DOCTIFY RAISES €6.3M FOR HEALTHCARE REVIEW PLATFORM

London-based healthcare review platform Doctify has raised an additional €6.3M in a round of funding. The investment was led by Keen Venture Partners and existing investors including Amadeus Capital, Guinness Asset Management and Tom Teichman.

Doctify has now raised an overall investment of €16.8M to expand its platform, which allows patients to review, choose and book appointments with doctors.

The platform uses SaaS software to provide insights and analytics into the care they provide and enables patients to receive real-time feedback for a hospital, clinic or doctor for a condition or procedure.

Healthcare providers are then able to collect and digitise patient feedback and publish it through external and internal channels.

WINGCOPTER AND ANA PARTNER FOR DRONE DELIVERY

German drone manufacturer Wingcopter is collaborating with Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) to accelerate the delivery of pharmaceuticals via unmanned aircraft.

The two aviation companies are conducting trials with the electrical fixed-wing VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft developed by Wingcopter, with the aim of building a drone delivery network capable of serving needs across Japan.

ANA is providing insights gained from decades of aviation experience, while Wingcopter is providing support in terms of training pilots, mission planning, operation design and maintenance.

“The ongoing tests of Wingcopter aircraft represent a significant step forward in the creation of a viable drone transportation network,” said Tetsuya Kubo, vice president of ANA overseeing the digital design lab. “We are excited to partner with Wingcopter as we build on the advances and innovation of previous trials to bring drone delivery one step closer to reality. Once fully realised, a functioning drone transportation infrastructure will help improve quality of life in rural areas across Japan.”

IMMUNISATION AND HEALTH SYSTEM FOR LANCASHIRE'S CHILDREN

Nearly half a million immunisation, health and development records for children across Lancashire, UK, are now being managed by a single child health information system.

The new system, built using System C’s CarePlus software, gives healthcare providers in the region appropriate access to the information they need to support the health and wellbeing of children in the region.

The software went live last month following a remote deployment led by Virgin Care, which runs child health information services in Lancashire, organised across four hubs.  

The system is connected to the Spine and the NHS National Events Management Service, allowing care professionals to receive notifications of births, change of addresses, change of GP practices, and outcomes of the three screening events (newborn and infant physical examinations, hearing and bloodspot outcomes) available to them at the point of care. 

HEALTHWARE GROUP ACQUIRES STREAMING WELL MOTION

Global digital health organisation Healthware Group has announced its acquisition of London-based SWM (Streaming Well Motion), a creative motion lab and consultancy focused on virtual hybrid experiences, content development and medical education.

The acquisition brings together years of collaboration between the two companies in providing global end-to-end systems linking pharmaceutical and other life science industry companies with professional and consumer health audiences.

Through its scientific knowledge and visual storytelling expertise, SWM delivers strategic consulting that aims to enhance virtual customer experiences to improve patient outcomes.

Roberto Ascione, Healthware Group’s CEO & founder said: “We are very excited about this acquisition, which further marks the commitment of Healthware in the next stage of evolution in learning science and advanced educational experiences. As the natural next step in a long and productive relationship, we look forward to serving new and existing clients in an expanded virtual capacity while remaining rooted in real-life human interactions."

AI-POWERED COUGH APP RAISES €841K IN SEED FUNDING

Based in Wilmington, Delaware and with offices in Spain, digital diagnostics platform Hyfe has announced that it has raised €841,000 in seed funding, led by a private investor with additional investment from Plug and Play Ventures. The company has also recently launched its app in Ireland, the UK and Germany.

Hyfe uses machine learning algorithms to detect cough and cough frequency in real-time. This helps identify underlying illnesses using unique markers related to the volume and regularity of coughing. These markers provide insights into coughing patterns over time, enabling both users and health professionals to identify anomalies or trends in an emerging category of healthcare dubbed “acoustic epidemiology".

This latest investment will support Hyfe as it develops its platform and expands its existing team with hires across research and development, machine learning, data science and software development. The company is also planning to expand across further European regions in the coming months, with an initial focus on France and Germany. 

CASE STUDY DEMONSTRATES THE VALUE OF INTEROPERABILITY

The European Coordination Committee of Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT industry (COCIR) and IHE Europe have released their joint publication mHealth: Joint Recommendations for Effective Deployment.

The report underscores the importance of maximising mHealth interoperability in order to realise the benefits for patients and health systems. It also provides recommendations aimed at the European Commission, Member States and other key stakeholders with the goal of accelerating the uptake of mHealth in Europe.

Nicole Denjoy, COCIR secretary-general, said: “In a continuation of COCIR and its members’ longstanding commitment to interoperability, we are delighted to be able to leverage the support of IHE Europe to enrich our 2020 publication. They have provided us with relevant, concrete use cases that highlight how interoperability in practice actively supports smooth and seamless care provision services.” 

PERFOOD AND DERMANOSTIC DEVELOP DIGITAL THERAPY FOR PSORIASIS

German provider of nutritional therapies Perfood and telemedicine provider of dermatology, dermanostic have partnered up to develop digital therapy for the skin condition, psoriasis.

Perfood and dermanostic rely on an online process that links AI-powered skin diagnostics with a personalised low-glycemic dietary intervention using Perfood’s patent-pending Nutrilytics technology.

Through this process, patients are accompanied contact-free from the first assessment by dermanostic through to an intervention with the Perfood digital therapy and continuous monitoring of the disease progression.

Perfood’s technology uses blood glucose monitoring to determine personalised nutritional recommendations that are combined with digital therapy approaches which aim to reduce the symptoms of psoriasis.

TECHNOLOGY LAUNCHES FOR UK STAFF AND PATIENT SAFETY

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS FT have announced the pilot of ThermaFY Protect and the subsequent roll-out of the thermal screening technology across its hospitals.

As part of its CW Innovation programme, run jointly with its charity CW+, the trust approached ThermaFY at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak to co-develop and install automated temperature scanning stations at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital to help reduce the spread of infection.

ThermaFY Protect, was developed to provide thermal screening that combines temperature readings with staff identification. Following a successful pilot which involved six ThermaFY Protect screens being installed across the trust’s main hospital entrances, the Trust and CW+ will now roll-out the programme at all hospital entrances and off-site clinics. 

GLUCOSE MONITOR DIAMONTECH RECEIVES ISO  

German medtech startup DiaMonTech has received the official certification for medical device manufacturers from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) for its non-invasive blood glucose measurement tool.

ISO 13485 is designed to help medical device companies demonstrate safe and ethical design and development. To receive certification, organisations must demonstrate that their Quality Management Systems deliver medical devices that consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements.

The certification is considered to be the initial step for DiaMonTech to qualify for the Medical Device Directive (MDD) process in the European Union and paves the way for further development in the startup’s plans to deliver handheld and wearable health monitoring devices.