#233 - J'adore Le Pigeon d'healthtech* 🇫🇷
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX.
Hi friends,
This week: History is being made in the cancer space, shock parliamentary announcements, and we uncover how tech can truly save NHS time.
Your friends all listen to podcasts. Be interesting at your next dinner party by listening to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ Huw from SomX breaks down the best stories from this week’s newsletter, with the help of the Health Foundation’s Ben Sherman. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
🧠 Brain stimulation could treat anxiety in people with Parkinson’s, scientists say – By tracking brain waves, scientists have found a strong link between anxiety (something that one in three of those living with Parkinson’s disease struggle with) and a specific wave type, opening the door to smart implants that fine-tune mood in real time.
📚 History beckons as Healx doses first rare cancer patient with AI-created drug – AI has taken a break from generating poorly generated images and questionable Linkedin posts to do something useful: Healx has just treated its first patient with HLX-1502, a drug entirely discovered by AI. This new treatment could bring hope to people with NF1, a rare disease that causes painful tumours, by potentially treating the disease while dispensing with the harsh side effects of current options.
🧬23andMe's CEO submits bid to take company private for $74.7M – On today’s episode of the 23andMe saga, CEO, Anne Wojcicki, is back with another attempt to take the struggling genetics company private. After trying previously, she’s now offering $74.7 million to buy it with a private equity firm, a far cry from the $230 million she originally proposed. How does this series end you ask? We’re as eager to find out as you are.
⚡️Epilepsy AI tool detects brain lesions doctors miss – One small step for man, one (kinda) giant leap for mankind. An AI tool called MELD Graph is helping doctors detect epilepsy-causing brain lesions that are too subtle for the human eye, catching two-thirds of the ones they usually miss. It’s not perfect and still needs human oversight, but experts say it has huge potential to improve epilepsy treatment.
⏰ Tech to save time: how the NHS can realise the benefits – The NHS is drowning in work, and technology is often hailed as the life raft, but is it doing more harm than good? The Health Foundation’s deep dive found that while some innovations help, others add extra tasks, confuse staff or require endless training sessions. Of course, its not that black and white — but if you haven’t got the attention span for the 12-minute read, listen to the podcast where the Health Foundation’s Ben Shemesh spills the tea.
🇫🇷 France Bets on Medical AI, to Train 100,000 Doctors Yearly – France is going all-in on medical AI, training 100,000 doctors a year and building Europe’s biggest AI data center - because why let the U.S. and China have all the fun? Despite sky-high debt, billions in foreign investment are pouring in, while doctors can expect mandatory AI training. Très intéressant…
👀 The State of Healthtech Investment: Insights from the First 50 Days of 2025 – Pigeon must say, the healthtech investment market 2025 is off to a pretty good start, according to this round up from Nina Capital’s Marta Zanchi. AI is still the golden child (of course), while medical devices and niche areas like PTSD and fertility tech are also raking in the cash. Long may it continue!
🚨 Amanda Pritchard quits as NHS England chief executive in shock move – Now, officials are saying Amanda Pritchcard stepping down was her choice, but this move conveniently comes after some rather pointed parliamentary critiques and cozy chats with Health Secretary Wes Streeting about “exciting” NHS reforms. We’ve never been big into gossip at Pigeon HQ though, so we’ll leave you to do that.
💰Avandra lands $17.5M to build out federated imaging network – Avandra just raised a tidy sum $17.5M to expand its network, and it's got big plans. The startup wants to give researchers access to large sets of data - think thousands of CT scans, MRIs, and more - all securely stored to help researchers train AI models and come up with new therapies.
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What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
Healthcare Partnership Network (HPN) North
🕣 March 6 - 7
📍 Manchester
Women in Biotech
🕣 March 6
📍 Cambridge
Fund Your Innovation: Healthtech Grant Funding Workshop with Fabricio Chavarro, Partner at Otravista Consulting LLP
🕣 March 11
📍 Online
The Impact of Obesity: Learning from Lived Experience
🕣 March 12
📍 Online
BMJ Future Health webinar: Bringing AI to life in the NHS: Insights from successful implementation
🕣 March 14
📍Online
WIRED Health
🕣 March 18
📍 London
Digital Health Rewired
🕣 March 18 - 19
📍 Birmingham
Start Summit, St Gallen
🕣 March 20 - 21
📍 Switzerland
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 🕵️♀️
💻 Lead Product Engineer, Aneira Health – Come in closely, Pigeon doesn’t want everyone to hear… If you’re a skilled full-stack engineer with deep backend expertise and are looking for your next big role, this one’s worth a look. Join a company dedicated to building an equitable, sustainable health and care service for women, families, and communities. Apply today!
🩺 Clinical Lead for Neuroradiology, Hexarad – Do you have a strong understanding of clinical governance? Do you have excellent communication and interpersonal skills? Are you a Consultant Radiologist looking for a new gig? Pigeon has a surprise for you…
🧑💻 Back End Developer, Nabla – Nabla are on the hunt for a Back End Engineer to build and expand their server applications, streamline their integrations and improve their back-end foundations all round. Sounds like you? You know what to do!
📈 Project Manager, Clue – This role is definitely for the planner of the friendship group. If organising, planning and strategic thinking is your thing, apply for the role of Project Manager at Clue today!
📈 Biomedical Scientist, Unravel Health — Want to help build a healthtech supporting women with hormone-linked, chronic conditions? That’s Unravel Health’s mission and they’re looking for a scientific brain to drive R&D and (by extension) their business forward.
*’Le pigeon des technologies de la santé’ didn’t have the same ring to it.
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.