Interview: Bloom Diagnostics’ Dr Angelica Kohlmann

As a new home fertility test is approved, Femtech World finds out how digital technology could transform healthcare around the world.

Dr Angelica Kohlmann joins our call from Austria. As the executive chairman of the Swiss company Bloom Diagnostics, she is happy to announce its new at-home Ovarian Reserve test that measures the AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone) level and gives patients encrypted results on an app.

Her aim is to make fertility tests accessible to everyone using a cheaper and less invasive procedure and the AMH test marks a major step towards a digitalisation of the medical world.

“This is the future,” Angelica says. “We will have a healthcare system where if you don’t feel well in the morning, you open an app that will register your symptoms and guide you from there,” she says.

“You will receive an e-prescription and have your medication delivered to your door. This way you will be fully taken care of from home without the risk of being infected in a hospital.”

The pandemic has accelerated the transition towards digital technology within the NHS in order to free up space, enable remote working and reduce the risk of infection transmission. According to a recent report, there has also been a surge in patients’ uptake of remote health services, including registrations for the NHS app and e-prescription services.

Angelica describes Bloom’s test as a huge development. “We decided to develop a home test because until today, the only way to have it done was by going to a gynaecologist and we thought that was obsolete,” she explains.

“So, we digitised, so to say, the drop of blood. We allow women to take the test multiple times a year and we created the first global AMH test that gives feedback in real time. It was a challenge in the beginning, because AMH has very low concentrations in your blood, meaning that detection is not that easy with rapid tests. But we solved the problem successfully and we’re now registered in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy and very soon in the UK.”

Delays in fertility tests, treatment and counselling during the pandemic meant that medical firms had to rethink their approach and adapt to the current challenges. Therefore, developing an app that could deliver immediate results was a key step, says Angelica.

“We knew that only a super easy to use product would work. Today, people want things right here, right now so why have a screen reader in a lab,” she continues. “An app can tell you much more and if something is wrong, we send people to the doctor.”

Indeed, research shows that in the past two years more and more people have become familiar with the idea of tracking their health by using an app. Downloads increased by nearly 200 per cent from summer 2019 to summer 2020 and continue to grow.

However, there are still people who are sceptical about these developments and health tech companies are very aware of that.

Angelica believes “there is still a lot of scepticism in society, so building trust is definitely something that we really need to work on”.

She adds: “We’re also trying to increase the reach ability via partnerships with clinics and insurance companies who want to really go into prevention regarding any disease.”

As our society evolves, our healthcare requirements naturally evolve. We will have a completely different level of healthcare, Angelica agrees. However, ensuring that everyone has access to a state-of-the-art medical system will be crucial.

“We need to make sure that we reach those in unaccessible regions, living in remote places in Africa and in other developing countries. Only this way our developments will come to the benefit of thousands of women in need.”