#236 - Up, Up and Away! 🚀
The one-minute healthtech roundup, kindly sponsored by Whereby - secure video calls for telehealth.
Hi friends,
This week: It’s human nurses up against the AI nurses, politicians meddling in healthcare and some big name collaborations.
Your friends all listen to podcasts. Be interesting at your next dinner party by listening to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ Belle and Hollie from SomX break down the best stories from this week’s newsletter with help from Sword Health’s Robbie Huddleston. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Integrating video calling into your digital health solution can be a major pain, particularly when it comes to finding secure, developer-friendly platforms that treat users’ data as carefully as you do. Whereby specialises in integrated video calls for Telehealth. For over a decade, we’ve collaborated with healthcare professionals to enable seamless virtual consultations. We’re focused on optimising patient and practitioner experience while removing unnecessary heavy lifting from your engineering team with our flexible video call API.
News Bites 🥪
🤖 Can AI help detect cognitive impairment? – Researchers have built a simple, affordable gadget to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by tracking how well older adults walk and stand while counting backward at the same time. Powered by AI, the system correctly identified 83% of MCI cases, which is a pretty big deal, Pigeon must say. The goal is to get this device into senior centers and clinics so more people can catch cognitive issues early on.
🧠 Synchron’s Brain-Computer Interface Now Has Nvidia’s AI – Synchron’s latest brain implant, powered by Nvidia AI and Apple Vision Pro, lets people with paralysis control their homes just by thinking — turning on the lights and feeding pets, all with the power of the mind! Not to worry though, they promise there’s a kill switch… you know, to stop the light show in the middle of the night.
💍 This smart ring promises health insights even Google and Apple haven’t cracked – Pigeon isn’t much of a wearable kind of birdy, but we see the appeal. The newest smart ring on the block, Circular Ring 2, promises to track blood pressure and blood glucose trends, something that many OG’s have yet to conquer.
🔗 Building interoperable healthcare systems: One size doesn’t fit all – Everyone loves the idea of a perfectly connected healthcare system. Unfortunately for us, it’s not quite that simple: the reality is that there’s no magic, one-size-fits-all solution. Turns out, money, governance, and existing tech actually matter when designing these systems. Who would have thought!?
🏢 NHS innovation centre floated as UKRI backs Labour’s missions – Want to know how UK Research and Innovation is spending its £9 billion research budget? The government is considering an “NHS Catapult” to drive healthcare innovation by looking at ways to tackle NHS inefficiencies like staffing shortages and digitalisation. Critics worry this is just politicians meddling in research, but officials insist it’s all about alignment.
🤝 DispatchHealth and Medically Home merge, creating one of nation's largest hospital-at-home providers – Who doesn’t get that warm fuzzy feeling inside when companies are working together for the greater good? DispatchHealth and Medically Home, two big players in the hospital-at-home game, are joining forces to create the ultimate at-home care platform — leveraging telehealth, virtual call centres, and bedside tech to potentially save 62,000 hospital stays per year.
💰 Perci Health receives six figure investment from Macmillan Cancer Support– When one of the biggest names in the industry hands you a six-figure investment, you must be doing something right. Why we haven’t got one yet is a question for another time. Macmillan Cancer Support is backing Perci Health to expand its virtual cancer clinic. Already helping thousands, Perci now aims to scale up, partnering with workplaces, insurers, and even the NHS. Now, about that Pigeon fund…
👩⚕️ As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back – Can’t we all just kumbaya around the nurse’s station? With hospitals introducing AI nurses like Ana – who’s available 24/7, speaks multiple languages, and never needs a break (because, well, she’s not real) – many real nurses aren’t exactly thrilled. Why? They worry it’s just a high-tech excuse to cut staff. Boy oh boy are tensions high.
📹 How To Optimise Telehealth UI & UX for Better Patient Experience — When it comes to choosing their healthcare, people tend to vote with their feet. Telehealth developers need to ensure that their users’ engagement with their platforms are seamless — and video calls are often the cornerstone of that experience. In their latest blog, Whereby — video call specialists for telehealth, outline the key elements of a high quality telehealth experience.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
The Rise of Consumer Healthtech
🕣 March 27
📍 London
NextMed Health
🕣 March 30 - April 2
📍 San Diego
Co-designing digital health solutions: Shared learnings from clinicians
🕣 March 31
📍 Online
Bio Breakfast London (Bits in Bio x ScienceMachine x future.bio)
🕣 April 2
📍 London
SomX Healthtech Talks @ Google
🕣 April 7
📍 London
LBS Healthcare Conference — Get a 25% discount on your ticket using this link
🕣 April 14 - 15
📍 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 🕵️♀️
👷 Clinical Engineer, Anima – If you are obsessively concerned with UX, can code with your eyes closed and want to use your medical training every day to solve interesting technical problems, Pigeon has just the role for you.
📈 Commercial Lead, DrDoctor – This role is for the people who can nurture strong relationships with the decision-makers in the NHS, actively engage in sales activities and create tailored solutions for clients. If this sounds like you then what are you waiting for!
🎨 Senior Product Designer, ZOE – Want the opportunity to design best-in-class e-commerce experiences? This role is one that will allow your creative juices to flow and what’s even better? You’ll be working with a great team too! Win-win!
🥼 Medical Director - Now, Pigeon wanted to keep an air of mystery around this role but if you're interested in working for a company dedicated to making holistic health more accessible through an AI-driven, direct-to-consumer product — featuring biomarker testing and personalized wellness plans — email your CV to this address and watch your dreams come true - healthstealthapps@gmail.com
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.