Industry news in brief

The latest industry news round up from Digital Health features news of a collaboration to export innovative UK health tech companies and free mental health support for NHS staff.

Exporting innovation

Major health tech bodies including Department of International Trade (Healthcare UK), NHS Digital and Innovate UK have collaborated to announce a global campaign to export 100 of the UK’s most innovative and impactful health tech companies to the rest of the world.

Each of the 100 companies has a proven track record of benefiting the lives of healthcare professionals and patients in the NHS and private health sector. They include innovators who have underpinned the country’s response to COVID- 19, and others whose ground-breaking technology can address the issues facing healthcare systems across the globe.

The companies include Foundry4, the company that remotely delivered the UK’s Covid-19 home testing service in just eight days and DrDoctor, a patient engagement platform provider which is used by more than 30 NHS trusts and has supported at-scale healthcare staff vaccination programmes.

Hassan Chaudhury, digital health specialist at Healthcare UK, who is leading the campaign, said: “The UK is at the forefront of transforming healthcare services by using digital solutions to prevent, diagnose, manage and treat illnesses more effectively, as well as putting solutions in the hands of patients.

“The First 100 Playbook articulates the exportable strengths that the UK has in health tech and showcases those that stand out for being tried and tested and most importantly, making a difference across one of the most complex health systems in the world, during its most challenging time.

“They’ve supported health and care professionals and patients in dealing with everyday issues and can undoubtably benefit other countries looking to solve problems to everyday health and care challenges.”

Livi partners with BMI Healthcare

Millions of patients across the UK will now be able to access private healthcare more quickly through a new partnership between digital healthcare provider Livi, and private healthcare provider BMI Healthcare.

Patients will now be able to speak to a GMC-certified Livi GP to arrange a speedy referral to see a specialist consultant. The partnership will provide greater access to UK patients as they leverage Livi’s digital platform to access GPs at Livi and BMI Healthcare’s specialist consultant network.

Simon Lucas, partnerships director at Livi, said: “Livi’s focus is to provide greater access to healthcare to improve health, wellbeing, and quality of life for everyone across the UK.

“Our partnership with BMI will harness Livi technology and through access to our range of digital tools, patients will be able to gain referrals to specialists. We are pleased to partner with BMI to help provide solutions for patients to access healthcare services remotely and help ease pressure on the NHS.”

Paul Manning, chief medical officer at BMI hospitals, added: “When patients have a medical complaint, they want to be seen quickly and they want the process to be convenient. Our partnership with Livi will help us deliver on this, by minimising the need to visit a GP practice to get a referral, while at the same time supporting our NHS during this crisis by freeing up valuable resources for those who need to be seen in-person.”

Free mental health and wellbeing app for NHS workers

Health Assured is offering all NHS staff free access to their innovative mental wellbeing app, My Healthy Advantage, to support them as they deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health Assured currently supports more than 50 NHS trusts. The My Healthy Advantage app offers individuals an opportunity to access free, personalised health information and data to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.

The app provides industry-leading features across four key categories – user wellbeing, user engagement, wellness and reward and recognition.

Each feature has been carefully built with the user’s wellbeing in mind and designed to improve the user’s mental health, financial wellbeing, social wellbeing and physical health, using personal metrics to set bespoke goals and achievements.

Users will be able to identify and target their health and wellbeing priorities, such as quitting smoking, managing anxiety and stress, or simply being more active.

David Price, chief executive of Health Assured, said: “During this stressful and uncertain time, NHS staff are facing enormous challenges while also managing their mental health, maintaining a work-life balance as well as family and health concerns.

“My Healthy Advantage, provides support and resources to help manage these issues and ensures the right support is all available in one place. We aim to enable each individual to take control of their health and wellbeing on their terms.

“We want to do all we can to support our NHS heroes through these difficult times, and we hope access to our cutting-edge app will provide some essential help.”

The app is available via Android or IOS.

University of Edinburgh selects 15 starts ups for accelerator programme

The University of Edinburgh has selected 15 start-ups to join the Post-Covid AI Accelerator.

The accelerator is being delivered by the Innovation Group at the Bayes Centre, in conjunction with Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, and in partnership with Scale Space, the UK’s new community for scaling businesses.

The cohort has been selected from 86 applicants worldwide and follows three previous Bayes accelerators cohorts, which saw 29 companies raise significant investment.

Each of the successful applicants is addressing a global challenge, many responding to urgent needs in the health and climate change domains. They include:

• BioLiberty – has designed an AI-powered robotic glove that strengthens the user’s grip. Grip strength declines as we age and BioLiberty’s glove has the potential to restore independence for millions of people in the UK and globally
• Neeuro – provides personalised home-based digital therapeutics programmes utilising Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology that incorporates machine learning to help ADHD children improve their attention span.

MED e-care and Cegedim Healthcare partner up

MED e‐care and Cegedim Healthcare Solutions have partnered to integrate Cegedim’s Pharmacy Manager with MED e‐care’s electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR).

The partnership is part of Cegedim’s improvement initiative, ensuring their pharmacy customers can work smarter, whilst providing an enhanced service to the care homes they support.

It will ensure seamless medication dispensing between pharmacies and care homes. From dispensing monthly medications to daily interim orders, all communication from the pharmacy is sent directly to the eMAR system to ensure safe, secure and auditable transmission of information, negating the need for rekeying, saving time and ensuring medication accuracy.

Chris Pearson, head of care partnerships at MED e‐care, said: “MED e‐care offers a modular suite of cutting edge solutions such as eMAR and care plans that support care homes to deliver, record and analyse excellent care at every stage of the resident care life‐cycle, whilst meeting regulatory requirements and driving quality improvements.

“Particularly in today’s environment, with the health and safety of care home residents in the spotlight, it is imperative that our solutions combine to create a seamless, flexible, electronic health record that reflects the needs of residents, nurses and carers; this can be supported through the integration with Cegedim’s Pharmacy Manager.”

IgniteData secures Innovate UK funding

Healthtech startup IgniteData has secured new funding to complete a £500,000 project, as part of Innovate UK’s Smart Grants programme.

The funding will be invested into further developing the AI capabilities of Archer, IgniteData’s digital-health SaaS platform that reduces the need for manual data entry in clinical trials.

Dan Hydes, co-founder and chief executive of IgniteData, said: “This next round of Innovate UK funding is a huge endorsement of everything we are achieving with Archer.

“For us, it’s always been about how we accelerate a major step-change in the speed, efficiency and affordability of clinical studies.

“This grant means we can continue to transform the interoperability of EHR and EDC systems, specifically now by beginning to unlock the value that lies within the larger realm of unstructured data – where the greatest challenge lies.”