#191 - Anyone for a croissant? 🥐
#191 - Anyone for a croissant? 🥐
The one-minute healthtech roundup
Hi friends,
This week: How do livers restore themselves? Who’s up for a voice-activated ultrasound? and are video game avatars coming to life…?
News Bites 🥪
4️⃣ Four Strategies For Surviving The Digital Health Shake Out — Pigeon doesn’t like to dwell on the negatives. After all, we’re a solutions-oriented bird. In recent months, things have been a struggle for digital health startups, but in the words of the iconic* Taylor Swift, let’s shake it off and consider the best ways to get out of this rut.
💰 Boehringer Ingelheim teams with Ochre Bio on $1.3B deal to combat MASH— The liver is the only organ that can regrow and repair itself. Some (maybe even Pigeon) may find that terrifying. Ochre Bio however sees the opportunity: they're developing treatments for chronic liver disease designed to restore this ability in diseased livers. With a new Big Pharma Partner onboard, they’ve landed a $1 billion deal to do it!
🚹 Maven Clinic expands fertility support for males alongside health coaching program — Contrary to popular belief, fertility concerns shouldn't solely burden women. When a couple is trying to conceive, both parties should be well-informed throughout the journey. Maven Clinic is now offering male fertility and health coaching to help individuals understand different paths to pregnancy. Now we’re just patiently waiting for an avian-specific service — after all, Pigettes could be on the horizon.
🗣️GE HealthCare launches voice-activated, AI-powered ultrasound machines for women’s health — This newsletter without an AI story is like bread without butter, London without rain, a healthtech company logo without the colour blue… (you get the picture). This week, GE Healthcare has developed an AI-powered medical tool to assist in the diagnosis of women’s health conditions, including through obstetric exams, pelvic floor imaging, and the mapping and classification of fibroids.
❓ 95% of Healthcare Professionals Do Not Feel Confident Diagnosing Dermatology Conditions Across Skin Tones — With the lack of accurate representation of non-white skin within medical education, it’s no wonder healthcare professionals navigate a range of skin tones with uncertainty. Change is needed not only on a societal level but also within education, policy, and medical practice. Pigeon is pleased to see that Black and Brown Skin are fighting the good fight to remove these systemic biases.
🤖 Revolutionizing Wellness and Healthcare with Avatar Technology and Synthetic Images — Who doesn’t love a video game? An entire world where if things don’t go your way, you can just switch it off and start again? Perhaps soon, it'll be a reality as digital avatars can now be your new personal trainers, nutrition coaches, and mental health companions. As long as that pixelated so-and-so knows who's boss, Pigeon’s fine with it.
🇫🇷 Healthcare platform Doctolib has conquered France — but can it take on Europe? — Success is a funny thing, isn’t it? When it comes to business, it’s not just about being successful, but also about staying successful. People are always hungry for more. What's the next move? What are the latest developments? How will you stay agile? How do you plan to innovate further? All these questions, and more, are being flung in the way of France’s biggest unicorn.
UK healthtech Elvie raises £9.6m in fresh funding — Two things that are sure to light up Pigeon’s day: booking a sunny getaway and seeing women’s health companies snagging funding for a worthy cause! Well, chalk one up because Elvie, a company developing women’s health products such as breast pumps and pelvic floor trainers, have just secured some sweet cash to continue the development of their technology. Now, time to log in to On The Beach…
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 The Healthtech Pigeon Podcast — Join Jessica and James as they take a deep dive into the week’s healthtech news and views joined by Dr Sioned Fôn Jones, co-founder of BoobyBiome.
🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #347 The link between wellness and behavioural science with Dr. Jennifer Huberty, Founder and Chief Science Officer at Fit Minded — James is joined by Dr. Jennifer Huberty, a leader in the digital health space with over two decades of experience shaping the intersection of science and wellness. Once at the helm of science at Calm, she's now the driving force behind Fit Minded Inc, guiding digital health companies with her unique blend of academic insight and industry savvy.
Events 📅
LSX World Congress
🕣 April 29-30
📍 London
Digital Health Festival
🕣 May 7-8
📍 Melbourne
Longevity Med Summit
🕣 May 8-9
📍Lisbon
Healthtech Talks
🕣 May 8
📍London
Women in Biotech
🕣 May 8
📍London
Digital Health 2024
🕣 May 14 - 15
📍California
Visit the SomX events page or subscribe to SomX’s events roundup to see all of the best upcoming healthtech, biotech and healthcare events
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
Zinc VC Venture Builder June 2024 — Zinc is on the hunt for 50 world-class founders, dedicated to improving the health of people or the planet. Like the sound of up to £300k of capital for your business, access to hundreds of curated expert advisors, support with fundraising and team building and so much more? apply for the next cohort, kicking off in June!
Women’s Health Community Fund, Women of Wellbeing — This fund has been designed to support small, grassroots organisations and community groups to deliver health information and support to women, girls and people from underrepresented groups. If this sounds like something you’re working on, apply today!
Customer Success Lead, Perci Health — Know how to keep customers happy? Do you thrive in scenarios where you are designing processes and resolving friction? Got experience leading and growing a successful team? If you answered yes to those questions, Pigeon may have found the job for you.
Engineering Manager, Doccla — Looking for a place where your technical and managerial skills can shine? Well Doccla are on the hunt for an experienced EM to support and contribute to their mobile engineering team, overseeing the development of their mobile applications and enable the team to deliver high-quality software solutions. Sounds like you? You know what to do!
*Probably not as famous as Pigeon of course, but she’s slowly getting there.
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.