Christoph: Maurice, we are brothers and founded Liver & Heart together with two other co-founders from the tech industry. What is it like for you to build a company together as brothers?
Maurice: It's special – and at the same time, quite natural, of course. We've known each other our whole lives, can discuss things very openly with each other, and know that we can rely on one another. At the same time, we bring different perspectives: you with your business background and me from medicine. Especially when building a company, I find this combination very valuable: you can challenge each other without losing sight of the shared goal.
Christoph: The idea for Liver & Heart comes strongly from your medical work. What originally drew you to this topic?
Maurice: In my daily work as a doctor specializing in the liver, I repeatedly see people with fatty liver disease who also have overweight/obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, or elevated blood lipids. Medically, these things are closely connected – but in the healthcare system, they are often still viewed separately.
That's exactly what increasingly occupied my mind: we know a lot today about how these risk factors are interconnected and how we can detect and influence diseases early. But this knowledge doesn't always reach where it's needed.
Christoph: Why Liver & Heart anyway? What connects the liver and the heart?
Maurice: Above all, shared risk factors: overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated blood lipids affect both liver and heart health.
A good example is metabolic fatty liver disease, or MASLD for short. It affects a significant proportion of the adult population and is often a sign that metabolism has become imbalanced.
For us, it's therefore important not to look at just a single organ. The liver, heart, and metabolism belong together – and prevention should also take these connections into account.
Christoph: Why is fatty liver disease so important in this context?
Maurice: Because we can make changes early. Fatty liver disease and the underlying risk factors should be taken seriously – long before advanced liver disease develops. Through lifestyle changes, weight reduction, and targeted treatment of risk factors, much can be influenced.
At the same time, fatty liver is not the same as fatty liver. In some affected individuals, liver fibrosis develops – that is, progressive scarring of the liver. Detecting this early is important because it can lead to advanced liver disease in the long term.
Christoph: And can such scarring be detected early?
Maurice: Yes. That's exactly what I've been working on for many years in research and clinical practice. Today, we can assess the risk of significant liver fibrosis in many people using non-invasive methods – for example, based on blood values or by measuring liver stiffness.
The key point is: invasive examination is not always necessary for this. At the same time, this knowledge has not yet sufficiently reached beyond specialized hepatology, and it is not yet firmly anchored in many treatment pathways.
Christoph: Where do you see the biggest gap in today's healthcare provision?
Maurice: In the connection. When someone has fatty liver disease or multiple metabolic risk factors, very concrete questions quickly arise: How serious is this? What should I have examined now? Do I need to see a specialist? What can I change myself? And who do I even turn to?
Medical information is often available – but for many, it's not easy to derive the next sensible step from it.
This is exactly where we experience a care gap: the individual specialties know a lot, but the path between the different areas is often unclear.
Christoph: What does Liver & Heart do concretely today?
Maurice: Today, our focus is on education and orientation. A central entry point is our six-stage journey "Understanding Liver Health." It conveys step by step what fatty liver disease means, which risk factors are relevant, and what diagnostic options exist.
Our AI-powered companion helps people better understand and structure medical information and health values. In doing so, we consider a clear boundary important: it should provide orientation – not diagnose and certainly not replace the doctor.
We want to enable people to better understand their own health and engage more informedly with medical contacts.
Christoph: And where is Liver & Heart heading?
Maurice: The next step is care navigation – that is, guidance on the path to appropriate care.
Information alone is not enough. When someone learns that fatty liver disease has been detected, they shouldn't have to figure out themselves what examination makes sense next, which contact person is suitable, or when specialized clarification is necessary.
Our goal is therefore to guide people step by step through this process and – where appropriate – connect them with the right medical contacts and specialized centers.
In this way, we want to create a concrete path from education and orientation to appropriate care.
Christoph: Our founding team comes from different perspectives. Why is this combination important for Liver & Heart?
Maurice: Because no single perspective can solve this challenge alone.
Medical expertise is crucial, but it alone doesn't change healthcare provision. Technology can simplify processes and make information more accessible, but technology alone also doesn't replace medical expertise.
We therefore try to bring both together: medical knowledge, digital solutions, and the perspective of people who have to navigate our healthcare system.
Christoph: Where do you want to see Liver & Heart in five years?
Maurice: I would hope that it becomes completely natural to view the liver, heart, and metabolism together. That people don't wait until a disease is far advanced to take action, but understand earlier what risks they have and what they can influence themselves.
If we help turn prevention into concrete orientation and from that into better care, then we will have achieved a lot with Liver & Heart.
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