Symptoma wins the renowned Houska Prize 2021

Every year, the B&C Private Foundation awards the most innovative research projects with the Houska Prize. Worth 500,000 Euros in total, it is the biggest private prize for applied research in Austria. This year, Symptoma is among the winners: the symptom checker convinced the jury and the advisory board and won the first prize endowed with 150,000 Euros.

The B&C Private Foundation wants to honor outstanding research achievements in Austria. Erich Hampel, the foundation’s chairman, emphasizes the importance of those projects: “In times of economic and social upheavals, innovative power and lighthouse projects are more important than ever for small economies such as Austria. This year’s winners are such projects – my warmest congratulations.”

Granting the prize worth 500,000 Euros in total, the foundation wants to further foster innovative projects like Symptoma. “Austria is a nation of research; however, it is the innovation output that is decisive. Therefore, we want to explicitly support and facilitate applied research at the meeting point of business and innovation”, adds secretary-general Mariella Schurz.

Among 61 submissions from various federal states, Symptoma’s Digital Health Assistant stood out and received the first-place prize money of 150,000 Euros to further advance their research. “It is our vision that every patient receives the right diagnosis and treatment. Symptoma helps find possible causes for symptoms. The accuracy thereby is outstandingly high, which is why we are very proud of our work”, says founder Jama Nateqi. The medical doctor has been awarded repeatedly.

The tool’s high accuracy is rooted in an enormous disease database. It is based on 15 years of research and development by medical doctors and data scientists and continually grows. By now, Symptoma’s disease database is the biggest of its kind. This contribution is invaluable for medicine, which has now been awarded accordingly. Here you can read the full press release about all projects nominated for the Houska Prize.

Misdiagnoses still pose a problem in medicine: according to the German Medical Service Unit, 25 percent of all medical treatments are faulty. Symptoma tackles this problem with its artificial intelligence. However, the symptom checker can do more than identify “typical” diseases: it especially focuses on the detection of rare diseases. During the pandemic, it became evident how digital solutions like Symptoma could sustainably revolutionize the healthcare system.

Symptoma’s symptom checker is available in 36 languages. Patients and medical staff enter symptoms and receive a list of possible causes, sorted by probability.

Image: Alexander Müller