Hi friends,
This week: The knives are out for DHSC, a big raise for Tympa Health, and it’s a potato/tomato situation for virtual wards providers and suppliers.
News Bites 🥪
🩻 New artificial intelligence tool can accurately identify cancer - Scientists working on the Libra Project (anyone else getting Bond villain vibes?) have developed an AI that can spot cancer faster and more accurately than ever before. As an Aquarius, Pigeon hopes that other star signs can benefit.
🎓 Government rejects experts’ criticism of NHS digitisation - After a critical select committee report on NHS digitisation progress, Government said it's fine because they published a plan for health and social care. Oh we’re sick of experts again? Pigeon’s having flashbacks.
🤖 AI and Digital Regulations Service launches - NICE, the MHRA, the CQC and the Health Research Authority are out to prove they have have their fingers on the pulse of healthtech, with a new tool to help developers squeeze the phrase ‘AI-enabled’ into their marketing copy (and use it for transformative impact, too).
🧘♀️ Estimating effects of individual-level workplace mental wellbeing interventions: Cross-sectional evidence from the UK - In what feels like a very 2023 story, it turns out many wellbeing interventions may actually stress you out. Next up, productivity apps actually waste your time, fitness apps ruin your personal bests, and your encrypted messaging app is quietly sharing your secrets with the world.
💾 More than half of ICSs lack ‘crucial’ health management systems - Population health management is hard when you don’t have a population health management tool, which 24 ICS’s in England…don’t have. They’ve got until March 2025, but until then, it’s a ‘finger in the air’ job for most.
🏠 Lack of shared understanding slowing progress toward hospital at home - Healthcare leaders say the ‘hospital at home’ concept is great, but that suppliers don't understand clinical pathways enough to make it work. If ever there was an argument for user-centred design, Pigeon thinks this is it. For a great individual clinician's perspective on this point, catch up on last week's pigeon podcast with Dr Junaid Hussain.
💹 Federated Data Platform procurement: what questions should NHSE be asking? - Et tu, Faculty of Clinical Informatics?* Everyone’s piling in on DHSC this week, and the FCI has some blunt suggestions on what the NHS should be looking at when it comes to data access, as they claim “a lack of clear, committed and consistent sponsorship” from the centre on how to use data.**
🦻 UK's TympaHealth sounds out $23M to expand its hearing diagnostics startup - Our friends at Tympa Health continue their march into new territories, bringing their Tympa platform to the US and exploring opportunities in the hearing aid space. Sadly the system isn’t really made to fit in a Pigeon’s ear, otherwise we’d be right in there.
🧠 Mental health therapeutics startup HelloBetter raises €7m for further US expansion - Pigeon notes that, after everything went pear-shaped last month, there’s still juice left in the US digital therapeutics market. HelloBetter is cashing in on that appetite after a less than stellar time raising in its home market of Germany.
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 A Pigeon-sized pile-on - Join James, Jessica, Huw and Dr Derrick Khor as they take a deep-dive into the week’s healthtech stories.
🔊 #301 The future of data-driven decision making with founder & CEO Philip Russmeyer - James is joined by Philip Russmeyer, the founder of Fitfile, a healthtech company dedicated to unifying and making healthcare data usable. Philip shares his vision of a digitised healthcare system, where data interoperability and privacy are key.
Events 📅
🌎 Med-Tech World London Meetup - The Med-Tech World team bring all the fun and insights of their annual Malta event to Google’s London HQ. Please can they bring the weather with them too?
🔓 Decoding the Future of Women- A meeting place for brilliant minds to learn, get inspired and co-create, slap bang in the middle of London Tech Week. Get in touch with the SomX team for an exclusive discount on your ticket.
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
👨⚕️Medical Director, Dr. Dropin - The Norwegian telehealth company is hiring a super senior role as it makes its mark in the UK. Ready for the challenge?
📂 Medical Affairs Associate, Open Medical - a great medical affairs role, at a great digital health company. Get on board!
🐉 UCL GBSH Healthcare Dragons' Den - Sadly, Deborah Meaden won’t be there. But if you’re a postgrad student with a healthtech initiative you want to shout about, it’s still worth applying!
* Yeah that’s right, Pigeon knows Shakespeare. In fact, the whole man pretending to be a pigeon thing is actually straight from the Bard’s playbook….of course back then, he was pretending to be an ass.
** This is also how Pigeon describes the boss’s support for buying a Pigeon outfit for use at healthcare conferences.
At SomX, we are clinicians, scientists, creatives and communicators dedicated to elevating healthtech and biotech. For our clients, we provide communications strategy, multimedia content marketing, public relations, events and branding/design services. Get in touch to find out how we can support your healthtech company.