#208 - Dogfight of the Drug-Drones
The one-minute healthtech roundup.
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Hi friends,
This week: what support does the UK offer healthtechs, let’s gamify healthtech (for the kids, of course), and everyone’s going all-in on maternal health.
Love healthtech, hate reading? 👀 Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ Huw, James and Daisy from SomX breakdown the best stories from this week’s newsletter. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
The testing of AI in medicine is a mess. Here’s how it should be done — In an article that pulls no punches, the author explores the many challenges healthcare faces when it comes to testing AI, and what this means for confidence, quality, and safety. It’s fair to say the Pigeons had an opinion on this one. Luckily, we had a podcast to tell each other what those opinions were.
🧠 Brain stimulation technique may give more relief from Parkinson’s symptoms – Never mind that Deep Brain Simulation sounds like a way of describing the effect a really good house playlist has on Pigeon’s nerves – this pilot of a adaptive technology in four men with the disease show improvements in quality of life for three of the four participants and reduced waking symptoms.
💍 My £300 Oura ring is stepping in where the NHS failed – Beyond the clickbait headline (and the fact the author name-drops Oura with such fervour that the company’s PR team will be cheering all the way to the bank), there’s a critical challenge at the heart of this article: is wearable data (and the piece of mind that data can yield) the preserve of those who can afford it?
🫴 Public/Private: How U.K. State Healthcare Is Nurturing Healthtech – While ‘Nurturing’ could feel like too positive a word to describe a health innovation ecosystem that gives to healthtechs with one hand while testing their patience, enthusiasm and cash reserves with the other, this article is an examination of one company’s experience accessing the UK’s innovation funding apparatus that may help inspire others to do the same.
💿 Preparing the NHS for the AI Era: A Digital Health Record for Every Citizen – Whatever you do, don’t call it a Digital (health) ID. Though the themes explored throughout this piece may be familiar for long-time fans (if that’s the right word?) of the former Prime Minister turned whitepaper publisher extraordinaire, and many of the arguments ultimately quite sensible, the reaction from industry has dominated by a pervading sense of ‘Haven’t we tried all (most) of this before?’
🐠 Future health technology needs to take into account children and young people’s preferences, say researchers – Let’s face it, anyone who’s opposed to a little colour and fun in their healthtech is probably reading the wrong newsletter. Leeds University researchers believe that there’s plenty of potential for healthtech to better engage children and young people, with far-reaching ideas covering everything from enhanced privacy, to gamification of managing chronic conditions and more engaging solution design.
😷 This AI model is helping researchers detect disease based on coughs – Ok readers, Pigeon has a serious question to ask: with so many exciting non-invasive ways to diagnose diseases – from coughs and tongue colour, to speech patterns and walking gait – is there a front runner? What else is out there? Tell us your views (after you’ve read this fascinating Google Health blog).
💰 Precision surgery AI company Caresyntax banks $180M to accelerate growth and fuel M&A – a veritable who’s who of investors have joined the latest funding round in support of what, on the face of it, is a word-salad of healthtech buzzwords. Dig a little deeper, and the benefits are obvious, even though it’s hard not to balk slightly at the idea of ‘making surgery more profitable.’
🎰 Venture capital firms making bets on maternal health – …and rightly so, with more and more startups seeking to tackle many of the biggest challenges in maternity care, and others seeking to address inequalities in outcomes between demographics. But who’s making these bets, and where’s the money going?
🛸 Welsh drone network could serve NHS / NHS flies blood packs by drone beyond the line of sight in UK first – With more companies vying to supply the NHS with drone-delivery services, will it soon be commonplace to see boxes of drugs flying over our heads? It’s possible, but for now the only health-related things routinely flying over London are Pigeon and the Air Ambulance.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
Peerr Roundtable: Why is it so hard to sell to the NHS?
🕣 Aug 29th
📍 Online
Intelligent Health: Basel
🕣 Sept 11-12
📍 Basel, Switzerland
Healthtech Innovation Day
🕣 Sept 17-18
📍 Paris, France
Hardian Health Tech Summit -(tickets available to newsletter subscribers only)
🕣 Sept 19
📍 London
Health on Stage
🕣 Sept 19
📍Brussels, Belgium
Mental Health Innovation Network
🕣 Sept 20
📍London
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 Consent and Health Inequalities programme is now open for applications from SMEs — It’s your last chance to apply for UHCW’s challenge-led innovation programme aiming to provide a solution to digital consent and health inequalities challenges. Successful innovators will have opportunities for grant funding and access to a hugely valuable network of of expertise across industry, academia and the NHS.
🩺 Doctors In Industry Fellowship Cohort 4 – the Doctors in Industry Fellowship returns, equipping jobbing clinicians with the skills and awareness to find a career in industry, from healthtech to further afield.
♀ Business Development & Research Manager, The Lowdown – The women’s health research and information platform is looking for a BD expert to get stuck in and help grow their audience, partnerships and sales pipeline.Passionate about women’s health? Got a nose for opportunity? This one’s for you.
⛪︎ Senior Platform Manager, Spire Healthcare Group – If you’re an all-seeing platform expert with experience building a software ecosystem, with an eye for detail but a focus on the big picture, this role at one of the largest independent hospital groups may be of interest.
⚙️ Clinical Lead - Digital Healthcare, MANUAL – The men’s health service are looking for someone with the right clinical credentials to step in and lead critical aspects of their offering on an interim basis.
🥅 Chief Operating Officer, NIHR HealthTech Research Centres Network, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust – Healthcare leader with a passion for driving adodption of health technology in all the right places. The NIHR RCN is looking for an experienced pair of hands with understanding of business, stakeholder and relationship management.
👍 Sales Development Representative (German Speaking), Doctify – Sprechen sie deutsch? The premier healthcare review platform is looking for a german-speaking sales rep to help them grow their business. Of course, if you’re not sure what those first three words meant, maybe give this one a miss.
⚖️ Head of Legal, HeliosX – A big role for the right lawyer here at HeliosX, which is looking for its first in-house hire for its legal team, and needs someone who’s a dab hand at all the legal stuff while also having the skills to build and grow a function from scratch.
🏥 Chief Operating Officer, Medbelle – Who could pass up the opportunity to become COO at the World’s first digital hospital? Take the reins on the ops, sales and marketing teams and help take Medbelle to the next level.
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.