EUROPEAN HEALTHCARE STARTUP ACCELERATOR LAUNCHES IN PARIS

Sanofi, Capgemini, Generali and Orange have announced the creation of a joint venture called "Future4care", a European health-focused startup accelerator programme.

The initiative aims to stimulate the development of eHealth solutions and their go-to-market, for the benefit of both patients and health professionals.

The startup selection process is based on two routes: either applications in response to a specific call for projects or a spontaneous application. The first call for projects will be launched in September 2021 around two themes: virtual care using digital tools and personalised care.

Startups choosing to join Future4care benefit from personalised support through a series of thematic labs including creative lab; medical / regulatory lab; business and ethics lab; data & AI lab; and living lab.

CQC RATES LIVI OUTSTANDING

UK-based medical app Livi has announced that it has become the first digital healthcare provider in England to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care services.

The CQC report was based on an inspection that took place on 5 May 2021, with Livi awarded an Outstanding rating in two out of five categories and a good rating in the other three, leading to an overall Outstanding rating. Just 5% of GP practices were rated Outstanding by the CQC in 2020. This is the first time Livi has been inspected by the regulator.

Inspectors highlighted Livi’s work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company was asked by NHS England to run the COVID Home Monitoring Service (CHMS). The CHMS allowed patients 24 hour access to care, seven days a week, without the risk of exposing others to COVID-19.

SALFORD LAUNCHES HEART FAILURE PATIENT PROJECT

Healthcare teams at Salford Care Organisation, part of the Northern Care Alliance Group, are piloting the use of a remote monitoring system which uses a smartphone app and easy-to-use connected Bluetooth devices.

The device encourages patients to self-manage and record their weight and blood pressure between appointments. The new system developed by Norwegian medical tech firm Dignio, automatically sends a patients’ readings direct to clinicians at Salford Royal via a special data platform.

Through the pilot, users will have access to the Dignio App to record their measurements manually and a set of digital scales and blood pressure monitor.

The platform flags up any signs which indicate their condition is deteriorating between visits and clinicians are alerted when something falls outside acceptable range.

IMPERIAL COLLEGE HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST AND LUSCII PARTNER

Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust is working with Netherlands-based remote healthcare innovator, Luscii to provide at-home monitoring platform to support patients with heart failure.

The Luscii platform has been rolled out to a cohort of patients who have previously been required to carry out multiple, in-person hospital visits over the course of 2-3 months of such treatment. It is the latest pathway in the Connected Care Programme -iCareConnect - in North West London. These co-ordinated pathways aim to deliver better care that is easier for the patient and more cost-effective.

The technology helps ensure that remote patients are on optimal heart failure medications and at optimal doses. om Cooper, lead cardiology pharmacist at Imperial College Healthcare, said: “Being able to monitor the response to these medications remotely and view patient reported measurements is a valuable tool for pharmacists to optimise medications more efficiently whilst offering a more favourable experience for some patients.” 

UK-based digital mental health therapeutics company Wellmind Health has announced that its Be Mindful and Pathway through Pain NHS-approved digital therapeutics have been rated the highest-scoring apps for depression and pain in ORCHA'S AppFinder library.

ORCHA’s independent review process identifies health and care apps that have clinical merit, are safe and quality assured, with the reviews populating regional and national health app libraries.

The Be Mindful Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme and Pathway through Pain Pain Management Programme (PMP) deliver results backed up by academic and clinical research studies, feedback from participants and providers, and confidential analytics.

Swiss-based AI and digital technology champion, Fondation Botnar is helping to prepare young people to solve health problems through the funding of 14 projects that leverage digital technologies.

The initiative, Fit4Future, aims to create positive impact for young people in urban environments, in low and middle income countries (LMICs) by providing them with the opportunity to represent themselves.

Fondation Botnar connects partners, supports research, and invests in AI and digital innovations, to improve health and wellbeing for young people in growing urban environments.

Through Fit4Future, Fondation Botnar aims to equip them to create changes by investing in the technology and skills they need. The 14 selected projects tackle a wide range of global challenges, from climate change and gender equality to youth mental health

BUPA INCREASES FOCUS ON DIGITAL HEALTHCARE

International healthcare company Bupa has further committed to migrating key applications in its leading markets to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

The agreement is designed to spearhead Bupa's digital healthcare applications and roll-out Dynamics 365, to its teams in the UK and Australia.

Bupa’s use of Microsoft Azure services will enable it to be more agile, responding to the digital needs of employees and customers. Bupa is also looking to utilise machine learning and AI to improve its engagement with clients and patients.

Diana Kennedy, Bupa’s chief technology and architecture officer, said: “Microsoft Azure services will enable Bupa to take a significant leap forward on our digital transformation journey. It will help us accelerate the delivery of digital solutions and improve services to our customers supporting our ambition to become the most customer-centric healthcare company in the world.”

CANCER DATA SHARING TO BE ACCELERATED THROUGH AI LEARNING

Cambridge-based AI lab, Fetch.ai has announced that Poland's Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) will be joining its Collective Learning initiative.

This partnership will allow PSNC to use and contribute data to train algorithms that can be used by hospitals and research centres to identify and detect circulating cancer cells in patients' blood or tissue biopsies.

On Fetch.ai’s Collective Learning Module, distributed parties can work together to train machine learning models using blockchain technology and AI learning capabilities without sharing the underlying data or trusting any of the individual participants.

As a part of this initiative, Fetch.ai’s collective learning algorithms will ingest experimental data from PSNC. It will then analyse this data in a shared setting, keeping each dataset private, while making the results, a machine learning model, publicly available for usage in identifying cancer cells in patient's blood or tissue biopsies.

SILVERCLOUD'S LLOYD HUMPHREYS JOINS ORCHA

Dr Lloyd Humphreys, former head of Europe at SilverCloud, a global leader in digital mental health, has joined ORCHA (the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps) in the newly-created role of managing director.

Prior to SilverCloud, Dr Humphreys was the co-founder of Breaking Free Online and helped to scale Patients Know Best, a personal health record system, which was one of the first services chosen to become an NHS Innovation Accelerator. He remains an alumnus of the NHS Innovation Accelerator programme.

Liz Ashall-Payne, founding CEO of ORCHA, said: “Lloyd’s experience of founding digital health companies and scaling them up will be invaluable for ORCHA following a dramatic two years for ourselves and the whole industry. We need to grow globally whilst retaining our core vision and values. We’re absolutely delighted to have him on board.”