Guy’s and St Thomas’ team up with General Catalyst for tech innovation

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has partnered with a health tech investor to identify digital solutions which can address problems such as hospital capacity constraints, wait times and staff shortages.  

The partnership between the trust and General Catalyst will benefit both patients and staff within the NHS, as the two organisations collaborate on the development of new technologies for the health care industry.

General Catalyst’s network of health assurance companies will be opened up to Guy’s and St Thomas’, in the first-of-its-kind partnership. 

Nadine Hachach-Haram, director for clinical innovation and strategic partnerships at Guy’s and St Thomas’, said: “This partnership brings together med-tech knowledge and international investment with academia and an anchor NHS trust, and is a real example of the UK Life Sciences strategy in action.  

“It will leverage the latest in health tech to innovate at scale and tackle real challenges in the NHS, with the ultimate aim of giving better, safer care to our patients.” 

KHP Ventures – a joint venture launched by Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College London and King’s College Hospital – will actively collaborate with General Catalyst to invest in med-tech companies. It will identify health tech start-ups and ensure that they are aligned with NHS clinical priorities.  

In addition, KHP Ventures will work with NHS clinicians with local and system knowledge to ensure platforms identified are appropriate and compatible with NHS services. It will engage with patients and staff in the validation and scaling of the most promising solutions.  

Chris Bischoff, managing director at General Catalyst, said: “We have long believed in the need for ‘radical collaboration’ between technology investors and leading healthcare systems.” 

Bischoff continued: “We hope that Guy’s and St Thomas’ and our other Health Assurance Partners will mutually benefit from each other’s expertise and collectively contribute to achieve the Health Assurance vision.” 

In April last year, Guy’s and St Thomas’ selected Nuance for speech recognition capabilities, as part of its own digital transformation strategy.