mending broken INFORMATION LOOPS
and more insights on what WE ARE ABOUT
February 2022
by Marta Gaia Zanchi
I spent over three years of my doctorate in electrical engineering working to “close the loop” of the first-of-its-kind, frequency-offset Cartesian feedback control system ever used to ensure accurate control of the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields in Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanners, which in turn is necessary to ensure patient safety and provide high-quality diagnostic capabilities. For most of that time, I lived inside a Faraday cage (an enclosure made of copper wire used to block electromagnetic fields) that was about the size of a generous closet in the windowless basement of an engineering department.
Thinking about where I am now, you’d be tempted to say life couldn’t be any more different. I chuckle, however, thinking about the two ways in which my work has fundamentally stayed the same. (Yes, electrical engineers chuckle for the strangest things.) First, I am still irrationally passionate about fixing healthcare through technology. Second, I have not stopped looking for broken information loops to mend.
If this is not the first time you’ve read about Nina Capital, you know by now that we are all about healthcare technology. For us to even consider being a good match for your startup, you have to have both ingredients: a healthcare problem, and a technology solution for it.
On the healthcare bit, we are pretty agnostic. There’s plenty of problems around, many of them compelling and timely, that if solved will create lots of value — for patients and other healthcare stakeholders, be they care providers, biopharma, insurers, device manufacturers, etc. As long as you come to us committed to finding just the right solution for the needs you’re solving — we are interested in learning about them all, and have already written about (and invested in fixing) many of them.
On the technology bit, we have some pretty strong ideas. We have this vision for healthcare to be increasingly information-driven. If you’ve taken a look at our website, you have probably found words such as data, computing, networks, digital and deep technologies. Obviously, you can’t solve all of healthcare’s needs with information… so, consider this the equivalent of our search filter. We are biased to think that this focus is enough to keep us busy for a long time to come. But what does that mean exactly?
We think about our industry — about healthcare — as one that is plagued by many broken information loops.
Some information loops are really small. They are as small as one image, a wearable device, or a system that fits inside a human-sized Faraday cage. The same image speaks different measurements to different physicians. The device or system spits out some data, but the data does not translate into actions that drive some meaningful, measurable differences for the patient using it. That, right there, is a sign of a broken information loop.
Some information loops are about the size of an entire organization or community. They are as sizable as an international pharmaceutical company, or a large hospital, or a whole patient population. The organization or population produces data, but the data is inaccessible, or cannot be moved, and ultimately cannot be used. It is reasonable to believe there’s some precious insights to be had from unlocking it that can be applied towards the whole becoming a better version of itself. But, the information loop is broken.
Some information loops are as large as an entire healthcare ecosystem. They are as huge as a whole industry. Hospitals carry out procedures, for a price; biopharma and device manufacturers sell the tools for physicians to carry out those procedures; insurers wants to understand the true value of those procedures, drugs, and devices; and patients trust someone has not forgotten, in all that talk about money, that all they want is to get better. Everyone knows their side of the story, few are sharing it in a language that the rest can understand. Again, the information loop is broken!
Take a look at our portfolio, and you’ll find many companies that are working hard to mend these broken information loops.
For example, companies like Promptly Health and Hi.Health connect the dots across entire organizations and patients to minimize ecosystem’s waste and inefficiencies. Quantivly and Lena unlock data to radically change the way a hospital’s leadership optimizes its practice by making smarter use of its resources. MedAll and The Lowdown mobilize clinicians and patient communities around the sharing of valuable information. EarlySight and Elypta see with unprecedented resolution what was not accessible before, bringing more information to physicians for the early diagnosis of diseases. Neurescue’s portable device uses sensors coupled with an intelligent safety feedback system to facilitate a safe aortic occlusion procedure for emergency patients. And, Terapet closes the loop between proton deposition and therapy delivery so that the latter can be more precise than ever. For a full list, visit our portfolio page at nina.capital/companies.
If your company has some elements of data, computing, networks, digital and deep technologies, odds are pretty high that you’re on your way to mend some broken information look, and that we could be a good match for you in your journey.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Marta-Gaia Zanchi
