Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves!
StellDirVor: An extremely interdisciplinary team is behind StellDirVor – which is great, because everyone has high level expertise to offer in various fields. With support from our Advisory Board, we’re able to optimally work on our shared objective to utilize technology meaningfully and for the benefit of people. We found each other through our network, which fortunately intersected at all the right places.
Our female founder core team:
- Theda Ockenga, 34: as an experienced consultant in organizational development & process optimization, she is in charge as CEO and of sales.
- Petra Dahm, 51: is an experienced strategy and communications expert and always an early adopter of new, exciting technologies – which is why she takes care of technology and product development for us as well as new innovations.
- Sonja Bunzeit, 27: as a consultant in digitization and marketing, she helps our customers make use of new technologies and is responsible for marketing & communications.
Our co-founders:
- Dr. Mark Weinert, 49: as an active senior physician and communication and de-escalation coach, he contributes his expertise in the fields of (virtual) simulations and everyday medical care.
- Bramwel Omondi, 33: is conducting research on digital transformation and is an international project manager; he contributes this expertise to StellDirVor in the scientific validation of our ideas.
- Christian Stähler, 53: as an expert in education, he supports us in the development of immersive study and training modules.
“We use immersive technologies to motivate new professionals to take on a career in healthcare”
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
StellDirVor: As we now all know, there is a major shortage of professionals in the healthcare industry. What’s more, the German healthcare industry comes in second to last in terms of digitization in a global comparison. That makes it high time to take action!
We tackle the fundamental problem: We make it possible to easily access information from anywhere, and turn knowledge into an experience. We use immersive technologies (VR, AR, XR) to motivate new professionals to take on a career in healthcare, improve basic and advanced training (with XR), expand simulation training (with VR) and take the pressure off in daily clinical practice (with smart AR applications).
We explain how that can work for caregiving, for example, in this video:
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Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
StellDirVor: Of course, there are already individual digital and virtual solutions and concepts in the area. But what was really missing in our minds is that…
- the existing solutions aren’t geared toward the needs of people. Technology is often developed without the user in mind and is then implemented from “top to bottom,” which usually leads to rejection – which helps no one in the end.
- There are many isolated solutions, but no holistic approaches. We’re changing that by taking a systemic approach and relying on accompanying consultation services.
- What also needs to be kept in mind is that digital literacy in healthcare still needs to be actively promoted in order to increase the acceptance of digital technologies. That’s why we also offer elements such as workshops and training sessions (to simply become familiar with extended reality, give it a try and get an idea of what it really means).
StellDirVor and the digitization of the healthcare industry
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
StellDirVor: As already mentioned, the topic of “digitization” is unfortunately still in its infancy. That means we’ve had to do a great deal of educational and information work, which wasn’t always easy. At the same, that gives us the opportunity to actively take part in the shaping of healthy digitization and of a healthy future.
It’s something we’ve all heard often enough, but corona has obviously also had a major impact on us. On the one hand, the opportunities for trying and testing virtual reality applications were extremely limited, especially for our target customers in healthcare. On the other hand, many organizations have recognized the need (and also the acute lack of) digital and virtual applications. Fast solutions were needed above all else: for example, the AR-based app GiriMed was used in vaccination centers to train (temporary) staff.
In terms of the financing and realization of digital solutions, organizations in healthcare often depend on funding and institutions, such as municipalities, and can’t make decisions on their own. For us, that means that even when a customer is excited and sees added value for their company, we still have to meet other decision-makers at their level and get them on board with us.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, and where in five years?
StellDirVor: Now that there is a growing demand for XR solutions in the DACH market, we would like to expand our team in the year ahead (feel free to contact us) to implement the increasing number of projects. Moreover, additional training content will be developed (such as for standard learning content and SOPs) that we want to make available to a broad audience so it’s easier to access immersive technologies.
In five years, virtual simulations, immersive learning and AR-support will be part of everyday life in the healthcare industry and will be an integral component of blended learning concepts. We want to actively drive this forward with the development of our own immersive learning platform for the healthcare industry.
Office in the Munich Urban Colab
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
StellDirVor: As Munich natives, we might be a bit biased – but particularly in the field of healthcare, Munich has been the right choice for us so far. In addition to universities, hospitals and many organizations and cooperation partners, a truly brilliant startup ecosystem has emerged in recent years. Through our collaboration with the Department of Labor and Economic Development of the City of Munich, for example, we’re located in the Munich Urban Colab and value the exchange of ideas and opportunities that are provided by these kinds of innovative locations.
Munich Startup: Isar River or English Garden?
StellDirVor: The majority of the StellDirVor team likes to bring the evening to an end (in summer) with a beer and a cool dip in the Isar.