- solike facilitates mutual support and exchange between patients and caregivers
- New platform fuels Bayer and Observia's commitment to provide holistic healthcare solutions for patients
- Germany is first country to host solike Platform

Read the Success Story

Paris, France, and Leverkusen, Germany, September 7th, 2023. Observia and Bayer today announced the launch of solike - a matchmaking platform for patients and caregivers experiencing similar situations. The digital platform is dedicated to the support of patients and caregivers through the creation of meaningful relationships between people with similar interests. The new system underscores the commitments of healthtech and behavioral diagnostics company Observia and Bayer to harness digital technologies to create innovative solutions for patients. 

Living with a chronic illness or taking care of an affected family member can lead to feelings of isolation, leaving individuals longing for connections with others who comprehend their struggles.

To meet this need, Observia and Bayer - with the help of patient and caregivers in a pilot test phase - have collaborated to create the user-friendly and secure platform solike. This pioneering solution allows patients and caregivers to seek and connect with people experiencing similar journeys and who would benefit from an exchange and mutual understanding.

“As a life science company, we recognize the importance of holistic solutions to meet patient needs. We are therefore delighted to collaborate with Observia to help reduce the burden of isolation that patients and caregivers may experience through the provision of the unique match-making platform solike,” said Dr. Daniel Steiners, General Director of Bayer Vital GmbH.

solike is now available in Germany through the SPACE by Bayer website (Bayer Vital's online medical portal), to German-speaking patients and caregivers. The medical conditions currently in focus on this platform are atrial fibrillation, cancer associated with deep vein thrombosis, chronic kidney disease, deep vein thrombosis, heart failure, metastatic prostate cancer, and non-metastatic prostate cancer.

A tool based on patients’ and caregivers’ needs

Almost 5 million caregivers are based in Germany. Caregivers are not only critical to support family members; they also make a significant contribution in supporting national healthcare systems. Yet, they can struggle to find help and support in what can be a difficult journey. It was highly important for Bayer to help them find support in people sharing their experience.

To provide a best-in-class, most relevant and useful tool, Observia and Bayer convened two focus-groups, one with patients and the other with caregivers, who played an important role in the platform’s design and development.

“The voice of patients and caregivers was indispensable from the start of conception to ensure that we were going in the right direction.” said Jean Lainé, project director at Observia. “This was a highly-valuable process as their thoughts and comments prevented us from creating features that would not match their true needs.” added Dr. Markus Heidebrecht, IT Senior Product Manager at Bayer.

As a result of this co-creation, the solike platform focuses on its core feature: matching and connecting people, sharing experiences and interests to create support connections and help patients and caregivers in their daily lives.

“Delivering added value to patients with new digital solutions like solike is a matter close to our hearts.” explains Dr. Barbara Stollfuß, Head Digital Customer Strategy and Innovation at Bayer Vital GmbH.

Patient and caregivers can access the matchmaking platform via the online medical portal SPACE by Bayer. Users are connected to other users if the interests of the users are mutual and both parties want to connect. In the interests of user-privacy, the platform only provides the connection, whilst the exchange takes place through other channels. In addition, further refine the matches, users may opt to complete Observia's SPUR questionnaire for behavioral diagnostics.

The platform is highly secured by this approval process a feature which ensures that both individuals want to chat before they have access to one another’s contacts. They can then start talking – outside of the platform to provide full confidentiality for patients.

The possibility to go through the SPUR questionnaire adds another layer of personalization and refines the matching through the understanding of behavioral traits, in addition to the declarations of the user.

In a near future, both companies look forward to expanding this platform to feature additional medical conditions – and to making this platform available in additional countries.

Download the press release