#216 - And the award goes to...
The one-minute healthtech roundup brought to you by SomX.
Hi friends,
This week: Healthtech is top of the table, suggestions for improving public health and Pigeon going back to the future…?
Love healthtech, hate reading? 👀 Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ Jessica and Hollie from SomX break down the best stories from this week’s newsletter with help from Dr Junaid Hassain Founder of Man Confidence. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
🏆 Health tech and life sciences lead the way for UK VC investment in Q3 – Pigeon has come under fire for its competitive streak, but who doesn’t love being top of the pecking order?! Word on the street is UK healthtech raised nearly $1 billion in VC funding during Q3 2024, making it the fastest-growing sector for investment. Love that for us! A certain Dodo will also be pleased to see that biotech is leading the charge. And after some iconic major rounds, femtech is also dominating (Flo, Maven Clinic, we’re looking at you!) - Woo, you go Glenda Coco!
🧠 What is wearable neurotech and why might we need it? – Wearable neurotech is emerging as a promising way to boost mental health by gently stimulating the brain. Companies are developing devices to treat conditions like depression and even assist with weight loss, offering a non-invasive alternative to medications. While Pigeon thinks these devices are great (Scott! IYKYK) from a medical standpoint, Pigeon can't help but imagine how cool it would look wearing one of these headsets. Very Back to the Future…
🤖 Global coup for CMR Surgical as FDA backs Versius robot surgery for US market – CMR Surgical just scored big with FDA approval to bring its Versius robotic surgery system to the US, starting with gallbladder removals. This marks a major milestone for the Cambridge-based company, opening up the world’s largest market for keyhole surgery. With this approval, CMR is poised to make a huge impact in the US, where the robotic surgery scene has had very limited options—until now. While Tesla might be making robots to help around the house, Pigeon thinks Elon missed a trick; fortunately, CMR has it covered.
🚺 Levy Health wants to help women identify fertility issues sooner – The fertility diagnosis process for many women can be stressful, draining, and lengthy. But thanks to Levy Clinic, that process can now be much faster! A special Pigeon shoutout to co-founder Caroline Mitterdorfer, who, after facing her own health challenges at 27, realised the need for better support. She teamed up with experts to launch a platform that streamlines the diagnosis process for fertility specialists. By analysing patient questionnaires and lab results, their platform can cut the time to diagnosis by an impressive 50%.
💭 Options for a future public health system in England – Pigeon has some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that life expectancy in the UK has stalled, and health inequalities are on the rise...BOO, we hate to see it! The good news? There are some proposals to tackle these issues. On the table, we’ve got establishing a new public health executive agency, improving collaboration among existing organisations, and, of course, putting Pigeon in charge of healthcare decision-making. Thoughts?
🫂 Headspace Introduces AI Companion To Support Patients Through ‘Ebbs and Flows’ of Life — Alexa, play Toy Story’s "You've Got a Friend in Me". Pigeon suspects this song was the soundtrack for development meetings for Headspace’s friendly AI companion, Ebb. Why, you ask? Well, this device not only provides mental health advice but also offers self-reflection tools and personalised content recommendations to boost mindfulness. Developed by clinical psychologists and data scientists, Ebb uses a method called motivational interviewing to nudge users toward positive behaviours.
💰 Healthcare startup Suki raises $70 million to build AI assistants for hospitals – Another week, another big funding round! This time, Pigeon’s attention is on Suki, the healthcare startup known for its AI voice assistants, which just secured a tidy $70 million Series D. Since 2017, Suki has been helping healthcare providers lighten their administrative load with its voice assistant technology. The fresh funding will be used to ramp up product development and expand its already impressive partnerships with over 300 health systems.
✨ I was a beta tester for the Nobel prize-winning AlphaFold AI – it’s going to revolutionise health research – Is anyone else confused as to why Pigeon hasn’t won a Nobel prize for its contributions to healthtech yet? Yeah, Pigeon’s wondering too. While we draft our strongly worded complaint, let’s turn our attention to AlphaFold, DeepMind’s brainchild. They are shaking things up in the world of health research by making protein structure predictions faster and easier than ever. A beta tester experienced AlphaFold firsthand, praising its remarkable speed and accuracy—enabling researchers to predict complex protein shapes in minutes, tasks that used to take months or even years.
📲 How is Nvidia Using AI To Elevate Mental Health Services? — We all know mental health is one of those things that gets better when we talk about it. Speaking of talking about it, Nvidia has announced a new partnership with Therapyside to enhance mental health services using AI, helping therapists focus more on their clients. Therapyside uses Nvidia's AI copilot to automate note-taking and transcriptions, boosting session efficiency and strengthening therapist-client connections. Listen in to this week’s podcast to hear from GP and mental health expert Junaid Hussain to hear his take on whether the therapist-patient relationship could benefit from an AI-third-wheel.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
Healthcare Conference 2024
🕣 Oct 31
📍 London
Med-Tech World, Malta
🕣 Nov 6-8
📍 Malta
Medica 2024
🕣 Nov 11-14
📍 Düsseldorf, Germany
BMJ Future Health 2024
🕣 Nov 19-20
📍 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 🕵️♀️
🤝 Co-founder, DAYA —If you have experience running startups and are looking for the next big thing, a little birdie told Pigeon that DAYA is on the hunt for another co-founder with experience in digital health and the drive to lead, grow, and make a real difference in women’s health. Sound like you? Pigeon isn’t even going to say what you should do next because you already know!
👩💻 Senior full stack engineer (Tech Lead), Dama Health — Let’s play a little game. Pigeon is going to throw out some words and you let Pigeon know if they apply to you. Software engineering experience? A whizz at coding? Excellent problem-solving skills? Looking for your newest opportunity? Oh, you can relate to all of those? Interesting…very interesting.
✏️ Senior Marketing Copywriter, Flo Health — What’s better than a unicorn? Working with a unicorn! Pigeons friends over at Flo are looking for an experienced and creative (emphasis on the creative!) copywriter who’ll be responsible for Flo’s voice across all of their marketing channels. If you’re up for the challenge, apply today!
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
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.