Daniel Nathrath is a co-founder of Ada Health GmbH, the Berlin company that makes the Ada symptom assessment app. The idea came from Claire Novorol, a clinician in clinical genetics in Cambridge. She started Doctorpreneurs, a network for doctors who wanted to build digital health products, and through it she met Nathrath and Martin Hirsch in Berlin.
The three founded Ada in 2011. Nathrath became CEO, Hirsch became CTO and Novorol became chief medical officer. The first product was a decision-support tool for doctors working on rare diseases. It was accurate but served a thin market.
In 2016 the company pointed the same engine at patients and launched Assess, a symptom checker anyone could use. In 2017 it did well in a comparison of symptom checkers. A 2019 study found that its top suggestion matched the confirmed diagnosis in 83 of 93 rare disease cases.
Ada had raised about $47 million by November 2017 and had about 300 staff in 2023. Because it tells people what might be wrong with them, the product faces regulatory scrutiny and has to meet medical device standards.