Main Capital Partners acquires Finnish virtual healthcare specialist VideoVisit

Software investor Main Capital Partners has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in virtual healthcare provider VideoVisit.  

VideoVisit has more than 200 municipalities in Finland as customers, including Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere and Turku. The firm provides a software platform designed to digitalise health and social care visits for elderly clients and home care residents. 

Wessel Ploegmakers, partner and co-head, Nordics office, Main Capital Partners, said: “With the support of Main, VideoVisit can develop and improve its service offering and communication capability meaning the company can deliver even more added value to its customer base.”

European digital health funding accounts for around 12% of global investment

Hampleton Partners’ latest Healthtech M&A market report says that funding rounds in Europe significantly exceeded the global average during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 131% increase to $6.7 billion (€6.1bn) in investment from 2020 to 2021. 

European digital health funding now accounts for around 12% of global investment, up from 9% in 2020.

Overall, digital health companies raised a total of $57.2 billion (€52.5bn) in funding in 2021, an increase of 79% from 2020.

David Bell, director, Hampleton Partners, said: “Though the new investment has been significantly concentrated around telemedicine due to the pandemic, venture capital is increasingly diversifying its healthtech targets, with AI-based clinical decision software and digital therapeutics being key areas.”

Clinicians urgently require digital health training, says Elsevier Health report

A global survey of almost 3,000 clinicians found that doctors and nurses urgently require training in the effective use of health data and technology. 

The Clinician of the Future report, produced by healthcare information firm Elsevier Health in partnership with Ipsos, revealed that 75% of healthcare workers are considering leaving the profession by 2025.

Clinicians surveyed predicted that over the next 10 years technology literacy will become more important than clinical knowledge, with 56% predicting they will rely on artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools to make clinical decisions.

As a result, 83% believe training needs to be overhauled so they can keep pace with technological advancements.

CliniSys lab information system underpins creation of one of largest UK pathology networks

Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) is extending its WinPath Enterprise laboratory information system to the labs serving Surrey and Sussex Healthcare (SASH) NHS Trust.

A single instance of the CliniSys laboratory information system will support ‘hub and spoke working’, in which some laboratories focus on tests for GPs and others run tests to support the day-to-day acute work for the hospitals in which they are based or provide specialist testing services.

Nicola Newman, managing director, BSPS, said: “There are pre-existing patient flows between SASH and some of the other network sites, particularly for cancer services. Along with the ICS boundary changes across Surrey Heartlands, it made absolute sense for SASH to join the BSPS network.”

NHS Digital research finds NHS App saves GP surgery visits

Analysis carried out by NHS Digital found that around 200,000 appointments and repeat prescriptions arranged through the NHS App between April and December 2021 would previously have been made by people driving to their surgery.

More than 26 million people are signed-up with the app and in the last four months it was used to arrange more than 5.9 million repeat prescriptions and 463,000 GP appointments.

Susie Day, NHS Digital head of delivery, NHS App said: “By using the NHS App to manage appointments and order repeat prescriptions online thousands of patient journeys to GP practices are being saved every month.”