Digital health in Switzerland: a look at our MedTech projects

The Lake Geneva Health Valley

Western Switzerland isn't just the birthplace of watchmaking and chocolate. It's also one of the world's most dynamic hubs for digital health. Between CHUV, HUG, EPFL and dozens of MedTech startups, the region concentrates a unique density of talent and innovation. The Lake Geneva Health Valley hosts over 1,000 life sciences companies and attracts billions of francs in investment each year. It's an ecosystem where the proximity between academic research, university hospitals, and industry creates ideal conditions for turning innovations into real products.

At Appik Studio, we've worked in digital health since day one. We've collaborated with university hospitals, academic spin-offs and MedTech startups on projects that have a concrete impact on patients' lives.

The Swiss regulatory landscape: an asset, not a barrier

Building health applications in Switzerland means navigating a demanding regulatory environment. Far from being an obstacle, this framework is a mark of quality that strengthens trust among users and institutions.

The DPA and GDPR

Switzerland's new Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP), which came into force in September 2023, largely aligns the country with the European GDPR. For health applications, this means reinforced obligations: informed consent, right to erasure, data portability, and mandatory breach notification. When an application processes data from European patients — common for Swiss university hospitals collaborating with international institutions — GDPR compliance is also required.

Swissmedic and SaMD classification

Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) is regulated in Switzerland by Swissmedic. Classification depends on the risk level: a diagnostic support tool like Smart Cervix falls into a different class than a simple symptom-tracking app. We guide our clients through identifying the applicable regulatory class (I, IIa, IIb, III) and achieving compliance with the European Medical Devices Regulation (MDR 2017/745), which Switzerland recognizes through bilateral agreements.

CE marking and ISO 62304

For medical device software targeting the European market, CE marking is mandatory. The ISO 62304 standard defines the software development lifecycle: planning, risk management, requirements traceability, verification and validation testing. We've integrated these processes into our development methodology, allowing us to deliver compliant software without sacrificing agility.

Our digital health projects

Pneumoscope — The stethoscope reinvented

In partnership with Onescope, a spin-off from Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), we developed the mobile application for the Pneumoscope: a 3-in-1 connected stethoscope combining auscultation, pulse oximetry and thermometry.

The app connects to the device via Bluetooth Low Energy and runs AI algorithms directly on the smartphone. The DeepBreath model, trained on over 250,000 respiratory cycles from 10 countries, analyzes sounds in real-time to detect conditions such as asthma, pneumonia and bronchitis. The device has been tested in multiple clinical settings, including field campaigns in resource-limited countries where the absence of specialists makes diagnostic support particularly valuable.

Beyond the mobile app, we supported Onescope through ISO 62304-compliant development (medical device software lifecycle) towards CE marking. We also deployed an HL7 middleware enabling integration with the EHR (Electronic Health Record) system at HUG, ensuring automatic transfer of auscultation data into the patient's medical record.

The technical challenge: real-time audio processing, on-device AI inference, ISO 62304 / CE marking compliance, HL7 integration with the hospital EHR.

Smart Cervix — Cervical cancer detection

A project developed in collaboration with EPFL's LTS5 laboratory and HUG. The application helps doctors screen for cervical cancer using AI-powered image classification.

In a first phase, the app enabled secure collection of clinical data from hundreds of patients, building a training dataset for the classification models. In a second phase, it serves as a decision-support tool by classifying zones according to risk factors, guiding medical diagnosis. The tool has significantly reduced analysis time per case and improved consistency of assessments across practitioners.

The technical challenge: secure collection of sensitive medical data, real-time image classification, interface adapted to clinical workflows.

BmAI (CHUV — Neonatology) — Fighting malnutrition with AI

This application, developed in collaboration with the CHUV Neonatology Department, uses artificial intelligence to estimate the weight and height of children in developing countries. A simple photo taken with a smartphone provides crucial anthropometric data, helping humanitarian workers detect and combat malnutrition. The app was designed to work in extreme conditions: intermittent connectivity, entry-level devices, and use by humanitarian workers without specialized technical training.

The technical challenge: morphological estimation from a 2D photo, offline operation in areas without connectivity, sufficient accuracy for medical use.

Atreon — Digital therapies for chronic pain

Atreon is a Swiss biotech developing Swissmedic and EMA-approved digital therapies combined with biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders and chronic pain.

We contributed to the development of their patient platform: a mobile application for treatment tracking, real-world evidence collection, and empowering patients to manage their pain autonomously. The platform integrates personalized exercise programs, clinically validated follow-up questionnaires (PROs — Patient-Reported Outcomes), and a dashboard enabling healthcare professionals to monitor patient progress remotely. The architecture is built on the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard, ensuring interoperability with existing healthcare systems and enabling secure clinical data exchange between the platform and healthcare professionals.

The technical challenge: Swissmedic/EMA regulatory compliance for a software medical device, FHIR architecture for interoperability, patient data protection, accessibility-focused design.

TuneInsight — Computing on encrypted data

TuneInsight invented Multiparty Homomorphic Encryption: a technology that enables computations on encrypted data without ever exposing it. In practice, multiple hospitals can collaborate on an oncology survival analysis without sharing their patients' data.

We worked on the interfaces for their data collaboration platform, deployed at CHUV, Zurich University Hospital and Inselspital in Bern. The platform allows researchers to configure multi-site statistical analyses through an intuitive interface, without any cryptography expertise.

The technical challenge: interfaces for complex cryptographic concepts, integration with hospital systems, ISO 27001 compliance.

Why React Native for health apps

The choice of development technology is critical in digital health. We use React Native with Expo for the majority of our MedTech projects, and this choice is carefully considered.

Cross-platform advantages in medical settings

• One codebase for iOS and Android: doctors and patients use both platforms. Maintaining a single codebase reduces the risk of inconsistencies between versions — a critical concern when clinical outcomes depend on the application.
• Simultaneous updates: when a bug is fixed or a regulatory requirement changes, the fix is deployed at once across all platforms. With Expo, OTA (Over-The-Air) updates even allow pushing corrections without going through the store review process.
• Full hardware access: Bluetooth Low Energy for connected devices (Pneumoscope), camera for medical image capture (Smart Cervix, BmAI), sensors for biometric data — React Native provides native access to all necessary APIs.
• Native performance: unlike hybrid web solutions, React Native compiles to native code. Performance is identical to apps built with Swift or Kotlin, which is essential for real-time audio processing or on-device AI inference.
• Mature ecosystem: battle-tested libraries for encryption (react-native-crypto), secure storage (expo-secure-store), and integration with native health frameworks (HealthKit, Google Health Connect).

Data security architecture in healthcare

Protecting health data demands a multi-layered security architecture. Here are the patterns we systematically apply across our MedTech projects.

Encryption at rest and in transit

All medical data is encrypted at rest (AES-256 on device and servers) and in transit (TLS 1.3 for all network communications). Encryption keys are stored in the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore, never in plaintext in code or configuration files.

FHIR compliance

The FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard has become the reference for health data exchange. We structure patient data according to FHIR resources (Patient, Observation, DiagnosticReport, etc.), ensuring interoperability with hospital systems, EHRs, and clinical research platforms. FHIR adoption also simplifies regulatory audits, as data traceability is built into the standard.

Hosting and data sovereignty

For projects subject to Swiss legislation, we favor hosting on servers located in Switzerland, in compliance with nFADP requirements. Depending on the project, we work with ISO 27001-certified cloud providers or with on-premise hospital infrastructure.

Cross-cutting challenges in digital health

All these projects share common requirements that demand specific expertise:

• Regulatory compliance: DPA, GDPR, and depending on the case Swissmedic or CE marking for medical devices
• Data security: end-to-end encryption, Swiss hosting, complete audit trail
• Clinical reliability: zero tolerance for bugs in a medical context
• Patient-centered design: accessible, clear interfaces usable under stress

Through our collaborations with hospitals and MedTech startups, we've integrated these requirements into our development processes.

What makes this field demanding — and interesting

Digital health imposes a rare level of rigor: strict regulation, sensitive data, clinical reliability, users under stress. These constraints have pushed us to develop robust processes that we now apply across all our projects.

The Lake Geneva Health Valley offers a unique ecosystem for medical innovation. We contribute as a technology partner, with the conviction that technology, applied with rigor, can have a concrete impact on patient care.

Have a digital health project? Let's talk. We understand the sector's constraints and know how to integrate them from the design phase.

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