Mia-Care: Driving digitization faster

Digitalization is not stopping at the healthcare sector. But service providers in this field in particular have not yet always arrived in the digital age. For patients to be able to use applications tailored to them, however, fast yet innovative solutions are needed.

Mia-Care offers just that. The platform provides an initial foundation so that healthcare providers can more easily implement the development and delivery of digital solutions. But before CEO Marzio Ghezzi returned to his home country to get started with Mia-Care, he first had to familiarize himself with the legal practices of healthcare in Italy and Europe. In this interview, he explains why a successful feedback system is indispensable for him and why safety is a top priority.

Where does the idee for your product come from?

Marzio Ghezzi:Mia-Care is born from the excellence of Mia-Platform, an independent software vendor that brought to market the world's first solution for the end-to-end realization of digital cloud-native platforms, to support healthcare providers in building and scaling new digital products.

What problem do you want to address with it?

Ghezzi: Traditional healthcare providers often lack a culture of innovation and the advent of digital technologies is pushing them to transform their processes to deliver patient-centric services tailored to patients’ needs.

Mia-Care provides a cloud-native modular platform enriched by ready-to-use applications to efficiently project, build, scale and govern the development of new digital products and services. Instead of choosing between the "make or buy", healthcare companies can leverage the Mia-Care platform to compose their services without starting from scratch by maintaining the highest level of personalization and control

At which stage in your development are you now?

Ghezzi: Right now, we are in the commercial phase, already delivering digital projects in the Italian landscape related to patient journey digitalization. medical device management and creation of healthcare middleware. We are also present in the UK with an office in London and we have a current conversation with some of the most important consulting firms in the German market to find a common ground to build a commercial proposition together for that country.

What were you worried about most before founding the company?

Ghezzi: During the discussions with the Mia-Platform's founders about the foundation of Mia-Care, I knew that to build a best-of-breed solution, we needed to find the right competencies in the market, looking for the right balance between technical skills, UX/UI excellence, and medical knowledge. Moreover, my focus was on creating the right conditions for strong market traction to give momentum to the growth of Mia-Care. We decided to rely not only on technical excellence but also on feeding the market with fresh insights and knowledge on how cloud-native technologies can support the digital transformation in hospitals, pharma, and MedTech companies, as well as, insurances.

What was your best decision until now?

Ghezzi: I believe in a virtuous feedback system and the power of experience. One of the first decisions, once Mia-Care landed on the market, was to create an Advisory Board to gather recommendations from experienced professionals that provide insights useful to improve the company's product and address market strategies efficiently for different targets. Another great initiative was to rely on the power of a composable business paradigm since we started to partner with best-in-class technology providers to create an ecosystem of tech vendors offering in-scope applications that enhance the value of the marketplace.

How do you assess the opportunities for start-ups in the medical market in your country?

Ghezzi: The Italian market is still far from the excellence shown within Germany and France markets, as a high volume of funding in the healthcare sector is missing. Luckily, in terms of commercial opportunities, there is potential. The private sector is ready to undertake the digitalization path by creating health ecosystems interoperable and efficient. The public healthcare system is not yet prepared to adopt cloud-native technology, even though I'm sure the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will flip this tendency.

What advice would you give future start-ups in the medical market?

Ghezzi: To carefully assess the regulatory requirements of the target markets and onboard experts on data privacy and security. These are the hottest topic in the market right now, and healthcare providers need to rely on digital services that are as secure as traditional ones but way more efficient.

Please describe the medical technology industry in three words.

Ghezzi:

• regulated
• open for innovation
• patient-driven

What are your plans for the next two years?

Ghezzi: We aim to scale up the market and bring Mia-Care to new markets by opening our first US office.