#161 - Promises, Prophesies and Penguins 🐧
#161 - Promises, Prophesies and Penguins 🐧
The one-minute healthtech roundup
Hi friends,
This week: A business plan with no budget, big bucks for bladder tech, and a breakthrough in blood pressure.
News Bites 🥪
📀 NHS England publishes 2023-2024 business plan with focus on digital – One thing is certain: Whoever writes the NHS England business plan knows all the buzzwords. Waiting lists, care backlogs, workforce burnout and retention, interoperability, connectivity, ‘ensuring digital foundations are in place’. It’s all in there. Pigeon’s just glad they checked with the Chief Financial Officer first before they commi… oh, nevermind.
💰 London-based bladder health tech startup Jude raises $4.2M for US expansion – Bladder Health startup Jude is a rare company helping to tackle bladder issues. With a valuable mission, a hugely credible team, and a healthy raise, it looks like they’re heading stateside.
❤️🩹 Andreessen Horowitz And Others Poured $200 Million Into Startup Health IQ. Now It’s Bankrupt – When (and it’s definitely a when, not an if) Pigeon inevitably loses all of the company money to a scam artist masquerading as a purveyor of fine Pigeon habadashery, we also intend to go straight back to a16z for our next venture. Marc’s been behind us since day one*.
🪓 UK tech tsar warns of AI cyber threat to NHS – In what to many could feel like an existential threat, but to all the cyber criminals out there just provokes a cry of: ‘We’re perfectly able to hack the NHS the old fashioned way, thank you very much.’
🩸 Slough GP surgeries use digital tech to successfully control blood pressure – Hypertension is a major priority for the NHS, and this initiative is doing what digital is supposed to do: Helping bring down administrative time, while making things simple for patients, too. In other news, Pigeon’s moving to Slough.
📲 How digital is helping to put people in charge of their fertility – Before tech, fertility management relied on good doctors, late nights spent scrolling on Mayo Clinic, and overly intrusive relatives who should mind their own business. Even with all of those, you might not get very far. Here are the tech companies that are helping change that.
🩻 Medical technology outstripping other sectors in AI innovation – Before you get too excited, the numbers in this report are from 2022, before ChatGPT exploded and GPT integration became this year’s pitch-deck must-have. That said, if the trajectory carries on, AI will have replaced all the surgeons in no time at all….**
🐧 Could robot penguins be the answer to bed-blocking in the NHS? – 100% Yes. next question.
Seriously though, Pigeon loves this for two reasons: a) a robot bird has been chosen for this purpose, and b) that bird appears to look at the camera while Steve Barclay is talking and silently say: ‘Seriously? This guy?’
Meanwhile, in Accelerator-Land… 🏎️
NHS Innovation Accelerator opens applications for 2024 intake – recruitment for the big daddy of all health innovation accelerator programmes is now open. If you’ve got a proven health/social care innovation and you need help to scale, this is the one for you.
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 Healthtech Pigeon - Promises, Prophesies and Penguins - Join James, Jess and Huw as they take a deep-dive into the week’s healthtech news and views.
🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #320 How I co-founded a healthtech company that's raised $189.5M, with Daniel Nathrath from Ada Health - James is joined by Daniel Nathrath, CEO and co-founder of Ada Health. Ada is a global health company founded by doctors, scientists, and industry pioneers to create new possibilities for personal health and transform knowledge into better outcomes.
📈 High Potential Start-Ups with Synthace CEO Guy Levy-Yurista - Cavenagh Health’s Nick Ross and Stephanie Murtaugh hear how Guy’s team of multidisciplinary scientists are revolutionising the way experiments are represented and standardised and how he believes technology will supercharge advancements in life science R&D.
Events 📅
WEBINAR - Bridging the gap: How can pharma and NHS collaboration unlock successful patient engagement?
🕣 18 September
📍Online
MedFIT - Fostering Innovation in Medtech
🕣 October 10, 8.30am-6.15pm
📍 Strasbourg Convention Centre, France
MedTech World Summit
🕣 19-20 October
📍 Valletta, Malta
Use the code ‘FlyingtoMedTechMalta’ for 25% off your ticket.
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
Avegen HealthTech Fellowship - Digital Health platform Avegen have teamed up with our friends at Peerr to offer the Avegen HealthTech Fellowship, an exclusive opportunity for GPs and Consultants to learn knowledge, skills and mindset needed to thrive in digital health. One lucky Fellow will have their idea developed into a fully functional product…..Pigeon’s jealous already.
🥪 Business Development Manager (gn), Healthtech - FoodLabs - Sales, pharmacy or supply chain specialist looking to help tackle the obesity crisis? This unnamed healthtech pharmacy venture in the FoodLabs portfolio is looking for a BD manager.
🏡 Product Manager, Lottie - Lottie are helping the process of finding and choosing a care home much easier. As a product manager, you could help them. Get onboard!
👁️🗨️ Computer Vision Engineer, Tendertec Limited - Computer vision is incredibly cool technology. If you don’t know what it is…don’t apply. If you do and you’re an expert in it, then put your skills to use in this company working on solutions for the elderly and young people with learning disabilities.
*This is a joke. But Marc, if you’re reading, it doesn’t have to be…
**Pigeon woke up and chose violence, apparently.
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
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