Hi friends,
This week: the NHS celebrates its 75th birthday, could tech help it reach 100?, and are we a step closer to interoperable systems?
News Bites 🥪
🧳 The Case for Change - 75 Years On, An NHS Focused On Adoption And Scale of Tech For Greater Patient Benefit - There’s a lot of dots to join in healthcare (as a now infamous infographic shows) and connecting them is going to take more than getting everyone in on an email thread. NHS Innovation Accelerator Director Konrad Dobschuetz sets out his stall on what needs to change if health innovation is going to drive an NHS fit for the future.
🤞 NHS has potential to get digital transformation right - Published on the same day as (and slightly overshadowed by) the NHS’s 151 page workforce plan, the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Select Committee found room for some optimism about NHS Digital Transformation - particularly if NHSE can find a bit more cash for training Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) professionals. Dang it, no mention of them in the workforce plan though…
7️⃣ NHS England sets out seven short-term digital priorities - Enough about fixing problems by 2037. If only there was some indication of what decision-makers wanted to achieve in the next 18 months. Ask and you shall receive…
🚀 Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raises $65M for preventative healthcare through full-body scans - While it appears that Neko’s founders didn’t get the memo about being more transparent when launching healthtech companies (#BuildingInTheOpen), the 10-minute, $250 bodyscan company, which only came out of stealth 5 months ago, has progressed quickly to a $65m series A and shared some snappy raise photos clearly taken on the Starship Enterprise.
🫣 Flo Health’s ‘Anonymous Mode’ Feature Is Now Open-Source for Industry-Wide Privacy Protection - Privacy is a right that can often be overlooked or deprioritised by health innovators. With women’s health protections rolled-back in a number of US States, the features that Flo Health have introduced - and now made open-source to the rest of the industry - are praiseworthy by any decent measure.
🔌 WHO and HL7 support adoption of global open interoperability standards - Pigeon: Knock Knock!
You: Who’s there?
Pigeon: Yes! The WHO is here…and they’re telling you to use HL7 standards for interoperability of healthcare data.
You: …
🍯 NHS at 75 and the role of tech in shaping its future - Unlike a certain national political journalist, we’re going to avoid accidentally comparing the NHS to marmite. We all love it, we’re all proud of it - which is exactly why we want to address its challenges head on. Some big names in healthtech (including some of Pigeon’s favourite people) share their views on tech’s role in the NHS’s next 75 years.
Meanwhile, in accelerator-land…🏎️
🌱 Pioneer and King's College London launch new start-up incubators - Mentoring, support, access to capital, workspaces and an ecosystem of expertise to draw on. If you’re an early stage biotech or medtech company/spinout, there’s not a lot more you could ask for.
🧑🏫 DigitalHealth.London announces latest cohort for Accelerator programme - One of the premier healthcare accelerators has opened its doors to its 7th cohort of promising digital health companies - from preventative care to treatment for alcohol related illness and chronic kidney disease, wound care to a new digital front door for healthcare.
📢 An NHS call out for solutions closing the gap in health inequalities - NHS England’s Health Inequalities team have come together with the NHS Race and Health Observatory, and the NHS Innovation Accelerator to tackle a problem that just can’t be ignored. If you’re an innovator tackling health inequalities, apply now to get involved and be in with a chance to fast-track into September’s accelerator programme.
🚺 Femtech Lab Accelerator opens new Autumn applications with Essity Ventures - Our friends at Femtech Labs have launched a new partnership with VC fund Essity, for their latest influx of femtech innovators. Be quick, applications close on 14 July!
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 Healthtech Pigeon - Come for the party, stay for the cake - Join James, Jessica and NIA Director Konrad Dobschuetz as they take a deep dive into the week’s healthtech news and views.
🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #310 - Tackling an inactivity pandemic, with Anton Derlyatka, CEO of Sweatcoin - James is joined by Anton Derlyatka, CEO and Co-Founder of Sweatcoin. Anton and his co-founders recognised how the modern world was conspiring to make us less physically active, with factors like increased delivery services and remote work contributing to a ‘pandemic of inactivity. That is how Sweatcoin, effectively 'Airmiles for steps', was born.
Events 📅
🤖 Global HealthTech Live - Dr. James Somauroo (The Healthtech Podcast) and Peter Birch (Talking HealthTech)
🕑 July 13, 9am
📍 Online
🤖 Helping patients feel seen and and teams feel heard: How can AI relieve the pressures on primary care? - Klinik
🕑 July 13, 12-1pm
📍 Online
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
Digital Healthcare GP (Weekends), Doctor Care Anywhere - Free this weekend (or every weekend?) Why not signup for the Friday evening and weekend shift at a leading digital health provider?
Programme Implementation Lead, National Institute for Health and Care Research - The NIHR are at the centre of the UK’s clinical research ecosystem, and they’re looking for someone to help oversee their engagement with external partners.
Innovation Manager, KSS AHSN - want to get hands-on in supporting health innovation? Kent Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science Network is looking for someone with a black book of excellent contacts and experience in supporting innovators. Sound like you?
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
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.