#224 - Everything AI do, AI do it for you
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX.
Hi friends,
This week: M&A exit value grows, how to improve paediatric sepsis prediction, and the NHS is very keen to tell you its using AI. Pigeon wonders if there’s a review coming or something.
Love healthtech, hate reading? 👀 Listen to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ James and Jessica from SomX break down the best stories from this week’s newsletter. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
🏥 All 107 stroke centres in England using AI technology, says NHSE – You’re using AI. Pigeon’s using AI*. literally everyone (at least, everyone who reads this newsletter) is probably using AI. That the NHS is using it isn’t in itself news, but the improved outcomes for these centres’ patients definitely is, and Digital Health has explored a few of the use cases NHSE may be referring to.
✍️ Corti debuts supportive AI assistant for providers – Sure, you’re tempted by these AI scribes, but doesn’t it all feel a bit ‘one-way’? Maybe you want to talk to your AI scribe and have it talk back (or at least write back)? That’s the principle Corti appears to be adopting, as it launches what it says will be a much more interactive form of clinical assistant than other scribes.
🤝 Health tech private M&A exit value doubled in 2024 – Pigeon feels like we’ve spent most of this year squawking about how more founders could be embracing the M&A off-ramp when other investment routes and opportunities decline, and it seems like founders have been listening. There’s no off-ramp for Pigeon though. We’ll flap til we drop…
🧐 Johannes Schildt steps down as CEO of healthtech unicorn Kry – Anyone who has followed Kry’s journey closely would find it hard to argue that Johannes Schildt hasn’t earned a good rest. After all, the company’s hard graft to profitability has kept them in the headlines for the past two years (even if they did push their targets back a bit last year to embrace generative AI). In his new role as Chair to CEO Kalle Conneryd-Lundrgen (who steps up from COO), we’re sure he’ll be able to stay hands off…
🍴 High-quality data is the foundation on which to build the NHS’s 10-year plan – You may feel you’ve heard this ‘data is important’ refrain quite a lot recently, and… well…you have. But what this looks like in practice is as important as anything else, and the Professional Records Standards Body have done pretty important work to advance practical data standards. So this is at least as interesting as the last thing anyone said about secure data environments.
🧑✈️ MHRA selects five AI-powered medical devices for regulatory pilot – Forgive Pigeon, as we’ve just found out that an Airlock is actually a Sandbox, and now everything’s become much clearer. If you find the lexicon around innovation as distracting as we do, then join our anti-jargon club. We suspect neither the MHRA nor these five companies will be members, but to be fair, they now have quite important work to do.
🤖 AI models to be trained on Federated Data Platform – In a move that will shock no one, all the data the NHS is working to sort-of-but-not-quite-centralise via the FDP will be fed into various AI models to help train them on the largest possible dataset. The purpose? Both clinical and operational, apparently, but we can’t be more specific for the moment.
🔮 A scoping review on pediatric sepsis prediction technologies in healthcare – How effective or well evidenced are technologies that could help to predict neonatal sepsis? The answer: They could probably be better. A scoping review looks at the evidence that backs up the role of tech including AI and machine learning in this area and considers how greater clinical involvement may help
🧫 52 North raises $6M to advance cancer-focused technologies – Speaking of Sepsis (not a segue Pigeon ever imagined using), the developer of a neutropenic sepsis test for oncology patients has scooped another $6m raise to keep pushing forward its point of care testing. We’re not exactly surprised a company with such an impressive list of backers in finance, tech and healthcare continues to pull in investment.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
*Tumbleweed*
Going to any good events in January? Let us know. Until then, why not use the holidays to stage your own mini healthtech conference. Moderate a panel discussion about NHS procurement using your closest relatives as stand ins for senior Department of Health staff. Make your dog/cat/lizard watch. Job done.
Visit the SomX events page or subscribe to SomX’s events roundup to see all of the best upcoming healthtech, biotech and healthcare events.
Learning
🏃 Are you NHS Ready? Together Digital – Pigeon’s biased, sure — Liam isn’t just an authority on working with the NHS, he’s also the Healthtech Pigeon Podcast’s 2024 MVP (most valuable…Pigeon?). If you’re looking to gain traction in the NHS, then understanding how it works AND how to work with it is key, and Liam doesn’t disappoint.
🧠 Innovations in Mental Health, KHP Ventures – A 12 week immersion programme designed to support companies working on mental health solutions to access support, mentorship and guidance on real world-evidence generation and securing investment? This is a must for companies and innovators and a vital programme to drive forward mental health innovation. Consider Pigeon interested. You should be too.
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
🧷 Clinical Safety Officer, 8foldGovernance – Pigeon’s friends at compliance and governance experts 8fold are seeking clinical safety experts at entry level and above to bolster an already strong team. With a unique culture and a great place to learn, this is a pretty special opportunity.
💻 Marketing Manager, Tendable – If you’re more of a marketer and you’re interested in QA and quality improvement projects for healthcare, why not apply for this role at Tendable? If you’’ve got a track record in strategy and campaigns in the SaaS/Healthtech spaces, this one’s for you.
🐾 Chief of Staff, Medic Footprints – Medic Footprints is on a mission to connect 1 million doctors with diverse and fulfilling careers by 2030. But one lucky chief of staff candidate won’t have to wait nearly as long as that. If you’re the type that can switch from big picture thinking to in-the-weeds work, and you’re passionate about the team’s mission, what are you waiting for?
䷌ Become a fellow, OneHeallthtech – It’s that time of year again. If you’re excited about health equity and improving diversity in healthcare and healthtech, the OneHealthtech Fellowship is for you. To find out more and apply, hit the link above.
*To be honest, there is surprisingly little AI in Pigeon’s workflow, and we feel like we’re missing a trick. That is until we remember that everything we do until we hit issue #250 will be used to train a Pigeon super AI. Be honest, would you notice the difference?
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.