billing systems.
• Strong emphasis on interoperability with hospital systems and national health records (e.g., Germany’s EPA and France’s integration).

 Patient Engagement

• Waitlist function allows flexible rebooking and reduces no-shows.
• Seamless user experience with email/SMS/app reminders.
• Average no-show rate down to ~2%, even <1% in some clinics.

 For Healthcare Professionals

• Reduces administrative burdens through:
  • Self-service tools for patients.
  • Integrated messaging (e.g., secure Doctolib Silo app).
  • Streamlined communications (no fax, fewer calls).
• Designed for both individual practices and large institutions like Charité or Zana Kliniken.

 AI Integration

• Phone Assistant: AI-driven call management for practices.
• Consultation Assistant: Speech-to-text summaries for doctors (live in France, coming to Germany).
• Strong focus on user-friendly, generative AI across tools.

 Electronic Records & Document Sharing

• Automated patient prep: uploads required documents before appointments.
• Bidirectional communication for document requests.
• Preparing for deeper integration with national health systems (e.g., Gematik in Germany).

 Intersectoral Collaboration

• Serves GPs, specialists, hospitals, and ambulatory centers alike.
• Enables referrals and information exchange across the care pathway.
• Silo app helps professionals consult across institutions—even internationally.

 International Expansion

• Strongholds: France (origin), Germany (largest market).
• Future plans to launch in more European countries.

 What’s Next for Doctolib?

• Evolving from appointment tool to comprehensive health management platform.
• More AI-driven tools for doctors and patients.
• Greater international reach and deeper product portfolio.
• Continuing commitment to free access for patients and a subscription model for providers.

Schreibt uns Eure Kommentare gerne an MehrEinsatzWagen@healthcarefuturists.com und vernetzt euch mit uns auf unseren Social Media Kanälen.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Mer Einsatzwagen podcast, Dare to do more, where we explore the latest innovations transforming healthcare and shaping the future of medicine. I'm your host, Artur Olesz, journalist specializing in digital health. Today we are continuing our coverage from DEMEA in Berlin, Europe's leading digital health conference and trade fair, where we are meeting the people behind the world. Some of the most impactful health tech solutions and joining me today is Dr. Katrina Schweidetmann, head of strategy and partnerships at Doctolib and name. Many of you will know as one of Europe's leading e-health platform. Doctolib is all about making healthcare more accessible, more connected and more patient centered. I have to admit that I've been using Doctolib already for years and it always helps me to find the right doctor at the right moment. So just to give you an idea of the scale, over 80 million people in Europe use Dr. LiP to get better care. 450,000 healthcare professionals are active on the platform and more than 9 million medical documents are shared every month. From booking appointments to messaging practitioners and managing health information, Dr. LiP is becoming an everyday partner in health for millions across Europe. And today we will talk about how they have achieved this growth, this strategy behind their partnerships and what's next on their digital roadmap. So let's start. Hi Katrina, how are you doing? 

Hi, I'm doing super good. Thank you for the invitation today. 

It's great to have you here. So maybe before we start, can you please introduce yourself? 

Of course. I'm Katrina. I've been with Doctolib for three and a half years now and I lead the hospital strategy and partnerships team. So what we do is classic go to market from pricing to packaging to where do we want to go. We've had the last years very driven by KHZG, Krankenhaustukunftsgesetz, where all the German hospitals wanted to get solutions like ours, which was a really great momentum and has really moved the digital space in hospitals forward. But then we also look at how can our products evolve? How can partners help us and we help them to further improve digitalization mainly for hospitals? I'm a medical doctor myself. So I've basically grown up in hospitals and so extra excited to be continuing this journey to improve people's health now at Doctolib. And yeah, very excited for our conversation today. 

Yes, that's great. Could you please explain us what's your why in digital health? Because, you know, I've been using Doctolib for, I think, five years now and it helped me many times. It's not a promotional material right now, but it helped me many times to find the right doctor. So what is your why in Doctolib? What drives you in Doctolib? 

So from day one, we've had two missions that haven't changed in the last 13 years, which is the first one to improve the daily lives of healthcare staff. And this is also what personally inspired me so much because I still work in healthcare, which is, of course, where I come But then I can make the lives better of my former colleagues and myself having been in these situations where you are faced with software that is really outdated. And you're so used to having great tools in your private life, but then you go to work and that's not the case anymore. So this is really what inspired me to join Doctolib. And this is what we also continue or have been continuing to work on for the last years. And the second mission is what you were referring to, that we improve access to care for patients. And that's, yeah, of course, the second one. This is why I became a doctor in the first place is to impact people's health in a positive way. So, yeah, both things have been personally to me very inspiring and have also was one of the big reasons why I joined Doctolib, because the vision is so strong and it's been the same. And this is what we're continuously striving towards. 

So we can say that you can scale the care and scale your engagement in healthcare better now, Doctolib. 

Sometimes I'm a bit sad that I don't have this instant impact anymore, the direct work with patients. But, yeah, as you said, the amount of patients I can reach is far bigger now. 

Yeah, that's good that you have found your role. Today we are at DiMIA in Berlin and we are talking about the future of healthcare. We are talking about all these emerging trends in healthcare. My first question would be how does Doctolib envision the future of appointment management in healthcare facilities and what innovations are you currently developing to enhance this process? 

Yeah, lots of innovations. I think this is also one of our core DNA that we innovate and we go further and further. And one thing that we are building upon, because we do come from appointment management and we do, of course, want to improve that even more for you. So what we're planning there is that we have even a better matching between the healthcare practitioner and the patient to even bring them better together, to understand the need of the patient, maybe even before he or she understands it themselves. Because as it is today, you really need to know what am I looking for. So we're going to move a little bit more into the direction of helping the patient understand the and then matching them with the right care for them. May that be an appointment or a video consultation or a communication with the practitioner. So we will have even more appointments available, even better filters to find the right doctor, even more or a smoother user experience for you as a patient. And then we will, or we have been building on that appointment system. So we're moving from the wait room also into the consultation room. We're becoming a way more medical company with the launch of our clinical and financial system. So that would be called Praxis Management System, Verwaltungssystem in German, where we are going to revolutionize how healthcare practitioners actually document and bill and manage their patients in the healthcare facility. And on top of that, because it's close to my heart, we also want to be even better exchanging data with other software providers that exist in the healthcare space. And that's especially important for hospitals, so interoperability is also a big focus of ours. 

It's been such a big shift in the last 10 years because maybe some of our listeners don't remember, but I do, when still for 10 years or 15 years, when I wanted to make an appointment, the only way was to call a healthcare facility. And of course, it was always hard. So the line was busy. So I was waiting on the line. I was frustrated. It wasn't, it was, it was simply impossible. So I had to go to my doctor to make an appointment. Now it's much more easy. And I sit down by my computer. I just look for the doctor that I want to see. And I choose by myself when I would like to see a doctor. I can also manage the appointment. And of course, it's not only the change on the technical side, but also the change of how the patients are now engaged with the increasing importance of patient engagement. What strategies does Dr. Lip employ to encourage patients to take this responsibility in managing their healthcare appointments? Because, you know, it's not like the doctor will call you and tell you you need an appointment. So please call, come to us and make an appointment. But you have to be an active user of the platform just to manage your appointments. 

Yeah, for sure. To be honest, it's not rocket science. It's basically can be boiled down to we just put the user And this has really been also ingrained in our DNA and what we've been doing from day one. We consider ourselves as a modern software company. So we really start with the user. And we develop our products also with the user. So that means with the patients, but also with the healthcare practitioners that use our services. And that looks like in practice that actually we go to the practices. We look at their workflows. We have interviews with them. We make them test our solutions. And that makes us every day understand the needs and then really be sure that we develop solutions that are easy to use, that are very intuitive, that have zero barriers to entry. And this is where I think we're also very, this is really our strong USP also in terms of the competition. We're massively obsessed with our users. And it sounds so simple, but in reality, you know, then the policymakers come and everybody has their own requests. And, you know, also from big organizations like hospitals, then they want this little detail and that little detail. So it can be very easy to, you know, when you scale a software to make it super complex. And this is really where we always try to go back to the user, think with their way of actually then interacting with our software and try to build the best solutions for them so that there's really no barriers to entry. And I think this is a number. And I think this is a number I'm super proud of. And like you said, I think especially for the introverts amongst us, the non-German speakers, maybe especially from these people, I get super good feedback that this just has been very positive, made a very positive impact on navigating the healthcare system. And this is what we will continue to do and why I think our solutions are successful. 

I think it's also practical for all these people who don't want to lose their time on, you know, hanging on the line and trying to reach the doctor or the help desk to make an appointment. Because I have to say in my case, I use very often this option that even if there are no free slots in the next weeks, then I can check a little box and I will be informed if there is a free slot. And sometimes even if the first free slot was in two months or three months, suddenly I could see the doctor within one week because there was a free slot. So it's very, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. 

It's really a life hack, I would say. It's our waitlist function. So for other people who are listening who are already using Dr. Lib and don't know about this and see maybe a dermatologist in Berlin, it's really hard to get an appointment and I get the first one in six months. Book the appointment, join the waitlist and then you might end up with a consultation sooner rather than later. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, so, you know, I'm a patient, so I'm very satisfied with how Dr. Lib is organizing for me appointments and how Dr. Lib is also helping me to make the appointments. But how is it on the side of the doctors? How do they react when they start to use Dr. Lib? What are the benefits for the doctors and for the healthcare 

Yeah, I mean, we try to create as much win-win situations as possible. So as you described earlier, I as a patient want to, first of all, manage my health, have it more in my terms, be more autonomous. And this is actually also a win for the healthcare practitioners because we try to as much as possible, and sometimes it's not possible, but we try to put the administrative work that nobody wants to do. Or nobody joined the healthcare system for, and we try to put that on the patient. So, and that's really a win-win situation because on the one hand, the patient can manage their appointments autonomously. They can say, oh, actually, this doesn't work. I want to, I want another appointment. I want to cancel. And all this, what usually would have been a phone call, or sometimes even fax or email, is now just a few clicks. So very easy. And the healthcare staff doesn't even need to do anything. So that we, I think, is one of the biggest reasons why healthcare practitioners love us so much, is that we take administrative burden from them, automize a lot of things, and put it on the patient. And the patient is happy about that as well because they can manage their health more autonomously. So I think this has really been, yeah, the key. And the second big thing that we do is we try to harmonize communication channels as much as possible on Dr. Lib. So we try to, and this is not always possible, but as much as possible, harmonize everything on Dr. which means no more emails, no more fax, on the website it says book an appointment here. We have a Google My Business direction. We put it on the voice messages as well. So if you call a practice out of the opening hours, it will also say, hey, you can go online to book a Dr. Lib appointment. So as much as possible for the practice or hospital or institution, we try to streamline communication in one spot. And also as much as possible, make it asynchronously so that it's not necessarily anymore that a healthcare worker picks up the phone, responds directly, but they can have dedicated time where they treat all the requests, messages from patients. And that streamlines their day as well and makes it much more efficient. 

Yeah, I remember I even read a study showing that, for example, when I'm making an appointment by myself, then I'm more engaged and I feel more engaged. And I try to keep this appointment rather than people who are, for example, given an appointment by a registration desk. So it means that my engagement, internal engagement is rising. So I feel more responsible for my appointment. So, but another problem, let's talk about so-called no-shows, because, of course, we have a long waiting times. But sometimes these waiting times are a little bit illusionary. I mean that there are free slots, but the patients just, because the patients just don't come to the appointment. So these no-shows remain a big challenge in healthcare. Can you share some insights into how Dr. Lib's platform addresses this issue and measurable outcomes you have observed already? 

Yeah, very happy too. So, as you said, we have a few measures to decrease the no-show. You mentioned the waitlist. This is one of them. So basically, when a patient cancels, usually the spot doesn't fill up so But we can now also asynchronously send a message to, I don't know, 20 patients that are on the waitlist. So it's booked up very quickly again. So that's one. And then the second very obvious one is, of course, that we send reminders to patients via the Dr. Lib app or via email or SMS, actually. So they really get informed about and reminded that they have this appointment and that also then, of course, we make it very easy for them to say, hey, I cannot make it. I have to cancel or I actually want to reschedule. And this has been a big driver for reducing the no-shows. So what we see across the board is that no-shows really go down a lot. Sometimes under our average no-show rate with Dr. Lib is 2%. We've seen healthcare institutions, also hospitals, that even go below 1%. And this is, I think, sometimes really surprising to the healthcare facilities because they think online booking means less commitment from patients. But it's actually the other way around because we really make sure that they get reminded and they're incentivized to also And then it's one or two clicks and they can do this and they don't have to pick up the phone. They don't have to send an email. So, again, this notion of we make it really simple for the user. And at the end, this is a win-win. 

Yeah, this is something that I also admire, that sometimes, you know, I get an email or a message that my appointment is within the next two days. Or maybe I should upload some documents that the healthcare facility wants to see. So this is also a great feature. And for the patients, Dr. Lib is free of charge, so I can use it as much as I want to. Yes. But for the doctors, probably not. So could you elaborate on Dr. Lib's current business model and how you plan to adapt it to meet the evolving needs of both healthcare providers and patients? 

Yes. And thank you for asking this question because a lot of people get it wrong. A lot of people think we sell data. Did I? No, no, you didn't at all. But a lot of people actually think we sell patient data, which is not the case. It's not our business model. It will never be our business model and has not been our business model. But I think some people forget that or do not know that on the practitioner side, we're actually an even more sophisticated management system for patient communication and then soon also clinical management that really has a lot or basically does the whole resource and appointment management, even for the patients who do not book online. So of course, we as Dr. Lib uses with the online patients, but then there's also a lot of patients that maybe get the appointment when they're there for follow up or they still call, things like that. So those patients are also managed with Dr. Lib. So basically it's a whole sophisticated resource, communication and calendar management system on the healthcare practitioner side. So they are the ones who pay a monthly subscription fee and for the patient it's for free. 

Okay. It's for free and it will be for free 

Yeah, I mean, I cannot say forever, but that is the plan. 

Okay. You know, visiting a doctor, it's not only an appointment, it's also an electronic health record. And this is something I wanted to ask you about. The interrogation of electronic patient records is very crucial for efficient healthcare delivery. So how is Dr. Lib contributing to the advancement and adoption of electronic patient records within its platform? 

Yeah, very good question as well. So what we want to do is we want to bring the right patients at the right time to the right healthcare practitioner, ideally fully prepared. This is also something that we do, especially for hospital visits that are more complex, where the patients really need to be qualified, that they are eligible for a hospital visit. Because of course, it's a more complex and more expensive type of care. So what we do is, again, trying to put the admin workload as much on the patient. So we have basically per reason of visit. So you, for example, say I have a knee surgery at a hospital. The healthcare staff can automatically request certain types of documents. So they have in one setting, one said, okay, if a patient comes for a knee surgery, I want a referral slip, I want the medical reports and I want, I don't know, the health insurance card sent to me. So this automatically, every patient then gets this request to upload those documents and be able to either qualify or prep the healthcare staff for this patient. And this, I think, is super important. I remember as a doctor myself, there was nothing more frustrating if a patient came to you. You had no idea about the history. You had no idea who was sitting there. The patient doesn't know which medication they take. And then you had to start calling the GP and really do a detective work, which is a bit of a waste of time as a doctor. Of course, you want to go right into treating them. So that has a huge benefit for the healthcare facilities and the staff, of course. So we also offer features that improve that. Of course, you can also always send a message and ask for another document. And then you have that asynchronous but streamlined communication again. And then we would also really like to be connected to national electronic health records like the EPA in Germany. In France, for example, we are connected to the French EPA. So this has already become a reality and we are talking to Gematik and see what we can do. But of course, that would be the end goal that we also support that because we really do believe in this use case. 

So maybe you can explain what is Gematik. 

Gematik is the national agency. Yeah, it's private, but it's fully state-owned that releases specifications and also sometimes products for the healthcare system in Germany. 

When I'm thinking about, Dr. Lieb, I'm thinking about time management and these very complicated terms like operational efficiency. Obviously, so you mentioned already no shows, but of course, for a healthcare facility, if the patients doesn't show up, it means a loss. Yeah, operational efficiency is a tragedy there. What other specific tools or features does Dr. Lieb offer to assist healthcare professionals in optimizing their schedules and reducing these administrative burdens that you already mentioned when talking about electronic healthcare record? 

Yeah, so the most known for, of course, for appointment solutions. And that especially works so well because the healthcare practitioner can once put in all the settings they want. They can say, we want to offer these kinds of services for this type of patient. And we do not want certain patients. We want to block them, for example, if it's a pediatric department or a practice. Of course, they don't want patients that are over 18, for example. So, you can do a lot of settings that then automating. Yeah, automating. Yeah, autonomously. Yeah, autonomously. Yeah, exactly. Without any doing of the healthcare staff, can book the patients in, exactly the ones that you need, without you doing anything. So, that's a big part of it. The second part is the so-called check-in that we offer. So, we really not only make the patients help book the right appointments at the right time, but we also prepare them. And that goes both ways. So, of course, the patient can share important documents, like we talked about earlier, to the healthcare facility in order for them to just be ready and understand, okay, who's this patient? What medical history do they have? But also, the healthcare facility can send documents, also without them doing anything. They can put this in the settings earlier. Can prepare the patient and tell them, hey, don't forget. XYZ, if you come to the hospital, please fill in an anamnesis form already, your medical history. So, when the patient is at home, they can have a bit of, of course, like they're in a calm environment. They can read everything. They can read contracts. So, that then, once they arrive at the hospital, they're prepped. They know what's going on, and they don't have to wait for hours in line to sign certain documents or look at certain documents in a more stressful situation, of course. So, that really helps as well. And then, the third one that I would like to point out is our messenger. So, super easily, you can think about it a little bit like WhatsApp. The doctor can send messages to the patient and vice versa. But, the healthcare practitioner can always choose if he or she wants to have patients be able to answer. So, it's also a nice function. And then, they can also send messages to each other via an app called Dr. Lebsilo. So, that really supports the intersectoral collaboration. That also, I think we're at the beginning of digitalizing in Germany. 

Okay. So, from my perspective as a patient, the part that I see as a patient when I'm using Dr. Leib, it's only a very small part of Dr. Leib. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, healthcare system, also in Germany, and I think in every country in Europe, is very siloed. It means that doctors that I'm visiting in one clinic, they're not really communicated with doctors that are working in another clinic. So, how does Dr. Leib facilitate the seamless communication between different parts of the healthcare system? And collaboration between hospitals, private practices, and other healthcare entities? 

Yeah. Our biggest advantage is, of course, that we're present in all of these sectors, which most software companies are not, because they focus on, which is also, of course, a lot of advantages. They focus on one specific area of healthcare, like dentists. But we're present not only at GPs, but also at specialists, at radiologists, midwives use our services, hospitals. So, we really can map the full patient journey, and we can also support the collaboration of all of these areas. Because, of course, maybe you went to your GP first, then when your knee started hurting, and then he or she sent you to an orthopedist. And they said, well, your knee is so bad now that you have to get a new one, so you need to go to a hospital. So, basically, in all of those steps, the patient can be referred, talked about with our tools, with, again, very low barriers of entry. So, as I mentioned, we have this messaging app called Silo. It's basically a WhatsApp that is super safe and made for medical professionals. They also are verified medical professionals. And very easily, they can discuss patient cases, they can report patient cases. And it's, I think, the best way to describe it is really, it has super low barriers. It's very easy to use. I have it myself. My friends use it also that have remained in the hospital. And at night, if you want to send, I don't know, a radiology image to an x-ray or something to your attending physician who is at home, and you just want to quickly check. Unfortunately, WhatsApp is still used a But with Dr. lib SILO, we can offer a messenger that's really made for healthcare, that is safe and yet has the same easiness of use. And that's one way we foster intersectoral collaboration at Dr. lib. 

And would you say that Dr. lib is something for individual practitioners or is it something for bigger healthcare entities or bigger clinics? What is the end user, the typical end user of Dr. lib solution? 

Actually, both. So we have solutions that are tailored for even single practitioners. But we also have gradually evolved into large organizations. So now, and especially there was a big push with KZG, we serve big clinics like Charité, like the Zana Cliniken. So really organizations that have bigger needs, let's put it like that. And we can serve those. Of course, we're continuing to evolve as a product and to understanding their needs. But we can serve those as well as we serve single practitioners. 

And we see already a shift in healthcare system also around Europe that ambulatory care is gaining more importance. Because, well, nobody wants to go to the hospital. And with the communication tools that we have and technology that we already have, basically we can treat patients, not always at homes, but at ambulatory care. So what role does Dr. lib play in supporting this shift toward ambulatory services? And what digital solutions have you implemented to aid this transition? 

Yeah. Yeah, I think this is really a good summary of all of our solutions that we currently have. Because one, as I said, we are present and we can serve all sorts of May that be in the outpatient, ambulatory, or inpatient hospital sector. So we already have all of those on our platform. So it's very easy, especially if everybody uses Dr. lib, of course, to refer patients from one place to the other. So if a hospital, for example, they have an inpatient part and they also have five medical care centers, it's very easy to shift the patient from one to the other. And of course, there are very sophisticated tools to manage appointments really come in favor of this. And then the second one, as we talked about, is this collaboration tool that we offer with Silo, but also with other features like referral bookings that we also do. So not only the patient can book an appointment, but also their referring doctor can book an appointment for the patient. Those things all help really support this transition and this trend, which we also desperately need in the German healthcare system to reduce costs, to make it easier also for the patient. I mean, I would also much rather sleep in my own bed if I could than at a hospital. So again, win-win, great. We love win-wins at Dr. lib. So we're really happy that we can support this quite a bit. 

Yeah, a lot of things happening right now when it comes to AI in healthcare. And when I'm thinking about Dr. lib, already I have a few ideas like a, you know, board that is calling patients and reminding them about the appointments. And maybe I won't have to type in what kind of services I'm looking for, but maybe some kind of board in the future will ask me what's wrong with you or what kind of doctor are you looking for? Or when do you want to have a visit? And so with this all investments in artificial intelligence, how is Dr. lib integrated AI into its services to improve while patients outcomes, but also streamline healthcare processes? 

Yeah, very relevant question. We see ourselves as an AI company and we want to put AI into all of our products. And like you said, everything is moving towards generative AI, guiding the patient. So I think our, there's no concrete plan of that yet, but our interfaces, of course, that you also see as a patient will evolve and will change. Because if we don't do it ourselves, we will be disrupted by somebody else. So we prefer to do it ourselves. We've started though on the practitioner side, which has certain implications. Of course, you can also tell as a patient. One example is our virtual phone assistant. I think this is the easiest for, for the patient side to, to, to, to work with or use. So basically what we also talked about earlier, it's not just as we would like people booking appointments online. There's of course still a lot of people who call. And those will be, or can be addressed, all these calls also by a product that's called phone assistant. That basically answers the phone for the practice. And so again, 24 hour reachability, you always get somebody on the other This whole frustration of not reaching anybody at the practice will come to an end. And what is super great for the practitioner side is that they filter the call for you. So then you can see why did the patient call? How important is this? Do I need to treat this? And can I maybe already, I don't even have to call back, but I can already prepare what the patient wanted. For example, if it's just a recipe, sorry, a prescription that the patient needs, I don't even need to call him back. I can send it to a doctor lab or I can send it via post. I don't even need another interaction with the patient. And the patient gets what they want and the practitioner spends way less time on the phone. So we actually calculated that you can save a full FTE with the inclusion, so 45 hours per week on average, by incorporating the phone assistant, which of course is great because we all know we don't have enough staff and we will have even less in the future. So, yeah, supporting this by artificial intelligence and general digitalization, again, a win-win. And we can see also maybe fun fact that the older generation actually has an easier time interacting with a phone assistant than the younger. Because I think the younger, they still think, oh, do I need to say certain words so that they pick it The older ones, they don't care, they just talk and it works super well. So that's one product. We're also going to launch our consultation assistant, which is actually also quite an improvement for the patient side. And this is a product that is a classic speech-to-text product. So you, as a doctor, you will not need to type everything the patient says, be on your laptop, look at a screen. You can look directly in their eyes. You can have a full conversation. And in the background, the AI transcribes and summarizes everything for you. So they can really automatically put in why the patient came, what are the symptoms, what is the treatment, what's the recommendation. So this, it's already live in France, we're launching it soon in Germany. And this will be a massive factor for satisfaction, we believe, in both the patient and the practitioner Because, of course, it saves a lot of time, but it also improves the interaction that the patient has with their healthcare staff. So these are just two examples. I could give you a lot more, but we are more and more, of course, like a lot of other companies, moving into that Because we do believe there's so much potential there to improve health for us all. 

I think that I would have a tip for you when it comes to this digital assistant. Because many patients are calling help desk or calling the doctor just to have a conversation, not only to make an appointment. So maybe there should be features like the digital assistant can answer questions about the weather or maybe some politics or something like this. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm not sure it's a good idea, but why not? 

Yeah, or to even go a step further and to call the patients and check on their symptoms. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Say, hey, how are you today? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is already, of course, existing and this is also where we're going to go. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. So let's sum up when we ask a patient in Germany and also in France probably what is Dr. Lieb? The answer would be a system for making appointment. So what will be next? What is Dr. Lieb planning for the next five years? What is the journey of Dr. Lieb within the next, let's say, by 2030? 

Yeah. So we definitely want to move from appointments to managing the whole of the patient as a whole for the practitioner. So moving from the wait room to the consultation room with the products I just talked about, like our clinical and financial system, our consultation assistant. And we will have lots of new innovations there and we will expand our product portfolio a lot in the practice. And that's for the healthcare practitioners for the patient. We will work on our interfaces. We will work on how patients communicate with practitioners and really match the need and the and the demand side much better. And we are also expanding internationally where French company we've gained a lot of traction and France, huge market share. And Germany is our biggest market so far. But we're also looking at other European markets where we see a lot of potential and we're evaluating this. So, yeah, we'll probably launch in the coming years some more European countries. So, yeah, lots of new innovation coming. We're super excited to not only grow basically in the product line, but also gain a bit more traction internationally, which we can also see today That's internationally people are also collaborating on silo. One use case from a friend of mine, she works in tropical medicine and she talks to her colleagues in London, for example, about very specific cases from very specific countries and how what is the best treatment. So, lots of interesting use cases for us to cover. 

And the last question, are you using personally, Dr. Lieb? Me? Yeah. Of course. As a patient or as a doctor, I don't know. As a patient, mostly, yes. As a patient, yeah. But you are not making an appointment with yourself. 

Sometimes, just for demonstration purposes, if I demonstrate. But usually, I also use it privately quite a lot for both hospitals and practices. 

Okay. Okay, Katharina, it was great to have you on our podcast. Thank you very much for joining me today at Dimea, live from Berlin. So, where our listeners can find you? On LinkedIn, probably? 

Yeah, on LinkedIn. So, just reach out if you have any questions, remarks, want to connect. Always happy to do that. 

Okay. Thank you very much and have a good day. 

Thank you for the invitation. 

Thanks