There is plenty happening in the health tech community – here is our news in brief to find out about some of the stories that have caught our eye this past seven days.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals trials new follow-up system
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals is trialing a new system to support patients when they have follow-up appointments.
The system, set to support Patient Initiated Follow-Ups, aims to help a clinician and patient agree an appointment process.
It will be piloted by the trust’s Rheumatology team in mid-September, then rolled out to Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, Pain Management and Paediatrics.
Mitch Barrot, Project Manager for Transformation Planning and Delivery at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: “We believe that this new approach will help to empower patients to manage their own condition and plays a key role in enabling shared decision making and supported self-management.
“We know that sometimes patients don’t need a follow-up appointment and this process will mean they are not taking time out of their day to attend hospital. For those patients that do require a follow-up, it will give them much more freedom over when this is required.”
Norfolk & Waveney ICS funding initiative for digital social care
Norfolk & Waveney ICS has launched an initiative to support its local care providers in moving to digital records.
The funding is to support registered CQC care providers as they implement one of the approved digital social care systems.
To find out more, the ICS is holding an awareness session on 4 October.
Brainomix’s AI software rolling out in Hungary’s healthcare system to advance stroke care
The stroke AI imaging platform is to be deployed across all stroke centres in Hungary as part of the National Institute for Health Development to better the stroke care programme.
The programme will run for five years and is to install the tech in 28 stroke centres across the country. The technology uses AI algorithms said to provide an interpretation of a brain scan in real-time.
Prof Dr Szikora, who launched the programme, said: “Each year more than 20,000 stroke patients are admitted to hospitals across Hungary. e-Stroke has been shown to enable faster treatment times facilitating better patient outcomes, as experienced in single sites here in Hungary and reported in other countries including the UK and Poland.”
Apricity raises funds to progress and grow geographical mark
Apricity, a virtual fertility clinic, has raised 17 million euros to expand the business to other countries such as Spain and Germany, and continue developing their technology which includes expanding at-home services like ultrasounds.
The team at Apricity has developed an AI algorithm to identify fertility treatments said to “establish the best embryos through a 3D reconstruction”.
Christoph Kausch, Managing Partner at MTIP, a health tech investor, said: “The virtual business model has really taken off across the healthcare industry, and Apricity was one of its pioneers. Rather than focusing on just one part of the fertility journey, Apricity is using cutting edge technology to transform the end-to-end experience for patients and has seen incredibly strong traction as a result.”
Thalamos raises £900k in funding
Thalamos, a company specialising in digital mental health, has raised £900k in a Seed Round, backed by Ascension’s Conduit Impact EIS Fund, Angels including Syndicate Room, and a private Seedrs crowdfund.
The funding is being used to strengthen and expand their team, as well as to expand to support more mental health providers.
Founder Arden Tomison, said: “This is helping practitioners speed up the arrangement of patient admission, treatment and transfer, while increasing data security and care quality. We’re so grateful to our amazing group of investors for supporting us to expand our work to optimise the care accessed and received by a growing number of mental health care patients.”
