#192 - Invasion of the Body Scanners 🛸

The one-minute healthtech roundup

Hi friends,

This week: Body-scanning goes global, US nurses protest AI in hospitals, and a turnaround story for the ages.

Tired eyes? 👀 Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ SomX’s Jessica and Huw breakdown the best stories from this week’s newsletter. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

News Bites 🥪

🦵 Daniel Ek’s body scanning healthtech Neko Health is expanding to the UK – The jury may be out on full body scans, but less so on Neko health, where 20k+ people have already joined the waiting list in Sweden. As the Spotify founder’s healthtech foray makes a leap onto UK shores, Pigeon has already started saving up our £250.

🤝 Midi is building a digital platform for an oft-overlooked area of women’s health – Joanne Strober set out to build a company that made access to perimenopause care easier and more accessible. Following a $60m series B, Joanne outlines the road to this point, and that which lies ahead.

🏪 Walmart Health Is Closing – Few things are as certain as big corporations underestimating how hard it is to break into healthcare. Now the evidence is writ large, as the superstore empire shutters its healthcare offering in five states. With so many of Pigeon’s brethren ending up on dinner plates, we’re not sure what to think about a world where it makes more financial sense to sell hunting rifles than healthcare.

⏰ Which technologies offer the biggest opportunities to save time in the NHS? – For clinicians, new healthtech solutions may be cutting-edge, but they aren’t cutting time. While everyone’s feeling optimistic about AI, the tools having the most impact on clinical workflows are the trusty-old EHR and videoconference/messaging apps. Wait….don’t you all use Microsoft Teams? 

🪧 US nurses protest against the use of AI in hospitals – When AI companies explicitly outline their intention to replace nurses, we probably shouldn’t be surprised when nurses strike back.

🍷 An AI blood test purports to diagnose postpartum depression – Dionysus, a US startup, believes a genetic test can identify those at risk of postpartum depression, using AI to help clinicians to identify and treat cases and address a significant unmet need. With all that said, nothing in this article explains why a) the US Department of Defense has given them $6m in funding or b) why they’re named after the Greek God of wine. 

👂 Dutch healthtech startup MindAffect secures €1.1M funding to simplify hearing diagnostics through AI — To diagnose hearing loss, this AI startup requires the patient to wear a hi-tech headband and listen to ‘soft chirps’ while watching a short silent video. Pigeon did interview for the role of ‘soft-chirper’, but we lost out to a yellow warbler. What a sham.

🧠 AI helps researchers uncover gut-brain interactions in Alzheimer's – The crossover Pigeon has been waiting for: the link between the gut-microbiome and brain health has already been made. Now an AI is jumping into the arena to determine which metabolites (funky chemicals) bind with receptors to help guide drug discovery.

📈 This digital health startup was on the verge of bankruptcy 18 months ago. Now it’s expanding to the US – There are plenty of takeaways for Pigeon in this turnaround tale:

a) diversify our client base (wait until you see the other sector-specific birds we’re planning.)
b) build a physical presence (Pigeon outfit: ordered, just waiting for the right time…),
c) have enthused investors (err….) and…
d) have the guy in charge stand down. [If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me - Ed.]

📊 Hertility’s ReProductive Report aims to close the gaps in women’s health research — Reproductive health and fertility pioneers Hertility Health identified a shocking lack of knowledge and understanding on key topics. Their pioneering report compiles extensive research findings to plug the gap.

What to listen to 🔊

Events 📅

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 🕵️‍♀️

💡 Digital Product Innovator, BfB Labs — Keen to play a role in helping young people manage their mental health? BfB labs are looking for an experienced product leader to push their digital offering forward.

🧐 Lead User Researcher for Digital Urgent and Emergency Care, NHS England — No one understands the concept of user-centred healthcare better than the team at NHS England. If you’re on the same page, go and join the team working on Digital Urgent and Emergency Care.

⛵️Product manager - Onboarding (Mobile), Flo Health — If you’re a product whiz, with a experience in B2C health apps (or related industries), then you could help Flo nail their onboarding experience.

🚑 Medical Lead for Testosterone Replacement Therapy, Numan — An expert in encocrinology or urology with a passion for clinical excellence? Know your stuff about testosterone deficiency? This is the role for you at men’s health experts Numan.

🏷️ Sales and Customer Success Manager, Automation Accelerator — Help transform healthcare, by building the Automation Accelerator’s presence across the NHS and strengthening relationships with key partners.

---

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.