Startup Profile
Fit with Hit / Auralis Medical

Introduce yourselves

Tell us in three sentences who you are

Fit with Hit or Auralis Medical wants to use acoustics to relieve the burden on orthopaedics. To this end, we are currently developing our MVP as part of the Lean AI Startup Funding programme:

The acoustic operating theatre documentation system ‘OPtimus’.

It relieves doctors of time and supports them with billing. Our system works with speech and sound recognition and detects and creates texts based on LLMs. The system works with sensitive data from the operating theatre team and is therefore partially implemented on-premise and connected to the facility’s information system. We reduce the documentation time, the time between surgery and final report and propose a coding of the surgery based on the content to allow a complete billing of the service.

What area is Fit with Hit active in and what is the main benefit?

We see ourselves as a medtech startup and want to relieve the burden on the healthcare sector and in particular the surgical sector with its increasing documentation workload.

What makes the solution so special??

OPtimus is an “Ambient OPeration Documentation” system that analyses speech and sounds in the operating theatre and converts them into valuable information. We not only transcribe the conventional dictation like many competing products, but also document where the work is carried out and thus also depict the context and the time required. In addition, we code the recognised process steps and can thus “OP”timize the workload for billing.

How long has Fit with Hit been around?

Carlos and Simon started implementing the initial idea of Prof Dr Ihsaque and Dr Jahnke from the biomechanics laboratory in 2019 as part of their doctorates. Dr Ihsaque approached us and said: “I can hear from the hammer blows when the prosthesis becomes firm, surely you should be able to evaluate that?”. This gave rise to numerous initiatives. We have already successfully participated in the Hessen Ideas Scholarship 2021 as the first doctoral students and were even able to receive funding for one year from GO Bio initial in October 2023. At the beginning of this year, our patent for hammer blow monitoring was successfully validated in 17 countries. Now that Claudius is also on board with us, we have reorganised ourselves and now want to operate as Auralis Medical.

How did the idea come about?

The idea for OPtimus emerged following the Go Bio inital exploratory year. As an accessory for an endoprosthesis system (i.e. a hip prosthesis), hammer blow monitoring would be classified as a class 2a medical device under the MDR, so we have developed a long-term strategy for this and would like to start with an initial MVP for acoustics in the operating theatre. With OPtimus, we not only capture the crucial process of prosthesis implantation for our monitoring, but also enable orthopaedics to utilise the entire acoustic context information.

What exactly is the AI-powered acoustic technology you use?

OPtimus generates OR documentation and recognises process steps from the OR so that these can be used for coding and billing optimisation.

How does it work in detail?

OPtimus processes the sound recordings in the operating theatre from two microphones in several steps. It analyses the typical operating theatre sounds with a deep neural network, transcribes the specialist language and classifies the surgical procedure from both sources of information with an LLM. An editable report proposal is then generated for the surgeon immediately after the operation.

What advantages does it offer in orthopaedic surgery?

This saves the surgeon the process of subsequent dictation and transcription, so that the surgical report is available more quickly for further treatment of the patient. A suggestion for coding is also provided. This often has to be implemented additionally by doctors and can be improved by health economists or now by OPtiums. This saves us valuable time for faster patient treatment and surgery can optimise its income through billing.

How has your previous experience in medicine or technology shaped your vision for Fit with Hit?

As part of our training as medical technicians and medical IT specialists, we have all been sensitised by our professors at THM to the fact that doctors and nurses can make more precise decisions for patients on the basis of data, intelligent data processing and corresponding technologies. Because they are limited by their senses and with OPtimus, for example, we give them a new sense of hearing and process all the information in the operating theatre that is naturally filtered by people.

What challenges do you see in the field of medical technology, especially in orthopaedics?

The approval of medical devices and software as medical devices is becoming increasingly challenging due to the MDR and now also the AI ACT, especially for start-ups, as these processes require a lot of time and expertise. We are therefore not starting with a medical device such as hammer blow monitoring, but with OPtimus, a so-called “healthcare software” that deals with the documentation of surgery and therefore does not fall under the MDR, but is nevertheless used within the healthcare system.

What is your most important goal for this year?

Through our interviews with experts, we have been able to gain some interested parties for OPtimus and our project in the form of LOIs and would like to carry out a POC with two of these institutions.

Where do you see your start-up in 5 years?

We are on the market for orthopaedic surgery with OPtimus and are working on the clinical study for the approval of our first version of hammer blow monitoring.