#252 - You can't fight synergy... 🤝
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX.
Hey friends,
This week: Samsung goes all in on healthtech, Patients Know Best launches support for clinical trial recruitment, and yet more reactions to the ten year plan.
Your friends all listen to podcasts. Feel like you’re in on the conversation by listening to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ SomX’s Belle Taylor and Huw Penson break down the week’s best healthtech stories, with help from PocDoc’s Steve Roest.
News Bites 🥪
📺 Samsung to buy US health tech firm Xealth in digital health push – Pigeon extends a warm welcome to Samsung as it buys its way into what can only be described as a more niche part of the healthtech world – at least compared to their now omnipresent wearables. Xealth (X-ealth? Zealth? Chelth? Someone give us a clue?) is already in 500 hospitals across the US, and could be a major beachhead for Samsung’s ambitions (they’re already creating synergies…).
🌍 The Future is Already Here. It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed – In healthtech we see evidence of the gender gap in healthcare every day. But it’s sometimes too easy to talk about the gap in binary terms; Femtech Insider Founder & CEO Kathrin Folkendt reflects on the persistent gaps that make access harder for underrepresented and under-engaged groups of women, and how that access may limit the potential benefits of solutions being built in the space.
🥼 How this venture firm is making health tech work for physicians – Did you know the American Medical Association had its own VC firm? Nor did we. But the model, at least in principle, is hard to argue with: Who better to decide what tech could gain traction in healthcare settings than people working within them. Want to hear how it's going? This interview with MD M Christine Stock reveals all.
🏎️ Patients Know Best launches population health management engine to support NHS in accelerating clinical trials – If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, there’s a more than 50% chance you know Patients Know Best. Their traction and reach over the past few years has been nothing short of astonishing, and in many areas they’ve been fundamental to the features of the NHS app (not that they're limited to the UK). Now they’re making the most of the data available to them to support clinical trial recruitment too.
🌷 Handspring Secures $12M to Expand Youth Mental Health Virtual Therapy – An exciting model of virtual mental healthcare coming out of the US relies on a tech stack that includes features we’ve seen from quite a few companies in recent years – although rarely at the same time. A homegrown AI scribe, a therapist matching service and patient and provider portals come together to ease the delivery of a range of therapy types for young people. It’s not hard to see why investors backed this one.
🤔 Digital health sector reacts to NHS 10 year health plan – What? The two (yep, two) podcasts we produced for you last week weren’t enough? Fine. Here’s some perspectives from people who also know what they’re talking about. Be honest though: when it comes to predicting the future, do any of us reaaaally know what we’re talking about? (apart from that member of the public who fed back about the amazing work the government is doing to enhance genomic testing. They seem to know their s**t).
💰 Tech-led NHS could boost UK economy by £40bn, report finds – Put in another £30bn, get out £40bn. That’s (sort of) the message of a new report from BCG, Siemens Healthineers and Imperial, which dropped at a super convenient time to validate many of the promises made in the 10 year plan. Productivity gains and cost savings, commercial data revenue, and enhanced drug development timelines are just some of the areas where economic benefits could be realised.
📊 Fierce Healthcare Fundraising Tracker — Mandolin secures $40M; Autonomize AI nabs $28M; EnsoData picks up series B for sleep solutions – Variety is the spice of life, and this week’s top digital health raises shows promising investments in a variety of technologies and therapeutic areas, including hormone testing, plasma exchange clinics, and diabetic foot ulcer management. Oh, and Jennie the robotic dog…
🗒️ Future Health Intelligence Exclusive: NHS spending £230m annually on paper patient records – If you’ve had an EPR for a decade, should you still be spending £8.6m a year to maintain your paper health records? That’s a question for cleverer, more safety-focused, financially aware people to answer. (Not for this Pigeon, who just shredded every bit of paper in our mail pile and wondered why we couldn’t find our passport).
📈 Comprehensive policies for scaling systemic and equitable integration of digital health technologies – “We’re going to break the cycle of endless pilots” is one of the most commonly heard refrains from digital health policymakers. “But how?” we cry in response. Well, a new article published in Nature is doing its best to offer some tips that could help policymakers keep this promise. Will it work? Couldn’t hurt to try.
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
FEATURED: The Glastonbury of Healthtech is coming to Oxfordshire! Join us at THE FIX! - September 18th, 2025, Harwell Science Campus
Tickets are flying off the shelves (shelves are a metaphor, but the sales are real) for this healthtech festival like no other. WIth a bunch of new partners onboard, and a host of existing sessions planned (we’re trying to work out what an NHS reverse pitch is!) and a former government health minister on DJ duties (don’t worry, he’s got the chops), it’s probably not one to miss. Use the code SOMX15 for 15% off your ticket price.
Bridging the Digital Literacy Gap: Equipping Clinicians with the Future Skills They Need.
⏰ July 25
📍 Online
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 🕵️♀️
Survey: What are the biggest challenges facing Telehealth today? — Are you one of the amazing people working in healthtech who is making virtual appointments happen? Product and engineering? Ops and telehealth? Practitioner or therapist? Share your feedback on the barriers, opportunities and priorities for you and your team.
🦟 Senior Digital Health Specialist (Maternity Cover), Malaria Consortium – Expert in global health, worked in Malaria before? Know how to design, debelopm and implement a digital tool? It’s almost spooky how well you match this description. Do something about it.
❌ Software Architect, HeliosX – Everybody says they revolutionize healthcare. You’ve been doing it since before it was cool. If this sounds like you (and you’re not bad as a software developer) then this role is probably for you.
🗣️ Commercial Senior Advisor, Health Innovation East – Want to help innovative organisations crack their commercial strategies and drive adoption within healthcare? The HINs are the place to do it, and this role is the job for you.
🎤 Manager, Health, Palladium – Drive business and manage projects for an exciting consultancy working with governments to solve challenges in healthcare.
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.