The Future of Healthtech is Now
The Healthtech sector is predicted to grow by 50% globally by 2025. This month’s blog, alongside Natwest, provides insight, comment and opinion to help us understand this technology field, and explain the reasons behind how Healthtech is an ever increasing sector.
The Future of Healthtech is Now
Dr James Somauroo, Founding Partner at HS.
This month we asked Dr James Somauroo, Founding Partner at HS., for his thoughts on the latest developments, barriers and future of the Healthtech scene, as well as what they are doing at HS. to support startups that tackle global health issues.
In the past 7 years, £17bn has been invested into health tech innovation and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy predicts 50 per cent growth in the sector, globally, by 2025. Conversations I’m having with investors in the UK and beyond suggest the shift has been noticed on the ground floor too — interest in healthtech is significant and growing.
And I’m not surprised.
The healthtech sector as a whole is starting to deliver on its promise.
In the UK, for example, we’re seeing real-world change on the ground, with the CQC declaring telemedicine providers as safe and effective. Whilst telemedicine can be polarising, particularly with clinicians, patients undeniably have more choice, which not only changes the way everyday GP appointments can be conducted, it provides a platform for technologies like AI and Machine Learning to proliferate and improve patient care. In the US, the FDA takes it a lot further and regulates digital therapeutics like VR, digital pills and more.
As our sector matures, I see healthtech entrepreneurs increasingly avoiding the slow-moving cycle of relying on the NHS to scale-up their startups. The NHS needs to be respected — as a collective of organisations, it treats 1.4 million patients per day and the classic ‘move fast and break things’ ethos of tech disruption simply doesn’t cut it in healthcare systems often held in place by workarounds and good-will. Instead, entrepreneurs are building innovative solutions to global healthcare challenges — exploring other markets inside and outside the UK and scaling up as a way of more easily selling into the NHS, as opposed to the other way round.
This why I started a new healthtech accelerator and fund.
HS. is an accelerator and fund, that builds, scales and invests in the best healthtech startups to tackle global health issues. We select talent at all stages within the healthtech vertical and create a bespoke programme for each team — from individuals with ambitious ideas and excellent skillsets, to established companies looking to scale. We offer lifetime support to successful applicants and we support our founders to build internationally applicable technology from day one to scale into multiple markets, including the NHS, private healthcare sector, insurance, B-C and emerging markets.
Since launching in April 2018, our portfolio of 13 startups are valued at over £14m, bringing 7 new products to market, generating >£450,000 in revenue and winning multiple prizes and they span a hugely diverse set of technologies, clinical focuses and innovative business models. We have even set up specific tracks within the accelerator that lead to testbeds, solving the biggest problem for healthtech startups — access to customers to validate ideas and sell to.
For example, Feebris is an AI / Machine Learning platform that delivers doctor-quality detection of complex conditions, from a smart phone connected to off-the-shelf point-of-care sensors. In UK retirement villages, it’s predicting conditions in the elderly; and in rural India, it’s being used by minimally trained health workers in digital stethoscopes to diagnose babies with life-threatening conditions. It’s now even being trialled with primary care providers via our testbeds to expand remote consultations into remote monitoring services.
At the end of the day, we think it’s about creating globally applicable technology that benefits patients; and at HS., we look for and accelerate ambitious individuals and pioneering startups that are creating exactly that.
Dr. James Somauroo is a Founding Partner at HS. — an accelerator in the UK focussed on healthcare technology. James is an anaesthetist by background and previously directed a £3.4m programme that provided 61 health-tech startups with market access to the NHS, saving an estimated £48m to the health service. Prior to running healthtech accelerators, James worked at Health Education England, NHS England and the BMJ in innovation roles.
HS. is open for applications on a rolling-basis. Whether you are an individual with an idea or an established team, apply via the website at www.hs.live
HS. are currently raising a seed fund to invest directly into their portfolio. If you are interested in becoming a Limited Partner to the fund, contact James at james@hs.live.
Healthtech Startups to Watch
Lifebit are building the world’s first intelligent genomics platform that understands DNA data and generates meaningful insights like humans do.
Their cloud-based cognitive system that can reason about DNA data like humans do offers researchers and R&D professionals, and their corresponding organisations (ie. pharmas), a highly scalable, modular and reproducible system that automates the analysis processes, learns from the data and provides actionable insights.
Motilent are focused on delivering innovative services for the quantitative investigation of the gut.
Using medical imaging technology they aim to make some of the latest and most exciting image analysis technologies available to the researchers who can use them to make the important scientific advances required to advance our understanding of gastrointestinal disease.
Motilent are a resident startup at IDEALondon, an innovation space in the heart of Tech City, managed by Capital Enterprise alongside Cisco, EDF Energy and UCL.
Kiroku enables dental practitioners spend significantly less time writing clinical notes with its revolutionary AI dental assistant. The AI assistant translates conversation into notes, making clinical note taking faster, easier, less onerous and more accurate by removing human error.
ThinkSono is a company at the cutting edge of medicine and technology. The team consists of world class engineers and clinicians to solve the problem of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) diagnosis. DVT is one of the world’s deadliest conditions, associated with 800,000 deaths a year.
Juno want to transform the pregnancy experience — empowering women with personalised, compassionate and convenient healthcare, on demand. They are building technology for maternal physical and mental health, giving women better access to care when they need it.
Healthtech in the News
A look at why the healthcare industry should be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to a far greater degree than at present, but why progress so far has been slow.
The strong majority of fraud cases involve healthcare providers, but Machine Learning can help to limit this.
The Healthtech Advisory Board, comprising of IT experts, clinicians and academics, came together at the first meeting on 19th November 2018 to help guide the government on its mission to transform technology in the NHS and to advise on technology for health and social care.
This article explores why IoT devices are expected to lead to personalised solutions in the area of health insurance, according to The State of FinTech Report, 2018.
A look at how regulation, which is essential for the healthcare industry, is far from easy when the rise of digital and mobile technologies has seen the pace of innovation accelerate rapidly.
Healthtech Events of Note
The Future of Health-Tech, Silicon Roundabout
Friday 18th January 2019, 5–9pm
With Healthtech changing the way we live, Silicon Roundabout’s Healthtech meetup will focus on how Health Technology solutions will change the world around us. The event is designed for all those who are working in or interested in healthtech, looking to get in-depth knowledge of the industry and to meet other professionals in the field.
Health Innovation Christmas Networking Event
Wednesday 12th December 2018, 6–8pm
Health Innovation Network, alongside DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, are hosting a networking event for their community, so that stakeholders can hear about each other’s work, see some of this year’s innovations in practice and make connections that could lead to further spread and adoption of current innovations.
The Digital Health Technology Show 2019
Tuesday 12th — Wednesday 13th March 2019
The Digital Health Technology Show returns to ExCel London for it’s third year in 2019, bringing together global innovators in digital health, to showcase the very latest technologies disrupting traditional healthcare provision across the world.
Tuesday 26th March 2019
WIRED Health is a one-day conference exploring the future of health, digital health and healthcare. Celebrating the thought-provoking (and sometimes regulation-changing) disruptors, scientists and practitioners who are paving new paths in patient care, this event connects professionals with innovative brands and startups to provide the right inspiration and context for implementing change.
Thank you to Dr James Somauroo, Nathan McNally and Gracie Jones
