#209 - The algorithm behind the curtain
The one-minute healthtech roundup, kindly sponsored by SciQ: Healthtech recruitment, by ex-industry professionals.
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Hi friends,
This week: Healthcare AI continues to be both very exciting and quite disappointing, people are far more likely to pay attention to health prompts when they donât feel well, and why your local library has a new favourite app.
Love healthtech, hate reading? đ Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast âĄïž Jessica and James from SomX breakdown the best stories from this weekâs newsletter. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites đ„Ș
âïž Survey: AI most exciting emerging technology in healthcare â In what is surely the least informative survey since someone first said âhey, this generative AI thing could be useful in healthcareâ, we find that ultimately, no oneâs really on the same page about what weâre talking about, or what weâre using it for.
đŁïž How to make sure AI helps rather than hinders healthcare â For an industry where so much remains unexplained or unproven, humility is a rare trait. The subject of this interview, Ulster Universityâs Prof Raymond Bond has it in abundance, which is odd for a man with so many fascinating-sounding projects exploring AIâs role in our health, all going on at the same time â and which sound like theyâre worth your attention.
đïž The problem of gender imbalance in EU digital healthcare â Womenâs under-representation in healthcare generally are now well understood, as are the variations in outcomes this under-representation creates. In the past 20 years, representation has improved, but is the shift toward digital delivery and the problem of womenâs access to STEM careers actually pushing healthcare backwards? Possibly.
đ« Decentralised trial reveals home-testing behaviours for respiratory infections â The TL;DR here, is that patients engaged enough to tell an app or professional what theyâre experiencing are more likely to take a test when asked, compared to those whose wearable data prompted the test. Itâs perhaps unsurprising that how you feel might influence action more than how you actually are, but hey, stupid biomarkers, what do they know?
đ« Pfizer Launches Direct-to-Consumer Service â The worldâs biggest pharma companies have decided to cut out the middle man, with Pfizer bringing a telehealth and prescription filling service straight to their patients. The democratic-sounding âPfizerForAllâ programme puts patients in control of their Covid-19, migraine and influenza treatment, with options to schedule vaccines too. But theyâre not the only ones pharm-ing the D2C model, after Eli Lilly got in the game earlier in the year.
đ The NHSâs digital problem: how old infrastructure is slowing down healthcare services â The shared enemy of the frontline clinician and the healthtech innovator, legacy tech is far from a new problem â even if there are disagreements on what to do about it. For the uninitiated (or the initiated who want a refresher), hereâs a rare high-quality summary of the challenge we face, and why âgetting the basics rightâ feels more critical than ever.
đȘ A trust based framework for the envelopment of medical AI â Trust is a big deal in AI, but possibly not an insurmountable problem. More and more people suggest theyâre at least comfortable with the use of the technology in their care, with some caveats. Could this proposal of a trust-based framework help bridge the gap between what weâre comfortable with and what weâre not?
đŻ How Generative AI Could Reinvent Mental Healthcare: Therapeutic Twins â What if we had someone who told us what we should do that would make us feel better when we were feeling depressed or anxious? What if we could predict when we were most likely to feel that way? What if that system was your digital twin? Honestly, it sounds awful to this Pigeon (who just wants a little empathy right now, and isnât yet feeling solutions-oriented), but we suppose itâs worth a try.
đ Libraries in England to promote the NHS App â âHey there, small child and/or person aged 65 or over, put down that copy of Georgeâs Marvellous Medicine and/or Great Expectations, and let me show you this appâŠ!â. Pigeon is of course being facetious; so much of inclusive patient and citizen engagement is about meeting the user where they actually are, and initiatives like this are the embodiment of that. Now if we can only stop closing the librariesâŠÂ
đ¶ïž Over Half Of Major US Senior Care Providers Now Use VR â Look at that â while Pigeon waxes lyrical about VR one day going mainstream in healthcare, elderly care quietly made it happen in the US. How itâs being used may vary (although Rendeverâs numbers suggest fitness is high on the list), but assistive-living settings take the top spot in the âwhereâ tables.
What to listen to đ
Events đ
Intelligent Health: Basel
đŁ Sept 11-12
đ Basel, Switzerland
Healthtech Innovation Day
đŁ Sept 17-18
đ Paris, France
Hardian Health Tech Summit -(tickets available to newsletter subscribers only)
đŁ Sept 19
đ London
Health on Stage
đŁ Sept 19
đBrussels, Belgium
Mental Health Innovation Network
đŁ Sept 20
đLondon
Visit the SomX events page or subscribe to SomXâs events roundup to see all of the best upcoming healthtech, biotech and healthcare events.
Opportunities đ”ïžââïž
đ„ Deputy Directors, Medtech/Digital, NHS England â There are few better places to push innovation in healthcare than at the heart of the system, and these two roles working on medtech and digital respectively are about as close to the action as its possible to be. Relevant experience? Passion for innovation? Willing to work with industry? Attend Emilyâs webinar to find out more. Then apply, obviousâŠ.
đŽ Clinical Assessor â Conformity Assessments, Scarlet â Europesâ only notified body specialising in software and AI needs someone with a background in building, deploying or evaluating software medical devices to come and bring that awareness to other technologies and devices. If that sounds like you, get on it!
đïž Account Manager â Digital Therapy, Koa Health â Passionate about making mental well-being accessible and effective for everyone? Youâve just found your tribe. It helps youâve got some useful, compliant therapies to implement, you just need to help your clients make the most of them.Â
đ„ł Chief of Staff, Joy â Joy are looking for somebody big. Weâre talking 10+ years, high-performance, high-tech, big budgets big. And in return? An exciting role in the senior leadership team of a company moving fast in the preventative health space, with traction in the places that matter.
𩾠RevOps Manager, KareHero â Youâre an inquisitive, RevOps expert with an eye on the bigger picture and experience in hubspot. Theyâre a self-described health-tech care concierge solution for family caregivers. Could it be any more obvious?
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
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Healthtech Pigeon is curated and produced by SomX, the 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.