Pitchfest finalists revealed ahead of showdown at Rewired 2022

The 16 finalists in this year’s Rewired Pitchfest start-up competition have been revealed ahead of Rewired 2022, which takes place in London next month. 

The annual competition of UK and international digital health start-ups the Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest, provides a diverse range of innovative new companies the chance to pitch to an impressive line-up of judges including NHS IT leaders and investors. 

Run in partnership with CW+, the innovation arm of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, and DigitalHealth.London, the NHS accelerator, Pitchfest entrants gain valuable exposure to current NHS IT leaders and the winner gets a trial at Chelsea and Westminster.

The competition is back for its fourth year, with this year’s entries having its most international line-up ever, with entries from India, Germany, Ireland, France, Spain, Canada, Slovakia, Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey, Slovakia and Hungary. 

Jon Hoeksma, CEO of Digital Health and chair of the Pitchfest judging panel said: “The quality and breadth of the entrants is again hugely impressive.  Rewired will again bring together current health IT leaders and their teams with the best new innovators and start-ups.” 

The panel of judges have whittled the number of entrants down to just 16, with the remaining start-ups now set to battle for the Pitchfest crown in four online heats. The heat winners will pitch live in front of the judges at the Pitchfest final at Rewired on 16 March. 

The finalists of Pitchfest 2022 are: 

• Memory Lane Games Limited – an app designed improve the lives of dementia patients and carers around the world via a scalable personalised digital health gamification model
• CardMedic – an app which helps patients communicate across any barrier, including language, deafness, blindness, learning disabilities, cognitive impairment, or illiteracy
• Virtuleap –  VR games which test and train a range of cognitive abilities to help increase attention levels, and address cognitive illnesses, disorders, and learning challenges
• Islacare – a visual record platform which aims to reduce delayed diagnosis, reduce time wasted on travel and waiting, and improving visual data in patient records
• Healthtech 1 – System which standardises, centralises and automates repetitive GP and primary care administrative tasks
• Vinehealth – a mobile app that uses a combination of behavioural science and AI to support self-management of cancer patients, improve the patient experience and enable efficient remote care
• BrainBerry – games therapy for those living with dementia
• Little Journey – a digital eSupport platform designed to enhance clinical trial and healthcare efficiency and outcomes through personalised patient engagement and preparation tools
• Sapien Health –  a digital clinic for surgery, combining expert human care, individually-tailored content and cutting-edge technology to empower people to take control of their health so they can conquer their surgery
• eXRt Intelligent Healthcare –  a connected-health virtual reality physiotherapy software platform that allows stroke survivors to use fun physiotherapy-based games to increase engagement and adherence to their physiotherapy in their own home
• Amara Therapeutics – a digital therapeutic platform called RiSolve which provides access to effective, safe behavioural therapy and bladder retraining direct to their smartphone
• SimEPR – an educational EPR which features interactive and customisable clinical scenarios designed to replace paper systems in simulation training. 
• Sweatcoin – transforms human movement into a currency and makes movement more rewarding. Each 1,000 steps a user walks, they earn one sweatcoin, which they are then able to spend on goods, services, and experiences
• Mentalis Health – evidence-based digital aftercare that combines algorithm-driven app-therapy and instant psychological tele-support
• LactApp – a mobile app that gives new mothers customised expert answers to breastfeeding and maternity questions powered by AI technology since starting up back in 2016
• Compassly – competency sharing app that supports system-working and co-ordination across organisations, bringing best practice to all and avoiding wasteful re-proving skills

Last year’s Pitchfest was won by Femtech pioneer Peppy Health, who will return to Rewired on the Innovation stage to share the story of what happened next. 

As the winner of Pitchfest, Peppy Health was offered the opportunity to have their innovation rolled-out at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust through the CW Innovation Programme – a collaboration between the trust and its charity CW+. 

For the last three years CW+ have supported the competition and again will be offering this year’s winner the chance to test and scale their idea at the hospital. 

Chris Chaney, chief executive of CW+ and co-lead of CW Innovation, said: “Congratulations to all the 16 finalists who have been selected for Pitchfest 2022. 

“The last two years has catalysed a surge in new thinking and innovation, and we look forward to hearing more from the finalists next month about their digital health innovations and ideas, exploring potential solutions to some of the unprecedented challenges healthcare organisations face today. 

“We are delighted to once again provide a real-world test bed for this year’s Pitchfest winner, who will join our flagship CW Innovation programme, which tests and scales new technologies and innovations to transform patient care and the way we run our hospitals.” 

Taking place on March 15-16 at the Business Design Centre in London, Digital Health Rewired 2022 is a conference and exhibition which brings together all parts of the digital health community to celebrate the best of digital, data and innovation in health and care. 

Health and care professionals will be able to network, collaborate and learn in person during two days of educational conference sessions, exhibitions and meetings, all focused on sharing best practice and innovation. 

All the conference sessions will be CPD accredited. 

You can register here to secure your place at Rewired 2022.