#261 Brilliant Bacterial Breakthrough in Breastmilk Microbiome
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX.
Hi friends,
This week: Boobs, kidneys and Holly Valance. Iām not even joking - read on.
News Bites š„Ŗ
š¤ British startup BoobyBiome raises ā¬2.8 million for infant health with breast milk microbiome breakthrough - Not all families are able to breastfeed. Enter BoobyBiome. After building the worldās largest, high-resolution breast milk microbiome database, theyāve created a live microbiome drop containing beneficial bacteria isolated from breast milk... and a patented device that enhances the quality of expressed milk to preserve the natural microbiome. Superb.
š¤ Digital Health Gains Still Out of Reach, BMJ Commission Finds - The bad news? 300 HCPs surveyed and the majority said admin hasnāt been made any easier with digital transformation efforts so far. Cool cool cool. Hefty investments, promised boosts in productivity, efficiency, and lighter workloads are, fingers crossed, coming soon... But there is hope, literally. The article says there was āstriking gapā between the optimism for digital transformation and its impact... Relatable. We have multiple podcasts, newsletters and an entire comms agency behind this, in the hope healthtech works at some point.
š„ Strive Health snags $550M for AI-driven kidney care - Pigeon never ceases to be amazed by the lack of verbs associated with raising money. āTo snagā is an interestingly popular choice given that a āsnagā in the UK is a āsmall problem.ā And having $550M would not be a small problem. Anyway, Strive do AI stuff and they predict kidney disease earlier. They also raised from Hercules Capital, among others, which sounds glorious.*
š” Oracle ramps up agentic AI for healthcare, unveils new features for patients, rev cycle and clinical trials suite - Oracle is aiming to move ahead of its rivals in the AI arms race, unveiling a new AI-first, voice-enabled EHR system built from scratch, designed to embed āarmies of AI agentsā into clinical workflows, revenue cycle, patient engagement, and clinical trial recruitment. Basically, youāre gonna feel like Robocop going to work on this thing and, famously in healthcare, everything like this always works exactly as described and everyone loves it - awesome.
āļø DHSC reduces annual spend on data infrastructure by Ā£12.6m - Pigeon is scratching its head at this one. The DHSC's budget for data spending was sharply cut from Ā£37.7m to Ā£25.1mā¦ a surprising move, given the NHS 10 Year Plan chatting hard about going from analogue to digital. A think tank has said that rolling back investment in data staff highlights "a worrying trendā and impossible-to-pronounce-without-hearing-it tech firm, Datactics (data-tactiā¦ dactac.. datixā¦ wtf) , says cutting corners means higher risks.**
š Best and worst-performing NHS Trusts in England named - Brilliant. The latest outbound sales strategy for crisis comms teams has just been released. Under the new system, hospitals will be ranked every three months, with top performers granted more autonomy and spending powers, while stragglers are encouraged to learn from higher-ranked peers. Yeah, thatās exactly what you need when youāre not performing wellā¦ a lecture from those that are. Great. Pigeonās wondering if there should be more of an NFL draft mentality***. Otherwise, doesnāt everything keep getting worse?
š„ø Smart glasses and AI filter apps among new tech to transform the mental health of millions - You heard it here first. The UK government is specifically backing smart glasses. 17 projects supported by a share of Ā£3.6 million from Innovate UK could treat people in every corner of the UK, ideally helping reduce costs to the NHS and somehow avoid the impending doom of having all the horrendous stuff from phones permanently placed in your eye-line at the billionaire tech brosā call. Backed by Science Minister, Lord Vallance (no relation to Holly****), the aim is to treat more people, particularly those with complex needs, including those in remote or underserved areas, through scalable, immersive care.
š Apple deepens health ambitions with Watch and AirPods features for hypertension, ovulation and sleep apnoea - Apple is once again flexing its massive, bulging, veiny, slightly-nauseating-but-canāt-take-your-eyes-off-them consumer health muscles, turning AirPods and Watches into... you know what, I just grossed myself out with that imagery - itās late, Iām out.
What to Listen to š
Events š
THE FIX (Featured event)
š
Sept 18
š Harwell Science Campus, Oxfordshire
A hands-on, practical, mind-expanding, friendship-building, exploratory, curiosity-led, science-based, creative, artistic, participatory, decentralised, experimental, edgy, live, risky, urgent and unpredictable gathering of the talented people working on health technologies. A production of VOYAGERS. Use SOMX15 for a 15% discount.
HealthtechX (Featured Event)
š
November 5
š Hurlingham Club, London
Bringing together the leaders shaping the sectorās defining issues. Whether itās AI deployment into the NHS, the resurgence of consumer health or the biggest investment opportunities for the year ahead ā weāve got you covered.
Use code HTX25SUMMER50 for a whopping 50% off, but you need to do that TODAY - Sunday 14th September!
LSX World Congress USA
š
Sept 16 - 18
šBoston
TEDxNHS 2025
š
Sept 27
šLondon
When Fast-Growth Companies meet Impact Capital and Mission-driven Investors
š
Sept 29
šLeeds
BMJ Future Health conference
š
Nov 6 - 7
š London
Opportunities šµļøāāļø
šæ Digital Health Commercial Relations Manager, Scarlet - Do you want to develop a world-class industry-engagement function, building deep connections with individuals and organisations in the digital health ecosystem, attend industry events, and grow awareness and adoption of Scarlet as the AI-specialised Notified Body? Youāre in luck.
š Senior Product Manager, DrDoctor - Healthtech royalty, DrDoctor, need someone to own the Clinical Pathways product end-to-end: set vision and strategy, lead a cross-functional squad, run discovery, ship improvements that help the NHS save time and money while improving patient and staff experience. Youāll be a seasoned PM (SaaS ideal; healthtech/NHS a plus) comfortable with complex products and data-driven decision-making.
š¤ AI Clinical Coding QA, Jigsaw Medical - Help NHS Trusts check and improve AI-generated clinical codes in this one. Youāll review outputs, ensure compliance with ICD-10/OPCS-4, feed back to the product/ML team, and raise overall coding quality. ACC-qualified? 5+ yearsā NHS coding? Deep grasp of NHS standards (audit/encoder experience a plus)? No brainer.
š§āāļø Manager Digital Health Technologies, Regeneron - Want to transform the future of clinical trials through digital innovation? As a DHT Manager, youāll lead the implementation of eCOAs, eConsent, wearables, sensors, and other digital tools across global studies driving quality, compliance, vendor performance, and process improvements while advancing digital transformation in clinical development. Wowee.
š¢ Principal Healthcare Data Consultant, Kainos - Passionate about advancing healthcare through data and AI? In this technical leadership role, youāll shape NHS and public health opportunities, lead preāsales engagements, and design data strategies and architectures to drive measurable improvements across the UK healthcare system. Boom.
š° Business Development Manager - HealthTech, iO Associates - Ready to drive growth in UK healthcare tech? In this resultsāfocused role, youāll own a highāperforming territory, expand NHS and private sector accounts, and deliver consultative, valueādriven solutions. Owning a territory sounds cool.
* Disappointing website - not a toga or Greek God in sight. Iām sure itās great financing, I just wanted more from the visual aesthetic.
** Theyāre right. I quite literally cut a corner in cross country once. I knew the risks. And I got detention. Lesson learned.
*** Yeah itās niche, but hear me out - in the NFL (American football for those unaware), the team that finishes last gets first pick of the best new players the next season - it evens out the quality of players and keeps the competition balanced. Translation for the NHS: if a trust is bottom of the table and struggling financially, it should get more resource to catch up, not lessā¦ Orā¦ how about this for an ideaā¦ we draft the chief execs every year like this and televise it for revenue. Has the added benefit of showing them what it feels like to be a doctor with absolutely no f***ing idea where youāll be next year.
**** Since Neighbours, pop music and questionable movie fame, Holly Valance has weirdly become massive on the hard right political scene, fundraising for Farage and Trump. Was not expecting to see that - literally just Googled her to check she wasnāt related to the Lord. People can surprise you.