Hi friends,
This week: Corporates arenât buying what healthtechs are selling, UnitedHealth gets hacked, slashed and burnt, and a chatbot says you should quit your job.
News Bites đ„Ș
đ€Ž Bring on the chief health AI officer â Dear clinicians, forget how terrible your electronic health record is for a moment and prepare to embrace AI. If you do, apparently itâll be much easier for you to communicate to your superiors just how terrible your EHR is. At least, thatâs Pigeonâs takeawayâŠ.as always, YMMV.
đ©âđ« Thinking of selling into the employer? You probably shouldn't â Ever the optimist, Second Opinionâs Christina Farr has a bleak warning for the health innovator looking for buyers in the corporate world. Pigeon would never be so blunt in our recommendations (and even if we were, they wouldnât be helpful). Nevertheless, this oneâs worth your time.
đ Letâs talk differently about obesity â As a new weight loss medication hits the market, following in the footsteps of Ozempic (and filling the gap left as a shortage kicks in), what is the role for digital health companies in tackling the obesity crisis? A little birdie told pigeon (a much bigger bird) that Luke Pratsides, Head of Medical at menâs health company Numan joins the podcast this week to help us answer that question.Â
𧱠NLC Health Ventures Secures âŹ14M for Healthtech Expansion, Eyeing Global Impact â Are we witnessing the rise of the venture builders? With a hefty sum raised to keep funding new healthtech innovations, thereâs definitely a certain segment that believes it's the way forward.Â
đȘ Kry profitable in all markets: âWe wouldnât have managed it as quickly without AIâ â Pigeon congratulates the European healthtech scaleup on turning around 8 years of losses to get to this point. The credit youâre giving AI tells Pigeon you werenât using ChatGPT. Or at least not while it was giving all of its answers a certainâŠ.Spanglish flavourâŠ.
Hackers Behind the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Just Received a $22 Million Payment / UnitedHealth shares tumble after report of antitrust investigation â If you think youâre having a bad week, thank your lucky stars you donât work for UnitedHealth*. The US group (and owner of UK EPR provider EMIS), was recently hit with the mother of all cyber attacks, probably paid a $22m ransom to the hackers, and has since become the subject of an unrelated antitrust investigation launched by the US Dept of Justice.
đïž Exclusive: ambitious shared EPR procurement for four NHS trusts ended â Some accuse the market for electronic patient record systems in the UK of being a duopoly. Pigeon questions how this can be true when more than six EPR providers bid for a recent 4-Trust contract. Wait⊠what do you mean none of them won the contract?Â
đ€ Meet the AI chatbot therapists filling the gaps in Europeâs mental health care shortfall â Hereâs a quick note to chatbot developers: When Pigeonâs had a bad day and loudly threatens to quit being Pigeon to no one in particular, all weâre looking for is a bit of empathy, rather than âYou do You. Hereâs a pre-drafted resignation letter.â With responses like this, can AI chatbots really be the answer to the mental health crisis?
đ§ Limbic Raises $14M in Funding â Here to prove that, yes actually AI chatbots can be useful for mental health and why donât you just shut up, Mr. Pigeon, is mental health care companion Limbic, which announced an impressive $14m series A this week. Congrats team, that put us in our place.Â
đ€·ââïžNHS agrees to up productivity in return for tech investment â Clinicians and managers, pay attention. Youâre getting the tech (some of it may even work), but youâve got to be more productive, ok? With a maximum of 10 months left until this Governmentâs gone, itâs likely neither side really felt like they were risking much with this agreement.
What to listen to đ
đŠ The Healthtech Pigeon Podcast â Join Jessica, James, Huw and Numanâs Head of Medical Dr Luke Pratsides as they take a deep dive into the weekâs healthtech news and views.
đ The Healthtech Podcast #340 What is a Chief Medical Officer? And how do I become/hire one? With Benjamin Viaris De Lesegno â James is joined by Benjamin Viaris De Lesegno, NHS consultant, humanitarian doctor, and co-founder of Leva Clinic.
đ Digital Health Unplugged: The role of effective teams in deploying digital platforms in the NHS â If weâre going to use technology to save the NHS, we better get good at deploying it quickly and building teams which make it possible. Digital Healthâs Jordan Sollof speaks to Dr Lia Ali, Simon Noel and Nick Black to find out more.
đ Two commissions on the future of the NHS â with Rachel Sylvester and Parveen Kumar â These days, it feels like everyoneâs talking about what to do with the NHS, so the Health Foundation brought together two people whoâve overseen wide ranging initiatives focused on just this to compare notes.
Events đ
HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition
đŁ March 11-15
đ Orlando, FL
Digital Health Rewired
đŁ March 12-13
đ The NEC, Birmingham
WIRED Health
đŁ March 19
đ London
Edinburgh Medtech Forums
đŁ March 27
đ Edinburgh
HPN North
đŁ April 23-24
đ Manchester
Digital Healthcare Show
đŁ April 24-25
đ ExCel London
LSX World Congress
đŁ April 29-30
đ Business Design Centre, London
Visit the SomX events page to see all of the best upcoming healthtech, biotech and healthcare events.
Opportunities đ”ïžââïž
AI Engineer, Visiba â Swedish triage-tech developers Visiba are looking for an engineer to solidify their AI capabilities. If youâre a engineering whiz with a passion for health AI, take a look at this role.
Digital Health Lead, Sr. Director, Pfizer â The Pharmaceutical giant is looking for a digital health afficionado with experience in digital projects, leadership skills and a scientific background to oversee a wide ranging strategy for its digital health approach. Sound like you?
Digitla Health Strategist, HIMSS â HIMSS analytics delivery team takes a leading role in pushing forward digital health globally, and theyâre looking for a strategist to join them.
Exec Director of Digital Health and Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Our Future Health â The national project to understand more about our health is looking for a deputy chief medical officer with experience of launching digital products. Pigeon suspects we know a few people who meet the bill.
Business Development Manager, Quiddity Health â Experts in the NHS and how to work with it, Quiddity Health is a fantastic team filled with lovely people (thatâs a Pigeon promise). If youâre a BD pro, apply now.
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!
*If you do work for UnitedHealth, sorry. Fancy a chat?
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.