Future Health Mission winners announced

Healthcare IT innovators have won six out of 20 places on the Future Health Mission to Boston, USA. 

The mission departs later this month to secure partnerships and investment for the winners’ transformative health products.

A clinical decision support platform devised by doctors for doctors, an online child personal health record and digital applications devised to support independent living are among the IT-based winners.

They will benefit from a package of investor, supply chain partner and customer meetings and networking opportunities in Boston and also visit the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CIMIT, the Centre for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies.

The trip is the seventh Future Mission and the second specialising in health. Previous missions have raised more than $200m for UK businesses and provided less tangible but important links to international markets.

Future Missions are organised by the Long Run Venture and the Co-Sponsorship Agency with key partners the Technology Strategy Board and UK Trade and Investment. A total of 120 applications were received for the current Future Health Mission.

TSB head of healthcare, Zahid Latif, told eHealth Insider: “Judging was remarkably difficult because TSB activity in the healthcare space has grown tremendously.”

Latif, a pharmacist by profession, said the shift he perceived in health IT innovations was the willingness of people to engage with them. In the past, high degrees of IT literacy were required but this was changing.

IT-based winners are:

Epicardio which develops real-time, interactive medical training simulation software for widely available computer platforms.

Optimal Medicine, developers of “mehealth”, a clinical decision support platform built by doctors for doctors.

Safe Patient Systems which creates solutions designed by clinicians that harness technology to support service redesign and deliver more efficient patient-centric healthcare.

Sitekit, developers of the eRedbook, an online child personal health record.

uMotif which specialises in the design and build of simple mobile and web software to help users achieve their health goals with daily tracking.

Year Zero pioneers in digital applications that support independent living by connecting health providers and consumers via personal health records.

A full list of winning companies is at Future Mission.