HealthTech Roundup! #002

Welcome to the March issue of HealthTech Roundup! The release of GPT-4 dominated the headlines but there were also exciting developments across start-ups, government, healthcare technology and innovation – grab a ☕ and let’s dive in!

First up, some news bites 🥪:

• Patients are now being treated with software! Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDT) are an emerging technology with many new clinical trials underway, check out FDA-approved Pear Therapeutics, Freespira, and AppliedVR.

• According to Bill Gates’ blog, The Age of AI has officially begun, which is also why Australia needs to uplift its practice of responsible AI. Read it with CSIRO’s announcement of the Responsible AI Network which seeks to demystify standards, law and governance.

• Queensland Health’s Bridge Labs Program has been noted as leading innovation in the OECD report Embracing Innovation in Government: Global trends 2023.

• The Australian government is talking seriously about information sharing standards to support interoperability across our health systems, finally!

• Woolworths has made telehealth appointments accessible via their HealthyLife platform which is in addition to their SuperPharmacy partnership available on the same portal.

• The Australian Healthcare Week and Data Analytics & AI in Healthcare conferences were on this month and both offered electric keynote presentations – contact me for event insights.

Now, let’s take a look at what’s happening in the start-ups space🚀:

• Announced earlier today, Australia has a new $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund which will invest in high-growth start-ups including healthtech.

• Amazon’s VP & CTO, Werner Vogels, reckons Australia could be home to the world’s most brilliant and innovative healthtech start-ups. Read it with The Future of Digital in Pharma.

• Experts in digital health innovation published commentary in the Journal of Medical Internet Research on the enablers and barriers of scale-ups. Enablers include: user-centred design, interdisciplinary co-creation, existing workflow integration, continuous clinical validation, and cross-industry collaboration.

• Airbnb but for healthcare? HD is a Google accelerated start-up out of Bangkok, and their platforms aim to make healthcare more accessible in South-East Asia by connecting vacant surgery rooms with surgeons and patients.

Finally, leaving you with my favourite futurist tidbit 🤖:

• Cleveland Clinic and IBM unveiled the world’s first quantum computer dedicated to healthcare research. This will allow researchers to access computational spaces that don’t otherwise exist and promises to expedite progress towards new cares, cures and solutions for patients.