Sorry, there’s been a delay in content. I have had to hand in my MSc thesis. If you want to see the details of this check out the following Vlog video:

Recently I attended a med tech event hosted in Amazon’s headquarters. The event was for clinicians who had started up tech companies solving real medical problems that clinicians face every day. As the community is becoming more established it was great to see faces that are becoming regulars in the med tech scene. This is a Greenfield patch, and there’s plenty of opportunities, however, this doesn’t mean that nothing has been done. Here are 3  companies that showed their faces, and should be watched:

 

 

MedDigital [link]

This was my favourite company at the event, however, remember that I love coding and I love APIs. Founded by the anaesthetist Felix Jackson, this company has developed a compliant communication app for clinicians. Big deal, I hear you say… I use WhatsApp, it’s encrypted and that’s good enough for me. Not exactly. When you send information like a picture, to another phone using WhatsApp, the data get’s stored on each phone that’s reading it. The data also gets distributed amongst servers in the USA. Not exactly compliant with clinical data storage regulations, and not very secure. Clinical data has to stored on servers in the UK. But don’t worry, these guys have done the hard work and with heavy encryption and with servers only in the UK, they are compliant. It also doesn’t get stored on your phone. They have developed an API meaning that the service can fuse with hospital systems. But it gets better! When I asked him if the company supports third party developers, where they can build their own app, and use his API to communicate safely…. He said yes!!!! Do you want to build an app that involves sending patient data? Don’t worry about it, strike a deal with medDigital and use their API for your communication functions. This is a breakthrough, a potential backend driver for multiple apps that require communication of medical information. I can’t wait to see what this enables in the future.

Adahealth [link]

This is one of the more established companies with a dedicated tech team and a range of clinical leads. Adahealth is an AI based platform aimed at interpreting symptoms and coming up with suggestions. As I worked in A and E I could see the instant benefit of applying this to triage in emergency medicine. This doesn’t mean that we should throw our hand up, sit back and let the Adahealth app decide where all our patients are going. We know that patients sometimes exaggerate their symptoms with the desire to be seen quicker. However, some sort of data input for the patient, and approving/rating function for the clinician could work. Ada sees the potential in streamlining emergency medicine too, as the speaker announced that they would be moving into this space in the future. It’s definitely an AI powerhouse, but the clinical leads seem approachable, well rounded, and smart. No doubt their API is robust, and they are looking to expand. They have a competitor called Bablyon health. However, Babylon started as a telemedicine service and is now building the AI. Ada started with AI and is building the telemedicine side. If I was a gambling man, I’d put my money on Ada at the moment. If you want to see AI streamline a particular part of medicine, these are your guys.

MyLocumManager [link]

This company stuck in my head because it’s sorting a category that I think doesn’t get enough attention, and makes some of the biggest differences with little cost. It’s non-sexy stuff. Want to build a self-learning robot that can perform surgery? Want to make advances in linear particle accelerator physics and push the boundaries of cancer treatment? Ok get in line, and prepare to spend hours and big money with a high probability of not having success. It’s not that these things shouldn’t be worked on, it’s that they’re idolised and fixated on at the cost of great cheap gains that could be achieved by focusing on the non-sexy stuff. Founded by the down to earth GP Dr Surina Chibber who runs her own GP practice, Lantum is a digital toolkit for GPs offering help with finances, rostering pensions, tax and so on. I know numerous GPs and it’s this sort of stuff that slows them down, ties them up, and prevents them from focusing on the important stuff where their medical training has full effect. What makes it onto this post is the fact that they already have a strong functioning platform working, The founder seems hands on in the business, and continues to keep working in clinical practice. Combining these attributes with the fact that the product can be grown in a widgets, indicates that this business will go from strength to strength. When talking to her it was clear that she had another development that she was getting ready to announce. She seems approachable and hardworking. If you’re building a digital solution around GP locums I’d recommend collaborating with this company.