#176 - Biomarkers, Regulation and Death 💀
The one-minute healthtech roundup
Hi friends,
This week: A bumper week for women’s health, money isn’t always the answer, and can (should) AI guestimate your date of death?
News Bites 🥪
🌱 A big month for energy, but fintech and healthtech lose their shine: December’s seed wrapup – December was a time of festive cheer, goodwill, and of course PRESENTS. But clearly healthtech Santa (by which we mean the VC community) wasn’t feeling generous, as health was knocked off the top spot for seed funding amid an overall (to-be-expected) decline in funding across all sectors.
💸 Q&A: Is over investment killing digital health? – We pump billions into digital health every year, but funding raised isn’t always an indicator of a successful healthtech solution. This Q&A with BluBrix CEO Shameem Hameed goes for the industry’s jugular with an important question about the relationship between investment and impact…..even if the proposed solution is conveniently to buy BluBrix’s product.
🛣️ Regulatory Roadmap points the way ahead for new measures to support safe access to medical technology including AI and diagnostics – Another year, another exciting roadmap toward a bold new framework for medical device regulation. Ultimately, the roadmap is a welcome (and probably quite ambitious) timeline of all the things that have to happen before regulations can come into force in 2025. But you know what they say…’.The best laid plans of mice and regulators…’
🤖 Cramer says today's market is more interested in AI technology for advertising, not health-care solution – Pigeon can’t not be excited that hyperactive financial commentator Jim Cramer is featured in this week’s newsletter, but in many ways it’s also a sad moment: dashing the hopes of those wondering if digital health investment could go stratospheric on the public markets, Jim claims “right now, analyzing data more efficiently for targeted ads is worth more than analyzing the data to figure out how to get people to live longer, healthier lives.” Is he right?
💍 This women's smart health ring uses AI to analyze menstrual and sleep data – The Evie Ring is far from the first solution that allows you to track your menstrual cycle and plot it against other key biomarkers. But could its AI set it apart from others by helping you take steps to improve your mood and wellbeing?
🩸Qvin’s Q-Pad Makes History with First FDA Approval for Menstrual Blood Health Testing – The Q-Pad will support monitoring and tracking of a huge range of biomarkers around anemia, fertility, and menopause – bringing with it huge potential to improve early detection and overall health outcomes.
🫘 West Yorkshire runs at-home chronic kidney disease test trial – Proof, if ever it was needed, that Yorkshire is a hotbed of health innovation: for the second week in a row, we’re featuring hot healthtech solutions helping to drive healthcare forward.
🧮 (£)Could an AI ‘death calculator’ actually be a good thing? - Pigeon’s immediate gut reaction to this question was ‘no’. On further reflection, it’s still ‘no.’
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 The Healthtech Pigeon Podcast — Join James, Jessica and Huw as they take a deep dive into the week’s healthtech news and views.
🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #333 Unlocking VC Funding: Secrets and strategies from entrepreneur and investor Gian Seehra — James is joined by Gian Seehra. A former biotech entrepreneur where he raised $16m and investor at Octopus Ventures in the health team. Gian now helps tech founders raise venture capital by helping them building fundraising operating systems
🔊 Brand new Dr. with Rolake Ojo - Redefining Patient Care in the Digital Age with Dr James Somauroo — James joins the Brand new Dr. podcast to share his journey from medicine to health tech innovator.
🔊 The Capital of Health Narayana’s Dr Nitin Manjunath: We need to dissociate affluence with access to quality health care — UCL’s Global Business School for Health speaks to Dr Nitin Manjunath, the Facility Director at Narayana Health City, about funding preventative care and strategic use off data in health.
Events 📅
Mastering the Art of Bid Writing in Healthcare: Expert Tips & Tricks
🕣 6 February
📍 Online
London Biotechnology Show
🕣 20 February
📍 Olympia West, London
HETT North
🕣 28 February - Free to attend!
📍 Manchester
HealthTechX Summit 2024
🕣 28 February - Use HTX24SMITH for 30% off your ticket
📍 The Hurlingham Club, London
The Healthtech Podcast LIVE
🕣 29 February - Use COOCOO40 for a special Pigeon discount.
📍 BFI Southbank, London
Digital Health Rewired
🕣 12-13 March
📍 The NEC, Birmingham
Life Sciences Access Academy Annual NHS Conference
🕣 16 April
📍 The Kings Fund, Cavendish Square, London
LSX World Congress
🕣 29 April
📍 Business Design Centre, London
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
Category Manager - Digital Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust — Help bring healthtech into the NHS by sourcing new technology and implementing effective procurement. If you’re a procurement specialist with experience in healthcare and tech, this is for you.
Head of Engineering, Vira Health — An engineerign superstar with a passion for improving long-term women’s health outcomes. Vira Health is hiring!
Digital Healthcare Fellowship, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust — An exciting role that will see the successful candidate support an Torbay Hospital’s innovation team to develop a pipeline of digital health solutions and implement them naturally within patient pathways.
Senior User Experience (UX/Product) Designer, Proximie — Want to play a role in transforming how surgeon’s prepare and collaborate? One of the world’s fastest growing surgery tech startup is looking for a UX designer. Apply now!
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
SomX is a communications and creative agency for healthcare. We are clinicians, scientists, creatives and communicators dedicated to serving our healthtech, biotech, pharma and public sector clients with services across strategy, content, PR, design, events and media production. Get in touch to learn more.