Events, Dear Friends, Events: Hancock at the RSM, MedStartr NOLA Challenge, RSM and The King’s Fund

HealthChat with Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock. Monday 28 Jan at the RSM (starts at 8 for 8.30am).

Roy Lilley of NHS Managers will be asking the questions, so they won’t be a parade of powderpuffs. What is the long term look at health policy when the Government is gripped by Brexit? Promoting digital health won’t have an argument here and fax machines may have had their day, but what’s the 10 year plan all about? What about that social media blitz targeting the obese, smokers, and those who like their drink? Intriguingly, who is the real Matt Hancock? Is he That Man In A Portfolio? Tickets are a moderate £19.95 – £39.95 and likely will sell out soon. Book via Eventbrite here. Hat tip to Roy Lilley via NHS Managers.

NOLA Health Innovators Challenge. Over here in the US, we have a very big event (no, not CES in Las Vegas or the JP Morgan invitational conference this week in SF). It’s down in one of the homes of Real Jazz, New Orleans (NOLA), in March (date to come). Back for its second year, MedStartr Ventures has been running the Health Innovators Challenge jointly with the New Orleans Business Alliance. It’s very late to apply for one of the four Challenges (it closes on Sunday 13 Jan) but if you work hard and fast, see the link to apply to a program that is raising its second round of funding and helping previous crowd challenge winners raise their next rounds–plus get a wealth of guidance on how to package your idea for presentation to key healthcare stakeholders to get to market much faster. They also sponsor the #HCLDR Tweetchat every Tuesday at 8:30 PM EST, 5:30 PST, Wednesday 1.30 AM GMT.

Speaking of the RSM, their Digital Health (Telemedicine & eHealth) section is sponsoring upcoming events on Recent Developments in AI and Digital Health on Tuesday 26 Feb and Medical Apps–Mainstreaming Innovation on Thursday 18 April featuring a return appearance by Matt Hancock. 

Over at The King’s Fund, they will be hosting a full day session on Digital Health Explained: demystifying the tech revolution in health and care on Wednesday 27 March. The annual two-day Digital Health and Care Congress will be a little earlier this year, on 22-23 May; preliminary information and registration including sponsor packages are here. Follow developments at #KFdigital19.

Rounding up opportunities for showcasing–and funding–your health tech startup (US)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Lasso.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]Alex Fair, whom our Readers know as the head hombre of the MedStartr health innovation community and MedStartr Ventures, has several ex-NYC opportunities in New Orleans and Miami (where it’s a lot warmer than NYC!) for innovative early-stage healthcare companies. Deadlines are soon, so if you are interested, move quickly!

New Orleans

New Orleans Health Innovators Challenge (NOLAHI) during Innovation Week March 20-23- application deadline 1/15 (Expired)
In this Crowd Challenge, hospitals and hospital systems and insurance companies in the New Orleans area are looking for healthcare innovations to pilot plus startups to partner with and fund.  The finals are scheduled after Mardi Gras in March during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week March 20-23. Full details at NOLAHI.com, with a summary of the individual challenges below:
The Diabetes Care Challenge – Create a digital tool that supports diabetic health maintenance. Presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and Ochsner Health System
The Navigator Challenge – Use technology to replicate the function of a navigator to enhance patient-centered care, without adding FTEs. Presented by Tulane Health System
The Inter-Operability Challenge – Eliminate errors, fraud, and misinterpretation plus increase inter-operability via the implementation of technologies such as blockchain. Presented by Lafayette General Foundation

Miami

MedMoMiami – application deadline 1/19 (expired). Event is January 25.
The first ever #MedMoMiami will be Jan 25th. This event is jointly organized with the Miami Health 2.0 Chapter. Apply to pitch in Miami here.

Other events are in planning stages for NYC, Austin, Maryland, San Diego, and Saratoga NY. #MedMo18 will be 29-30 November. TTA is a media sponsor and supporter of Health 2.0 NYC and MedStartr. Editor Donna is a co-organizer of NYC events.

Entra’s home blood test for chemotherapy patients; Haystack’s ‘one blood test’ for cancer (UK/US)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Entra.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Entra is a London startup company developing a quick, home-based blood test for clinically valid blood counts. Targeted to the needs of chemotherapy patients, where blood counts are critical in their receiving and timing of treatments, the Affinity (photo left) is designed to take a small sample, analyze it, wirelessly send the information to the hospital or clinic, and enter into the patient’s EHR. It is currently being tested with The Royal Marsden Hospital, a leading UK cancer center, to validate its optical analytics and generate cost-effectiveness data. Blood counts are not only critical to correct patient treatment, but also to assigning and canceling appointments. Entra is being supported by £1.14 million in funding from Innovate UK, much of it through the Biomedical Catalyst. The timeline to commercial release is being estimated at two years. It’s anticipated that once verified, the blood count technology could be further developed for other uses. Gov.UK. Hat tip to our Eye on Tenders, Susanne Woodman

Raising funds for another type of blood testing is a NYC-based biotech company, Haystack, which is pioneering a single blood test for multiple cancers through proteome molecular profiling. Its goal is early detection of multiple cancers through one test using panels of biomarkers. The research team headed by John Wilson, PhD, who is affiliated with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, are ready first with pancreatic and lung cancer samples. This has gained the interest of pharma companies who are seeking a companion diagnostic for their drug trials. It was also a category winner at MedStartr’s #MedMo16 last December and presenter at #RISE2017 in March. Haystack’s MedStartr page. Video of Haystack’s presentation at #RISE2017 is on YouTube here (at 58:00) TTA is a MedStartr and Health 2.0 NYC supporter/media sponsor since 2010; event videos are available at Medstartr.tv.

#MedMo16: finalists, winners, and what they tell us about the state of health tech

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/MedStartr_red_grey_sm.jpg” thumb_width=”125″ /]Having attended two conferences in the past two weeks, and squinting to read the tea leaves in the cup, there are some trends that this Editor is picking up. They are quite different from what has been seen over the past year or two. They’ll be expanded on in articles to follow. From the top:

  • Successful companies fit into a bigger picture. Startups into early-stage companies, which were the focus at #MedMo16, are now playing the niches like genetics, patient-focused discovery, condition management and cost-effective specialized clinical innovations.
  • Anything that simplifies a process and saves money is attractive. Complex ‘big data’, analytics and ‘population health/integration’ solutions aren’t in the lead anymore because there are a lot of them and they all look alike.
  • Nothing is revolutionary. The idea that an app, device or software will ‘revolutionize healthcare as we know it’ is now recognized as absurd. (The cocktail/drinks party is ovah!) Cases must be proved first, usually on your self-funded or FFF (families, friends and fools) dime, if you want to partner with the Big Dogs.
  • Value-based care, this year’s darling, is already being seen as a vague ‘catch-all’ in a way that Triple Aim and ‘outcomes/evidence-based care’ were eventually found to be. As a meme, it’s turning out to have the life of a fruit fly.
  • It has to be easy to access, preferably on something the average patient or clinician already has or can acquire easily, like a laptop, tablet or smartphone. The idea of having to place a special purpose-built device in, let’s say, a home, is looking more and more ‘analogue’ indeed, a trend we are seeing in the traditional hub-based telehealth market and even slowly in telecare and traditional PERS.
  • Funding models are changing, with more bootstrapping, self-funding, expand you go and less emphasis on big investment and selling out fast. As funders on a NYeC DHC panel pointed out last Wednesday, don’t raise more – or less – than you need.

At #MedMo16, Crowd Challenge participants were judged by a combination of the interested MedStartr/Health 2.0 NYC community through the MedStartr funding platform, and then by a panel of judges who have leading clinical, technological, patient advocate and funding experience. In short, a group that has seen a lot over the past decade plus, has been up and down the Hype Cycle, and is down to Brass Tacks.

The innovations that bubbled up through the finalists (more…)