183: Communication is Part of the Treatment. Florian Semler, Formel Skin

“Communication is so important for us because communication is
part of the treatment. What we don’t want to do is take an old,
grumpy doctor and sit him in front of a camera and treat our
patients,” says this week’s guest Florian Semler, co-founder and
CEO of Formel Skin. 


Formel Skin is a telemedicine scale-up that treats skin
conditions. They are on a mission to make medicine approachable
and accessible thanks to digitalisation and state-of-the-art
communications between doctors and patients. 


Florian founded the Berlin-based company two and a half years ago
with Dr Sarah Bechstein, a trained dermatologist, and product and
marketing expert Anton Kononov.


Formel Skin’s success formula? “We want to provide our patients
with a dermatology 3.0 experience where doctors are very
friendly, thoughtful and approachable - a combination of a
digital patient experience and a physical patient experience with
a doctor.” 


This hasn’t always been straightforward. “It was a journey for me
and Sarah how to communicate to the patients and how to develop
these skills. Also from a company perspective. It is much more
sophisticated and much simpler today.”


The interaction between doctors and patients is the key to Formel
Skin’s success. “We have a training curriculum for all doctors on
how they communicate with a patient. The most important thing is
that you are honest with the patients and that you communicate
with the patient.”


Research suggests that patients can only remember 30% of what
their doctor shared with them and don’t dare to ask many
questions. “This is something we want to change. We want patients
to remember 100%. And we want to take their fear of asking
questions.”


Formel Skin has already raised over 35 million from well-known
VCs and has now set its sight on the Brazilian market.


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