HealthTech Roundup! #001

Welcome to the first issue of HealthTech Roundup! – your monthly dose of all things healthcare and pharmaceuticals technologies. I’ve scoured the internet and podcasts for the latest news, start-ups, and tech that are shaking up – or very soon will – our industry. Grab a ☕ and let’s dive in!

First up, some news bites 🥪:

• The Care ‘without’ walls report has identified that at least 50% of healthcare services in AU will need to be virtual/tech-enabled by 2025 to meet community needs.

• AI is dreaming up drugs that no one has ever seen; the first therapies designed by AI are now in clinical trials.

• Google’s Bard is set to rival ChatGPT once it is launched later this year. Read with Microsoft’s announcement to release BioGPT, which is based on ChatGPT and optimised for medical querying. Research suggests that that it performs at the level of human experts.

• GE Healthcare makes the push into AI to help hospitals guide care whilst taking on tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft who have been dabbling (only somewhat successfully) in this space for years.

• The state of (health) start-up funding in AU (jump to slides 5, 11, 31 & 36). In short, healthtech is hard and a long game requiring many partners, but is positioned to boom.

• University of Sydney + Deloitte have created an AI fluency sprint (read: course) to understand opportunities, risks and limits of AI.

• The future of technologies in healthcare are voice-enabled, ultimately bringing the clinician focus back on the patient rather than administration.

Now, let’s take a look at some cool new tech 🚀:

• Researchers explore new frontiers in heart health with Apple Watchincluding on-wrist ECGs and the monitoring of prolonged QT. Read with ITC ruling in AliveCor-Apple patent battle.

• Infinitome is a neuro research platform which turns raw MRI data to detail functional network maps of the brain and has applications in MS.

• Max Kelsen, Brisbane-based tech innovators are in the midst of collaborating with Peter Mac to deidentify medical records to ensure patient privacy and effective information sharing. This solution isn’t ready at scale yet but watch this space!

• GPnotebook is a “consultation aid” for GPs which offers bite-sized diagnostic and treatment info via key word search. The platform and underpinning algorithms bring to the fore treatment options and dosing guides – for partners, they offer an analytics platform covering prescriber behaviour and will include NostraData from September ’23 onwards.

Finally, leaving you with my favourite futurist tidbit 🤖:

• Swoop Aero is on a mission to create the world’s largest integrated drone logistics network including medical and pathology transport.