Frequently Asked Questions
Can’t find what you’re looking for or have a question? Perhaps our FAQs will help you.
If your question is not answered here, you are welcome to send us a message.
General
Theodor Health is a start-up that aims to digitize medical diagnostics and make them easily accessible. We collect audio recordings with the help of your smartphone and use them to further research relevant information about diseases. The goal is to build a product that gives you an insight into the health of your heart, lungs and gastrointestinal tract within minutes.
Become part of the journey and help us improve access to diagnostics and screening. Start now!
Theodor records short audio files of your body sounds via the microphone on your mobile device. On smartphones, the microphone is usually located on the bottom left-hand side. Remove the cover to improve the audio quality. Hold the microphone with light pressure on your chest (see illustration).
You will also be asked a few questions such as your age, gender and symptoms.
In future, Theodor will be able to show you important indications of the presence of serious cardiovascular diseases such as signs of heart valve disease and cardiac arrhythmia.
With Theodor, it is possible to detect signs of serious cardiovascular disease (the most common cause of death worldwide) at an early stage. Diagnosis and therapy are not possible with the help of Theodor. If any abnormalities are detected, we recommend consulting a doctor.
Theodor can be used by anyone who does not have a pacemaker and is over the age of 18. It can also be used more often, depending on the user’s wishes.
We are experts in health and medicine for humans, so we will limit ourselves to this. If you are worried about your pet, please consult a vet.
No, Theodor enables screening and monitoring for potential signs of cardiovascular disease.
Preventive examinations should be carried out regularly by the relevant (specialist) doctors.
In the event of emergencies with symptoms such as chest pain and acute shortness of breath, please consult a doctor immediately.
Theodor is currently in the certification process. We will communicate this as soon as it is available.
Technical requirements
No, you don’t need to install an app on your smartphone or tablet. Our service works via any web browser on your mobile device. We recommend using the Chrome browser.
The quality of the microphone and therefore the quality of the audio file varies depending on the age of your smartphone/tablet. We will show you if the quality of your recorded audio files is not sufficient. We then recommend re-recording with a newer device.
Theodor is developed by doctors in close cooperation with leading clinics in Germany. We are working hard to publish scientific evidence in the near future.
You can also use Theodor without a profile. In this case, however, you will not be able to access your own history of recordings and analyses. We therefore recommend that you create a profile so that you can access your analyses anytime and anywhere to track changes.
Process
A manual evaluation of your audio files will be possible shortly. You will receive an evaluation of your request within 24 hours.
An evaluation by our software is only possible after certification as a medical device.
In order to further improve our product, we ask you to share further relevant information regarding your health status such as age, gender, symptoms.
The recording of audio files from other people is possible and permitted, provided that the user has read and agreed to our privacy policy and declaration of consent. For example, it is also possible to use it with grandparents.
At any time, Theodor is there for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!
Yes, you can use our service worldwide.
If you book a manual analysis, you will receive an analysis within 24 hours. You can also show this to your doctor.
No, we do not currently issue certificates of incapacity for work; you can get these from your GP.
No, we do not currently issue referral or admission certificates. Please go to your doctor if you receive an abnormal analysis result from Theodor Health. This doctor can issue you with a referral or referral letter if necessary.
Costs & payment
Your donation or the use of Theodor is of course free of charge. We are very grateful that you are helping us to improve access to simple and fast diagnostics.
Data protection
Your medical data is processed and secured on servers in Germany in compliance with the law and GDPR. Our server provider Hetzner Online GmbH is a German company and stores the data with the highest level of technical, logical and physical security in Germany.
If you have consented to product development for artificial intelligence and research purposes, your data will be anonymized for the training of artificial intelligence or for scientific or statistical evaluation. This will only take place with your express consent.
No, this information is highly confidential and only accessible to our team. It will not be passed on for marketing or advertising purposes.
No, we do not pass on any data without your consent.
Data protection is our top priority at Theodor Health. Therefore, it is standard for us to encrypt every data transfer with SSL/TLS. You can recognize the secure SSL connection by the small lock at the beginning or end of the address line of the Internet browser.
Product development means the development and training of artificial intelligence to support doctors in making medical diagnoses and the continuous improvement of our services.
If you have consented to the processing of your data for product development, we will use your uploaded audio data and your completed medical history form to develop and train this artificial intelligence. This will make it possible to automatically recognize signs of illness in the future and help our users even faster.
Your data will be anonymized as far as possible for development and processed by our team on German servers. In some cases, third parties such as external developers, universities or external companies may also be involved in the development in compliance with data protection and security regulations.
Application
You can find our vacancies here. We look forward to receiving your application!
If you have consented to product development for artificial intelligence and research purposes, your data will be anonymized for the training of artificial intelligence or for scientific or statistical evaluation. This will only take place with your express consent.
We are also happy to receive unsolicited applications. Please send us an e-mail to [email protected].
You can see which documents we would like to receive in the vacancies. For all applications, it is great to have a short text about your motivation and your CV. You are also welcome to send us information about your favorite projects so that we can get an insight into your work.
This can vary depending on the position and is described in the last section of the job description.
Problems
You can contact us here via our contact form. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
We are currently in the process of having our service certified as a medical device. Until we have this certification, we are unfortunately unable to provide you with an analysis. We are very sorry for the delay, we will be ready soon!
Until then, we would be delighted if you could still provide us with an audio file to help us with our research and further development of our service!
