#183 - Casper...is that you?👻

The one-minute healthtech roundup

Mar 03, 2024

Hi friends,

This week: Top tips for AI startup founders, tackling biases (no, it still hasn’t been fixed but there might just be hope yet) and a new healthcare acronym for your bingo card.

News Bites 🥪

🌍World Health Organisation launches Global Initiative on Digital Health - Another day, another acronym! WHO has some big plans for their GIDH (G-Id-er?!). We’re talking sustainability, building capacity and encouraging local development. Sounds promising…

3️⃣ Driving Accessibility in HealthTech: 3 Things Founders Should Consider for Thoughtful AI Implementation in 2024 - Pigeon is offering a prize to anyone who can guess what the three tips are!*

🧬£6.2M grant share: Female-led health startup to build diverse biomarker database with Innovate UK support - Biomarkers could reveal a goldmine of information but with around 80% of people in genome-wide association studies from European heritage, the data just isn’t cutting it. SökerData is establishing the world's most diverse biomarker database to increase equity in clinical trials for women and black and ethnic minority groups. This one has Pigeon’s vote every single day!

👀Removing bias from healthcare AI tools - AI tools are opening the doors for many advancements in healthcare and that gets a big thumbs up from Pigeon. What Pigeon is less pleased with is the insufficient representation of all ethnicities in the datasets that are used to develop these AI tools. Turns out researchers at Oxford University agree. And yes, Pigeon is sticking to a topic this week. Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Pigeon on a soap box.

📲Health-care AI: The potential and pitfalls of diagnosis by app - Let me tell you, Pigeon’s got an app for just about everything. It just makes life so much easier. However, when it comes to health apps, what does a Pigeon have to do to guarantee quality of care, privacy and security around here?!

🗣️How can we close the gender health gap and foster health equity? - You can't spell equity without Pigeon. Technically you can, but that’s not the point. Pigeon dreams of a day when we no longer use the phrase 'X health gap'. The stigma and lack of understanding surrounding women's health issues is just one barrier to achieving Pigeon’s utopian world. It looks like we've got some serious work ahead, folks! Until then, we’ll keep squawking about it.

💰Blackbird Health Nests A Fresh $17 Million To Become The Gold Standard In Precision Mental Healthcare - Whew! $17M is a tidy little nest egg, isn't it? Certainly not to be pecked at. With approximately 16% of young people suffering from a major depressive event in 2023, Blackbird Health is using this cash to enable more precise and personalised mental healthcare for teens and young adults. It’s always great to see us birds doing great things. Bravo fellow avian healthtech friend!

👻 The ghost in the machine – balancing the human and technology in digital transformation - Pigeon read this title and instantly thought Casper the Friendly Ghost might be making a return. Sadly, he isn't. Instead, we're discussing the unrealised potential of current digital transformation attempts, attributed to an excessive focus on the technology rather than on the humans who will actually be implementing and using it. A tale as old as time…

What to listen to 🔊

🐦 The Healthtech Pigeon Podc ast — Join Jessica and Belle as they take a deep-dive into the week’s healthtech news and views.

🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #339 Working in healthcare is a privilege, with Francesca Wuttke CEO of nen — James is joined by Francesca Wuttke, founder and CEO of nen, a digital health company founded to help children with cancer, their families, and HCPs with pain management.

🐦 The Healthtech Pigeon Podc ast (again…)— Pigeons have technical issues too, so you might’ve missed our episode with Dom Pimenta. If you did, we got you. If you didn’t, we salute you loyal flock.

Events 📅

#LEAP24
🕣 4-7 March
📍 Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center, Malham, Saudi Arabia

HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition
🕣 11-15th March
📍 Orlando, FL

Digital Health Rewired
🕣 12-13 March
📍 The NEC, Birmingham

WIRED Health
🕣 March 19
📍 London

HLTH Europe 2024
🕣 17-20 June
📍 RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam

Opportunities 🕵️‍♀️

DTAC Squirrel™ Innovation Fund, Acorn Compliance - You’re going to go nuts for this one! Acorn are giving three lucky innovators the chance to have 12 months of FREE access to their automated compliance platform. Not only will you become DSPT and Cyber Essentials compliant, but you’ll also get all of your DTAC questions answered for one whole year!

Growth Engineer, Numan - Does designing, building, and evaluating experiments sound like your cup of tea? If so, Numan are on the hunt for a Growth Engineer with a background in web development, A/B testing and just an all-round passion for creating an exceptional user experience. Sound like you? You know what to do!

Associate, Smedvig Ventures - If seeking out deals, building relationships and carrying out due diligence runs through your veins why not apply for this role at Smedvig Ventures? A little birdy told me two out of three of their partners started as associates…

Chatbots Product Manager - LLM Assistant, Flo - With this role, you can expect to create and manage chatbots, ensure the delivery to engineers is seamless, and make data-informed decisions. And most importantly, you’ll be working with a great team doing great things!

Doctors in Industry Fellowship, Medic Footprints - Applications are now open to clinicians who are thinking about joining another flock. The brainchild of Dr. Abeyna Bubbers-Jones - doctors alternative career guru and LinkedIn Top Voice, this incubator has got the backing of a sparkling faculty of industry influencers from across the world!

*The prize may or may not be a signed photo of Pigeon. We are in a recession, Pigeon’s got to cut costs somewhere. Might be able to stretch to a mug. DM Pigeon for more info…

Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com

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