HSG start-up ALPINA+SANA fights malnutrition in hospitals

Pictured: the founders of ALPINA+SANA Raban Iten, Jotam Bergfreund and Robert Schreiber (from left).

The ALPINA+SANA startup has its roots in a personal story: “My grandmother fell at home and broke her hip. This is a common injury in older people, often leading to protracted complications,” says Robert Schreiber, HSG researcher and co-founder of ALPINA+SANA. “After her fall, I started researching and found out that bone fractures in old age are caused by malnutrition.”

The problem, the research showed, is massive: up to 50 percent of older people in nursing homes and up to 40 percent of all patients in hospitals are malnourished. This makes patients more fragile and delays wound healing. This leads to longer hospital stays. Schreiber: “In Switzerland, malnutrition costs half a billion francs in healthcare costs every year. In the EU, the figure is as high as 170 billion euros.”

AI from ALPINA+SANA takes the pressure off nursing staff

In July 2024, he therefore founded ALPINA+SANA together with two ETH researchers, Jotam Bergfreund and Raban Iten. The start-up is developing a system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect how many nutrients patients are consuming. A special camera scans the menus before and after meals and determines how much of what was eaten. The AI then calculates what nutrients the food contained.

“Our AI solution will relieve nurses of the task of recording what patients eat,” says Schreiber. This process is time-consuming and produces inaccurate results. ALPINA+SANA's camera and AI are currently being trialled at a hospital in Zurich.

20 hospitals use ALPINA+SANA protein ice cream

In addition, ALPINA+SANA produces fully balanced food supplements for the medical and care sector, currently in the form of ice cream. Fully balanced products contain all the micro- and macronutrients needed to replace a normal diet. “With our food supplements, we want to give older people back the joy of eating,” says Schreiber.
Although dietary supplements already exist, they are often not very tasty due to the unpleasant aftertaste of the micronutrients, or they have a viscous consistency. “If malnourished people are to eat regularly for years, it has to taste good,” says Schreiber. Around 20 hospitals and clinics in Switzerland are already using the newly developed protein ice cream, and ALPINA+SANA is in talks with around 60 hospitals.

Research at the University of St. Gallen on the neurology of start-up founders

ALPINA+SANA is striking a nerve in the Swiss healthcare system, which is challenged by an aging population and steadily rising costs: so far, the start-up has raised around 1 million Swiss francs in funding from foundations and institutions such as Innosuisse and VentureKick.

Schreiber and his three co-founders embody what characterises many start-ups in the technology sector: a multidisciplinary approach that brings together economics and natural sciences. The 30-year-old Robert Schreiber studied economics at the University of Zurich and then completed a master's in neuroscience at Maastricht University. At HSG, he completed his doctorate under the supervision of Dietmar Grichnik, a professor of entrepreneurship, on the neuroscientific processes that influence the decisions of investors and start-up founders.

“At HSG, I had a lot of contact with successful founders and entrepreneurs through my work – that shaped me,’ says Schreiber. He is currently conducting research at HSG into how sleep can be optimised and what influence sleep quality has on the performance of founders and top managers.

He himself had previous experience as a young entrepreneur, having founded the start-up SoulBites in 2020. The company processed fruit from South America that did not have the desired shapes and could not be sold into snacks. During his doctorate, he also coached students who wanted to start a company as part of the Startup@HSG funding initiative.

Malnutrition is the cause of many diseases

ALPINA+SANA is currently focusing on the Swiss market and continuously improving its AI. “We have very good data from testing our solution in a hospital,” says Schreiber. His vision is to use healthy nutrition to combat widespread diseases. “Many diseases that are among the leading causes of death are linked to nutrition. These include diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.”

It is conceivable that after widespread use in hospitals and nursing homes, the AI will one day also be made accessible in an app, giving many people the opportunity to optimise their nutrition. “But these are just ideas at the moment. The important thing now is to use our solution to address the acute nutrition problems in healthcare,” says Schreiber.