#193 - The Big VR Vision Quest
#193 - The Big VR Vision Quest
The one-minute healthtech roundup
Hi friends,
This week: How does space affect your eyes? the health AI race heats up, and US Unicorns keep growing….
Tired eyes? 👀 Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ SomX’s James and Jessica breakdown the best stories from this week’s newsletter, with the help of HLTH Europe’s Henry Stoneley and Lina Behrens. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
⌚️ Apple pushes into clinical trials with new FDA nod for Apple Watch – Big news: From today, your Apple Watch stops being that device you hoped might incentivise you to run three times a week, and becomes a reliable tool for monitoring aFib burden in clinical trials. Feeling smug yet?
💸 Digital health startup Transcarent valued at $2.2 bln after latest funding round – In a big week for US healthtech unicorns, former Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman takes his employee health portal Transcarent to a $2.2bn valuation, rolling out AI across the service.
🔭 Okko Health to test eye health app in space – Ever wondered what impact going into space might have on your vision? Pigeon admits we hadn’t before now, but thanks to the team at Okko health, we can’t stop thinking about it.
🏇 The race for healthcare AI models heats up as Google's Med-Gemini surpasses GPT-4 – Every week seems to mark a new milestone in the medical AI arms-race. This time Med-Gemini ups the ante significantly, with a new paper outlining strong performance from the ‘still-in-research-phase’ model.
🤖 MHRA report finds wellbeing apps welcomed but users wary of AI chatbots – The latest output of a project that could determine how digital mental health technologies are deployed and regulated examines how users perceive these tools. Ultimately, users seem ok with these tools being used — so long as it’s to compliment therapists, not replace them.
🕶️ Virtual reality could revolutionize mental-health treatments, including ketamine therapy, for conditions like depression and anxiety – Buy yourself a headset, and grab the special-K…it’s time for a vision quest. Well, maybe not – rather, VR is once again proving its value in a new area of healthcare, as one company uses the tech to supports patients preparing for ketamine-therapy.
🚇 Hims & Hers brings in $11M in Q1 profit, bumps up 2024 revenue forecast – Amidst all the healthtech doom and gloom, there are telehealth providers going agains the tide. Hims & Hers, which offers hair loss and sexual health services alongside telehealth is having a great year, driven at least in part by its personalised subscription service growth.
🤝 Tiger Global-backed Innovaccer in talks to raise $250M in new funding, sources say – By now, it’s cliche to point out the value of health data, so Pigeon will let Innovaccer’s partnership with a major US health system show that value instead. Rumours are, the company’s also looking to raise a significant round of funding at the same time, with Kaiser Permanente itself among the backers.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
Digital Health 2024
🕣 May 14 - 15
📍California
Radical Health Festival
🕣 May 21 - 23
📍Helsinki
HIMSS Europe
🕣 May 29-31
📍 Rome
Medtech World London Roadshow
🕣 May 29
📍 London
health.tech
🕣 Jun 5-6
📍 Munich
Decoding the Future of Women 2024
🕣 Jun 5-6
📍 London
HLTH Europe
🕣 Jun 17-20
📍 Amsterdam
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 🕵️♀️
🏎️ DigitalHealth.London Accelerator open for applications — One of the UK’s premiere accelerators for digital health companies opens its doors to its 8th cohort. Having helped many of the most important health and social care innovators to emerge in recent years, could your company be the next big success story?
👷 Fullstack Software Engineer, Healthtech 1 – If it can (and should) be automated, you can automate it, and you want to do so to help the NHS free up time for what matters. Sound like you? Healthtech 1 may want a quick word….
🔮 Head of Community Engagement, Our Future Health UK – The national programme to better understand our health and improve how we (collectively) manage healthcare needs is looking for a community engagement specialist to help them reach volunteers far and wide.
🕰️ Head of Digital Health and Care, Royal Borough of Greenwich – Want to play a part in improving social care services in a London borough, and help people to better manage conditions, live independently and stay out of hospital? Apply now.
🧑⚕️ Digital Health Nurse/AHP/Paramedic – Virtual Ward, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – Here’s an exciting role for a nurse/AHP/paramedic with IT skills to play a part in the delivery of Cornwall’s virtual ward – if this sounds like you, hit the apply button now.
🛜Account Director - Healthcare, Vorboss — Sales specialist? Previous experience working with healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses? This role at Business Fibre company Vorboss could be for you. After all, there’s no healthtech without the internet.
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.