#263 Needleless vaccines means needless needles needed less
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX... and kindly sponsored by Whereby - secure video calls for telehealth.
Hi friends,
This week: Time Magazine gives every healthtech company 3 reasons to call SomX; someone’s basically shrunk a Ring doorbell and put it on a wound; and new research shows that if you hang a pint of Stella off your skin, you no longer need vaccines.
Listen to us chatting through this week’s stories on the Healthtech Pigeon podcast if you like that sort of thing
Integrating video calling into digital health can be a challenge and in reality, “good enough”, rarely is. Security gaps, clunky experiences, and unreliable connections all risk eroding patient trust. Whereby is different. For over a decade, we’ve partnered with healthcare professionals to move away from mediocre by delivering secure, reliable, and easy-to-use video consultations. Our flexible API makes it simple to embed video calls directly into your platform, reducing engineering overhead, leaving you to focus on what you do best. Keep scrolling for their special report!
News Bites 🥪
🌍 World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2025 - Time Magazine’s annual list is surprisingly prestigious when, let’s be honest, we don’t generally flex healthtech coverage in Time, but… good for you if you made the list. If you were wondering, they partnered with one of those data… statisticy… analyticy… companies and scored ‘financial performance, reputation analysis, and online engagement.’ So, if you’re wondering, a dodgy accountant, some fake reviews and loads of likes on your LinkedIn posts will get you on the list. Loads of SomX clients on there, so if you’re wondering… yes, we help officially with one, and unofficially with the other two of those.*
🧑⚕️ OpenAI Augmenting ChatGPT With An Online Network Of Human Therapists Will Skyrocket The Need For Mental Health Professionals - Sleuths at Pigeon HQ found this unnoticed whopper of a statement from OpenAI, who, back on 25th August said that they intend to establish a global online network of therapists that ChatGPT would leverage as referral sources for users who might need mental health advice. They know the extent that people at risk of harm use ChatGPT and they’re exploring how to intervene earlier and connect people to certified therapists before they’re in an acute crisis. Lance Elliot, who wrote this for Forbes, has done a wonderful deep dive.
🤖 Medtronic doubles the size of its London center for AI and robotic surgery - Robotic surgeons are on the rise as Medtronic expands its East London site into the company’s largest global hub for AI and surgical robotics. It features a mock robotic operating theatre where healthcare professionals test the new tech and glimpse the future of digital surgery firsthand. Pigeon isn’t too keen on the thought of being sliced open by a robot; there’s little doubt that this tech points to the next era of surgical care. If you’re keen to learn more about Metronic, robotic surgery and the intent to transform healthcare with AI, George Murgatroyd, their GM was on The Healthtech Podcast a few weeks ago.
🧩 Jigsaw Medical wins Innovate UK grant to accelerate AI clinical coding - Grant won a grant! Friend of Pigeon and NHS surgeon, Grant Nolan, has won an Innovate UK grant. Why does it matter? Because clinical coding is laborious, manual, and, in places, susceptible to variability or just plain simple and repetitive. Automating what can be with AI means faster turnarounds, fewer errors, more consistent insights, and humans freed up to spend more time on the cases that need them. Next… will Grant get a bigger grant?
🤕 Smart device uses AI and bioelectronics to speed up wound healing process - Pigeon often gets bumps and scrapes by flying around too enthusiastically after a few pints. However, help is at hand as A-Heal’s smart bandage uses cutting-edge AI to speed up the wound healing process. Equipped with a tiny AI camera, it continuously monitors the wound’s healing stage and delivers personalised treatments through a first-of-its-kind closed-loop system. This tech is certainly a cut above a cheap sticking plaster from the school nurses’ office, but a pending £multimillion RCT will decide if it beats the ‘kiss it better’ or ‘magic cream’ approaches from your mum.**
🫀 Heartflow’s updated coronary plaque analysis AI nets FDA clearance, more payer coverage - The regulatory gurus at the FDA have given the nod to new 3D AI visualisations that improve detection of coronary plaque blockages by 21%. I think we can all agree that the future of healthcare should have more 3D visualisations of stuff all-round. The fact we’re not practicing medicine like Tom Cruise in Minority Report yet explains why applications to medical school are dropping. Frankly, it needs sorting out.
💉 Stretching the skin could enable vaccines to be given without a needle - Nobody likes being a human pin cushion at the best of times, especially when it comes to vaccines. New research from King’s College London suggests that using suction to stretch skin could allow needle-free vaccine delivery by increasing skin permeability and immune cell activity. Apparently, 6 newtons of suction is the magic number to rearrange collagen fibres, open hair follicles, trigger stromal cells and bring in cytokines. If you were to put one of those window sucker things on your skin and hang a pint and a half of beer off it, that’s supposedly what 6N would be like. Not sure you needed to know that, but there you go… now you know what to do before putting on your ibuprofen gel I guess.***
🧑💻 The State of Virtual Care - Telehealth went from a crisis lifeline to a cornerstone of modern care since the pandemic, but the systems built overnight during COVID can’t keep up with today’s needs. Patients and clinicians now expect seamless, accessible, trustworthy virtual care, yet scepticism and glitches still hold adoption back. Pigeon often suffers from resting glitch face on Zoom calls, but ironing out the bugs in the systems is crucial to boost user confidence and improve their overall experience. Here are some of the highlights from Whereby’s latest report:
Human factors are the biggest barrier for telehealth platforms - can’t blame the PIgeons for this one!
Trust, security and usability outweigh flashy features
Technical reliability is an everyday struggle - computer says no, with 90% of respondents encountering video call issues at least occasionally.
And if you want to find out what else the report had to say, soar on over to the Whereby website where all the insights await.
What to Listen to 🔊
Events 📅
When Fast-Growth Companies meet Impact Capital and Mission-driven Investors
📅 Sept 29
📍Leeds
Rock Health Summit
📅 Sept 30
📍San Francisco
AI in Health Summit by The Economist Impact
📅 Oct 1
📍 London
NXGN - Leveraging tech in women’s health
📅 Oct 2
📍 London
techUK Health and Care Summit 2025
📅 Oct 2
📍 London
HealthtechX
📅 November 5
📍 Hurlingham Club, London
IEEE Global Public Health Forum 2025 – Powering AI for Climate-Ready Population Health
📅 Nov 6
📍London, UK
BMJ Future Health conference
📅 Nov 6 - 7
📍 London
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
🤱🏻 Calling all startups supporting young people with cancer - Young Lives vs Cancer’s Innovation Lab is backing bold healthcare and technology ideas to transform lives. With a focus on mental wellbeing, financial hardship, education and employment, personalised care, and diagnosis experiences, they offer access to financial investment, rich real-world data, collaboration with frontline practitioners, and most importantly, direct insight from young people and families. If you’re driven to make a difference and ready to co-create with those who’ve lived it, they want to hear from you.
🧠 Meridian Health Ventures is looking for promising mental health innovations - Earlier this year, it launched Europe’s first NHS-partnered fund dedicated to scaling innovative mental health startups, delivered in partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Joining forces with The Wellcome Trust, The Mental Health Fund is now opening its doors for its second Immersion Programme in late November.
🎩 Head of Technology Solutions, Experis - Are you ready to lead a focused team delivering cutting-edge software and services in healthcare? You’ll bring strong expertise in service delivery, deep knowledge of clinical systems, especially RIS/PACS, and broad healthcare sector experience.
Senior Director of Solutions Development, United Health Group - Interested in making an impact in a fast-evolving healthcare landscape? You’ll build trusted partnerships across Optum, UHG, and external collaborators to deliver innovative digital health solutions in the UK.
Master Principal Sales Consultant - Healthcare IT, Oracle - Looking to drive impactful digital health solutions while leading collaborative teams in the UK healthcare sector? You’ll guide complex sales opportunities, deliver persuasive Oracle presentations and demos, and advise clients on sophisticated architectural solutions.
* Yes, you guessed it, for legal reasons, this is obviously a joke… Or is it…? Yea nah, definitely is.
** You know, once I found out that the ‘magic dust’ my dad (once a band 10 NHS nurse) was using… was salt. He was literally rubbing salt in the wound. Apparently, he had a point.
*** To be clear… I have absolutely no idea what will happen if you do that before putting on ibuprofen gel. Do that at your own risk. But credit us if it works, obviously.