It’s listicle time again! After pulling together such an eclectic list of Fintechs, we decided to task Lee to take a look at the digital health space. Yet again, he was quick to oblige.
Here at Waracle, we are constantly keeping an eye on how existing and emerging technologies are disrupting the medical, pharmaceutical, healthcare and therapeutics space. From our work with LifeArc to SPOT, we understand the transformational impact that digital can have in facilitating better patient outcomes and making healthcare professionals lives simpler and easier.
Let’s take a look at five innovative start-ups that are pushing the boundaries in their field.
Vinehealth
‘We support people with cancer in finding their new normal.’
What happens when an NHS doctor and a data scientist meet?
Rayna Patel (the NHS doctor) had seen first hand the often lonely and isolated nature of cancer treatment, whilst Georgina Kirby (the data scientist) was an evangelist for the new digital frontier for healthcare experiences aided by emerging technology.
Bonded by a shared mission to improve healthcare outcomes, the pair founded Vinehealth. A London based startup which seeks to empower cancer patients by letting them, and their loved ones, take a more active role in the delivery of their care.
Vinehealth developed a mobile app which allows patients to track, manage and understand aspects of their care. The app has useful features such as Daily Log, which encourages patients to record their experiences to improve data capture for healthcare professionals and My Care, which sets reminders for the substantial appointment schedule involved in cancer treatment.
Vinehealth leveraged design thinking and a user-centric development process, which consulted cancer patients and NHS oncologists to develop the feature set for the application.
It looks to have worked, as the business was recently featured as a helpful service on the Macmillan cancer support list and was named by ORCHA as the highest rated cancer app globally.
Touch Surgery
‘We believe we will enable surgeons to deliver safe surgical care for everyone.’
It can take as long as 15 years to be considered a specialist surgeon. Surgeons in training, working under the blinding lights of an operating theatre, with the dizzying beeps from the monitors, can be forgiven for feeling nervous.
Touch Surgery, founded in 2012, by two London based surgeons, is a Medtech startup leveraging the power of machine learning, AI and data visualisation to prepare the next generation of expert surgeons through a technology-driven approach.
The Touch Surgery is an interactive surgical simulator which gives trainees an authentic guide to surgical and medical procedures. Trainees can safely learn new procedures, test knowledge and get mentally & physically prepared for the pressure of live theatre.
This methodology is supported by peer-reviewed research papers. In one study by Stanford, a cardiopulmonary bypass was added to the app. In a 25 question exam, half a group of students were able to use the digital tool, while the other half used traditional text resources. Those using the digital tool performed better to a statistical significance.
The startup also branched out into Touch Surgery Enterprise, a proprietary video platform, leveraging DS1 computing, which uses real-time AI to redact sensitive frames in surgical videos. Further, the Professional package also gives surgeons a secure cloud to store surgical videos.
The medical startup picked up a win at the Telegraph Tech 4 Good Pioneers 2019 for its efforts in advancing medical training as well as recently being acquired by medical conglomerate Medtronic.
Elvie
‘Elvie is bringing women’s technology out of the dark ages.’
Should women have to make do with poorly designed, pink-coloured token technology products when there are self-driving cars in the world? Elvie, a pioneering FemTech, doesn’t think so.
The London based startup, led by Tania Boler, is on a mission to tackle inequalities in female technology.
Whilst they don’t seek controversy for the sake of it, they believe the conversations their products are provoking are important ones and they are unapologetic about it.
Elvie offers several female-focused innovative designs from the Elvie; Pump, Curve, Catch and Trainer. One of their breakout products was the Elvie Pump. It is the world’s first silent wearable breast pump which can fit in a bra. This allows users to focus on real life without being hindered by outdated designs.
The Pump also has a smartly designed app which allows users to monitor milk volume in real-time, track pumping history, and control the Pump remotely.
TechCrunch named Elvie as the go-to female tech brand in 2019. Further, TIME placed the Elvie Pump in ‘The 100 Best Inventions of 2019’. The future looks bright as the business turns its eyes towards the other side of the Atlantic.
Thriva
‘We started Thriva with the aim of building the world’s first preventative health service.’
As your body clocks up miles, it would be nice to know what was going on under the hood without needing to win the lottery of getting an appointment at your local GP or shelling out for private tests.
London Medtech startup Thriva noticed there were no current solutions to monitor what was going on inside our bodies in a smart and convenient way.
Wouldn’t it be great if people didn’t have to wait until something went wrong to take an interest? Thriva hopes users will feel empowered to proactively manage their health and learn something about their inner biology on the journey.
The app Thriva has developed focuses on personalised delivery. Something currently lacking in the public provision due to oversubscription of services and a lack of resources. After downloading, you fill out a short survey on key health aspects such as sleep, energy, and mood to receive a score, based on this, the app can provide you with some recommended tests.
But here’s the kicker! It can also predict the outcome of those tests with 95% accuracy — including cholesterol, liver function, iron, and HbA1c (diabetes indicator) — without losing a drop of blood.
It achieves this by leveraging its rich data source of 800,00 previous results and machine learning.
You’re also free to upload your results from your GP.
It will categorise, trend and compare you to other anonymised users. To which, a GP can give personalised feedback and develop a health plan, all from inside the app.
Perfect Ward
‘Freeing up time to care.’
We’re all aware, especially in the current climate, that our healthcare professionals are superheroes. Yet, we are also aware that in the NHS alone, burnout rates and high staff turnover (roughly 1 in 3) annually are rife.
Technology, especially automation and AI, poses a unique potential to free up staff time, and let them get back to doing what they do best: caring for people!
One London based startup attempting to assist is workplace admin solution provider Perfect Ward. The app itself is not groundbreaking in design. Yet, what’s under the hood is where the magic lies. Its design makes inspections quicker, simpler and more effective, across all clinical areas. Its features list includes clear and transparent reporting to empower frontline staff.
You can add pictures and notes which allow for standardisation in quality control and to meet regulations. There are even opportunities to automate management reporting with a clear audit trail and “ward-to-board” assurances.
One thing we are passionate about at Waracle is the use of emerging technology that works in tandem with humans. When it frees up time on less valuable repetitive tasks (like admin logging) and more time on valuable connections (like caring for those who need it most) we are all in.
If you are in the digital health space and would like to find out more about what Waracle do to support businesses in building industry-leading and boundary-pushing digital solutions, then get in touch with our team today. We’d love to hear from you!
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