#286: Microsoft Copilot Health launches & penguin robots are BACK
The one-minute (ish) healthtech roundup, by SomX.
Hello healthtech fans.
This week: The real breaking news is that not all LinkedIn content is actually AI slop⊠Weâve sourced our stories (almost) entirely from LinkedIn posts for this one, which means a couple of thingsâŠ
If you click the headlines, youâll have some new healthtech people to follow.
If you post some genuinely newsworthy healthtech content, we might pick it up and make a joke about it to almost 8,000 people. Youâve been warned.
đ Fancy this newsletter in podcast form? đ Well⊠Click this linky link to get the pod on Spotify. And itâs on the SomX YouTube channel if you like to look at the faces of people when they talk.
News Bites đ„Ș
đ€ Microsoft launches Copilot Health: đđŒ Microsoft has entered the chat and thatâs their launch video. OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Google (the Fitbit thing) now have another one to compete with in the âBig Tech Race To Become Your Personal AI Health Buddy.â In terms of Microsoftâs pitch, itâs a secure space within Copilot that pulls together your wearables, health records and lab results to give you personalised insights and a âcoherent storyâ so you can understand your specific health situations and answer your questions. Through HealthEx, they grab health records from over 50,000 US hospitals and providers, and lab results through Function. Mustafa Suleymanâs calling it âfirst steps towards a medical superintelligence,â which, to be fair, could have also applied at the discovery of electricity, so Pigeonâs not sure that phrase adds a great deal. Our take? You wonât be short of an AI provider giving you contextual-healthcare-understanding-as-a-conversational-service, but the questions are: will any of them have a superior product? Or will this just be down to who already has the distribution? Expect a land grab.*
đïž Tandem Health and Accurx are deploying AVT across 10,000 NHS clinicians: AVT = Ambient Voice Technology btw. I feel like that acronym crept in at some point. Hands up if youâve ever pretended to know that and forgot to Google it later đđ»ââïžâŠ Anyway, the race for secondary care is now on. Leicester and Northamptonshire have jointly procured the Accurx Scribe (powered by Tandem Health) covering around 2.5 million outpatient appointments a year over a four-year programme**. Digital Health News has the full story if our neatly wrapped summary has whet your appetiteâŠ
ââđ« 600+ womenâs health leaders warn social media censorship is costing lives: Dr Aziza Sesay (GP, educator and LinkedIn Health Influencer of the Year***) was quoted in The Independent on her work with the CensHERship campaign to end the censorship of womenâs health and sexual wellbeing content. And now sheâs being quoted in Pigeon too!**** What a week for Dr Sesay. Though, the numbers are, frankly, hard to fathom - 95% of womenâs health creators have experienced censorship in the past year. And thatâs rejected ad campaigns, removed educational posts, and shadowbanned content. Women are, quite literally, dying of embarrassment. Shame and stigma prevent them from coming forward, and, by reinforcing that taboo, platforms are, algorithmically, making it worse. This topic keeps coming up in Pigeon, and it will continue to, until we see some change.
đź Remote echocardiography arrives in rural Queensland: Youâll have heard last week on the Healthtech Pigeon podcast about the links between gaming and medicine being incredibly strong. Now, thereâs further evidence to take a week off when GTA launches***** because you might be deploying those skills to remotely control a robotic echocardiography arm. In rural Queensland, Australia, where access to diagnostic tools can be literally days away, a sonographer with a Playstation controller has so far scanned 70 patients and delivered 70 diagnoses. BRB forwarding this to my mum, my wife and my accountant. Check out the video in Bertalan Meskoâs post đđŒ.
đ„ Alder Hey Innovation turns 10: Iain Hennessey, paediatric surgeon and innovation director, marks a decade since he co-founded the innovation programme at Alder Hey Childrenâs Hospital. What started as a small team inside a hospital has become a genuine model for how the NHS can embed innovation at trust level⊠3D printing, AI rota management, international partnerships, and a culture where clinicians with problems walk downstairs and work with people who build solutions. Theyâre celebrating with a two-day event on 19-20 March. If youâre nearby, go support and learn some things.
đ§ Forget living longer. Learn to live slower: Want a refreshing outlook on longevity? Dr Jordan Shlain, San Francisco-based physician and founder of Private Medical, shared a beautifully written piece pushing back on the longevity movementâs obsession with the horizontal axis (adding years to life) and making the case for the vertical axis (how much life you can fit into a single hour). His argument is that the people who live longest arenât tracking their methylation clocks, theyâre present for their actual lives. Full essay on his Substack and I really recommend seeing Jordan speak if you can. A fantastic presenter.
And finally...
đžđŹ Singapore becomes the first country to reach WHOâs highest classification for medical device regulation: This one goes out to all the regulation lovers******. Singaporeâs Health Sciences Authority has become the first country in the world to hit Maturity Level 4 under WHOâs Global Benchmarking Tool for medical devices. What does that actually mean? Basically the Lionel Messi of Maturity Levels under the Roger Federer of Global Benchmarking Tools so⊠you know, pretty good.
đ° HIMSS26: Vegas wraps up and the verdict is in - itâs agents all the way: Over 25,000 healthcare leaders hit Vegas for HIMSS26 and the word of the week was âagenticâ - AI that does things. Epic stole the show with its trio of named AI agents (Art, Penny and Emmie) and a no-code âAgent Factoryâ for health systems to build their own. Amazon turned Prime into a quasi-primary-care membership with five free clinician consultations via its new Health AI tool. And VSee launched a fully autonomous telehealth robot that navigates hospital corridors using LiDAR and infrared night vision⊠thrilling, terrifying⊠and reminds me⊠whatever happened to the Milton Keynes NHS penguin robots? Great use of funds, massive success and rolled out nationally, I assume?
What to watch & listen to đ
"Thereâs 10 minutes I wonât get backâ is absolutely NOT what youâll be saying after watching this HIMSS roundup from Tjasa and Pete, hosts of your favourite European and Australian podcasts respectively. Basic podcasts (Iâll say it⊠like mine) will record remotely or occasionally âpush the boat outâ for a studio. Meanwhile Tjasa and Pete actually push a ****ing boat out in Little Venice in Las Vegas making the rest of us podcasters laughably boring. Well played.
Iâm joined by Dr. Elsa Zekeng, founder of SökerData who shares the story behind building a company tackling one of healthcareâs most persistent blind spots: biased and underrepresented clinical trial data. It might notâve been recorded on a boat (see above), but Elsaâs work deserves your attention.
From sampling patientsâ DNA through blood tests to screen for diseases to identifying which medicine works best with your DNA, in this conversation Dr. Eric Green argues that genomic sequencing isnât just effective, itâs economical.
Kavita Palmer, clinician and Co-Founder of Word360, a multilingual and translation support platform used across the NHS, talks about her mission to tackle the language and communications barriers within the NHS.
Events đ
Digital Health Rewired
đ
24-25th March
đŹđ§ The NEC, Birmingham, England
The UKâs biggest digital health expo, connecting NHS leaders, care providers, researchers, start-ups and suppliers under one roof. Over 80 speakers across ten stages covering everything from EPR optimisation and cyber to AI, neighbourhood care and clinical frontline digital.
Clinical Product Drinks #002 đž
đ
25th March
đŹđ§ 41 Gracechurch St, London, England
A chance to step away from the screen, grab a drink and connect with others working at the intersection of healthcare, product and tech. The event is capped to keep it intimate and low-key. Good crowd.
BioSolutions UK
đ
21st April
đŹđ§Glaziers Hall, London
A chance to showcase your biotech and gain insights from leaders shaping the bioeconomy.
Hardian Health Tech Summit 2026
đ
29th April
đŹđ§BMA House, London
The annual Hardian Health Tech Summit is bigger than ever! Join leading voices from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, US Food and Drug Administration, NICE and industry innovators as they share real-world insights on getting regulatory-authorised healthtech to market.
Opportunities đ”ïžââïž
đŹ Senior Consultant â Software Quality Assurance, Hardian Health: If you know your IEC 62304 from your ISO 14971, have a passion for quality assurance and cutting-edge medical device software, thereâs no way you wonât want to apply for this role at Hardian Health, they're the go-to consultancy for getting AI and software medical devices through regulatory clearance!
đ§âđ» Commercial & Strategy Lead, Numan: Strategy, partnerships, commercialisation, all the fun stuff, whatâs not to love? Apply today.
đ„ Clinical Director, Heidi Health: This role is one for someone whoâs been in the game a long time and knows the lay of the healthcare land. As clinical director, youâll shape Heidiâs strategic approach, secure lighthouse health-system relationships and guide pilots through evaluation to scale.
R&D, Innovation Funding & a Bit of Funding Wizardry: If youâre a startup that wants free money through tax credit claims, grant proposals, and/or funding applications that stand up to scrutiny and keep you out of the HMRC doghouse (why on earth wouldnât you), Create and Innovate can sort you out. Mention that Pigeon sent you and somehow itâs even better than free money.
Jamesâ editor notes:
* Please donât use the phrase âmedical superintelligenceâ to anyone whoâs just come off a 12 hour shift unless you want a reality check to the face.
** Feels like we need a section called âscribe warsâ where we keep a tally of the market share and announcements of all the horses in the scribe race.
*** Pigeon mustâve been a close second.
**** If readers could get in touch to let her know what a flex that is, please and thanks.
***** I know itâs a stretch but Iâm building my case.
****** Who isnât?
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See you next week, Pigeon fans âđŒ