#28 🍩 What the Health - A $250m health fund, $21m COVID App scrapped and Uber Health
Your fortnightly healthtech TL;DR roundup
Happy Friday Legends!
Is it just me, or is the year accelerating?
Anyway, thanks to everyone who made it to our epic Melbourne catch-up last week!
Despite being very cosy, it was a heap of fun.
💜 Thanks again to Nutromics for sponsoring
We have some more fun things coming soon, so keep an eye out
Keen to sponsor or partner with What the Health?! Hit reply or flick us a note.
Featured
There's no greater time to align our health strategy with our health reform agenda 🔥 And we’re beyond stoked for the upcoming epic Wild Health Summit on just that!
Join us for a day of deep dives into the different problems, parts and possibilities in the space ft. leading global and local experts including:
John Halamka, M.D., M.S., President of Mayo Clinic Platform
David Rowlands, Member of the Roster of Digital Health Experts at WHO
Grahame Grieve, Founder of FHIR and Principle at Health Intersections
Aashima Gupta Director, Global Healthcare Strategy and Solutions, Google Cloud
📅 Tuesday, October 18th
📍 Melbourne
Noteworthy 🗞️
Let’s talk about waste in healthcare…
In case you missed it, after over 2 years and $21 million, the gov finally officially scrapped the COVIDSafe app (I know… I didn’t know it was still alive either).
With criticisms by health experts the program was not useful at identifying potential COVID-19 cases *Shock*
If you don’t laugh - you’ll cry.
Now don’t get me wrong, we are flipping lucky to be in Aus with access to such great healthcare. And sometimes, we’ve got to give things a shot. But, when this project started, many tech and health leaders expressed concerns over the approach to the project.
And - this isn’t exactly a one-off. With mounting examples and mind-boggling amounts repeatedly thrown down the drain.
Like My Health Record…
Operational for ~13 years with >$2bn throw at it - though there’s been a recent uptick by hospitals, many patients and professionals alike cannot, and will not likely ever access it. As usability and utility are a little questionable (to say the least). And it continues to be squished into archaic legacy structures.
Though I really hope it could hit truly usable status, there’s a hell of a long way to go.
In a health system where we’re eternally under-resourced, you have to ask - isn’t there a better way?
Raising serious questions about how & why these projects are created and delegated. When and how will there be more actual collaboration between groups and domain experts for these projects? Instead of just quiet tenders, with crazy specifications that often mean…
Projects won’t actually become useful (or usable)
Only giant big corporates who top tier rates can get those contracts
We keep indulging the sunk cost fallacy
But, there seems to be hope. With the new gov seemingly taking things seriously. To the health gods we pray 🙏
OK. Rant over… Onto the real news
Aussie (& NZ) Funding Fun
🔥 A new $250m healthtech fund hit the scene with Tenmile publically launching- backed by Tattarang and billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest
👀 Apparently James Packer also wants in on the action with rumours his next ventures will be in AI & mental health
💜 Midnight Health, a platform for remote access to doctors & pharmacists for home-delivered prescriptions got another $12m from NIB
🩸OneVentures is set to raise up to $200m in a venture credit fund as interest from startups and investors (and interest rates) rise
🏥 Carepatron, a Kiwi-founded startup building “the world's most beautiful digital workspace for health providers” bagged a NZ$1.6m Pre-seed
💪 Splose, a practice management platform designed to support allied health and NDIS providers raises $1m to help fuel growth
🧬 Crux Biolabs got substantial backing from healthcare specialists Genesis Capital
🩸 CSL gets the go ahead to buy Switzerland’s Vifor Pharma for $16.7bn and paving the to enter into new territory with iron deficiency and kidney products.
🧪 Perennial’s small-cap Better Future fund is backing rapid PCR diagnostics company Genetic Signatures, as it seeks US FDA approval
🤖 3 Aotearoa NZ research teams projects have bagged NZ$5.1m to explore how AI could improve access to healthcare
Worth Knowing
🚗 Uber Health hits Aus with doctors able to book transport for patients to clinics and hospitals... But there’s concerns about privacy
🖥 Medibank and ahm Health Insurance announced they’re extending the age of adult dependants from 25 to 31 to create continuity of private health insurance
💰 Honeysuckle Health got ACCC authorisation to establish a health services buying group that will serve private and public healthcare payers, the first of its kind in Aus
🤝 CancaerAid, who delivers virtual programs to help cancer patients navigate their journey formed a joint venture with US telehealth giant Teladoc Health
👷♂️Ramsay Health Care confirms its contract with Bupa is no more, meaning patients will have to pay out of pocket - but signed a five-year contract with HCF to “strengthen the long-term affordability of private healthcare”
♿️ Nib also eyes NDIS opportunity saying it sees a big opportunity to connect “buyers and sellers” in the space
🌈 HIF Australia is keen on psychedelics and supposedly may be the first Australian health fund to offer insurance for them
🚬 You can now get hypnotherapy to help you stop smoking from your phone - as Mindset Health releases their latest product, finito.
👎 Female medical researchers supposedly received $400m less in government funding than their male counterparts
💉 Vaxxas needle-free high-density microarray vaccine patch (HD-MAP) has proved effective against all major variants of Covid when given to mice
🇮🇱 The Clinician partnered with Israel’s largest healthcare organisation, Clalit Health Services, to roll out their digital health services
🇳🇿 Medtasker, the workflow management solution for hospitals is being rolled out across NZs northern regions
🎀 CSIRO opened a new $23.1m national lab in Melbourne to bolster our production of vaccines and drug treatments onshore
US & Beyond the Borders
📱 Big tech baby…
What’s the landscape like and what’s next? Interesting to see all of big tech ploughing ahead in health
Cool pic- but I’d argue Microsoft and Google are already in Hospitals
✅ Amazon is making more moves to take out the $4 trillion health market
Rumoured to be making an offer for Signify Health
Are shutting Amazon Care at the end of the year (but tbh they really don’t need it given recent acquisitions)
🎶 Bytedance, TikTok‘s Chinese owner acquired one of China’s largest private hospital chains, Amcare Healthcare for ~US$1.5 billion
📺 YouTube has launched a new feature that will help people in the UK find credible health information online
Calling it now, youtube and tiktok will become the go to search platforms for health information in the future ft verified doctors and health brands
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Sick Science…
🚨 Google’s DeepMind says its AlphaFold tool has successfully predicted the structure of nearly all proteins known to science and is now offering its database of over 200m proteins to anyone for free
🩻 A stick-on patch, the size of a stamp, can take a detailed ultrasound scan of a person’s insides as they go about their daily life for up to 48 hours
🍄 Is VR as good as psychedelics at helping people reach transcendence?
One study shows that on key metrics, a VR experience elicited a response indistinguishable from subjects who took medium doses of LSD or magic mushrooms
Startup Stuff 🚀
Digital Health Company Looking to scale?
ANDHealth’s flagship digital health commercialisation program, ANDHealth+ is now taking apps for a killer program ft support and funding - More here
Looking to explore early-stage ideas in the disability space?
Remarkable launched their new “Launcher” Program, an 8 week part-time program to help those keen to explore ideas and get immersed in the ecosystem - More here
Research team keen to look at commercializing your work?
CSIROs ON Prime is a free program designed to help research teams take their projects to the next level through customer discovery, basic commercialisation and communication skills - More here
Preclinical medical research project or clinical stage novel therapeutic looking for support?
Brandon BioCatalyst’s CUREator is a national biotechnology incubator aimed at supporting the development of Australian biomedical innovations, ft funding and support. And is now open for Round 2 of apps - More here
Female founded or focused early stage startup?
She loves tech is global competition for founders to showcase their stuff, get access to the right resources, and funding to get to the next level - with >$500k prizes up for grabs - More here
Fast-growing startup keen for some support and recognition?
Nominate yourself or another innovator for Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list for some killer industry recognition, brand exposure and connections - Apply here
SME or Startup commercializing medical devices?
Apply for Round 2 of MTPConnect's Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech (CTCM) program, providing $250k - $1.5m in funding to support early clinical development of medical devices with commercial potential - More here
Events💥
Tue 30th Aug: Intellectual Property (IP) Seminar Series (Adelaide and online)
Tue 30th Aug: BioForum – Medtech to Market: The Snakes and Ladders of Team Curation
Wed 31st Aug: UNSW Founders Information Session (Online)
Wed 31st Aug: Medtech Masterclass - Making it Work: The Human-Centred Approach to Medtech Development (Melbourne)
Wed 31st Aug: WA MTP Sector Spotlight Series (Perth)
Tue 6th Sept: Create your first startup idea (NSW)
6th Sept - 12th Oct: Cicada MedLab Commercialisation 101 (Major cities)
12th Sep - 31st Mar: ISO 13485:2016 Workshop - Quality Management Systems for Medical Devices
Wed 5th Oct: WILD MASTERCLASS: Create and nurture your personal sponsors and champions (Online)
Thu 6th Oct: Australia MedTech Industry Awards (NSW)
Consumable Content 💎
📈 What are the fundamental trends and benchmarks for healthcare SaaS and tech businesses? After studying 50 top healthcare technology businesses, Bessemer Ventures reveal the fundamental trends and benchmarks leaders need to know
📱 What exactly is ‘digital health’? Tim Blake has a killer piece covering what exactly digital health is and how its a tad confusing in the health system
📚 a16z has an epic piece on the Two-Sided Networks in Healthcare, a Founder’s Playbook- covering the troubles, tribulations and tips to find an executable path for sustainable distribution and value capture
🧐 CSL, Cochlear, and Gardasil are all great Australian biotech success stories; we have done it before. So, how do we do it again and again?
🔐 Mozilla’s latest privacy report evaluates a heap of health, period tracking and pregnancy apps in a scary report showing just how much of our data is shared, and the potential implications in the US following Roe vs Wade being overturned
Jobs 💼
Want to get your role and company featured in front of >2800 health tech-loving legends? Add your job to the board or get featured
Want something included? Have I missed something? Just want to say hi?
Okie dokes folks - thanks for reading and have a fab weekend
👋 Emily
📣 Want to get featured? Snag your sponsor spot
Didn’t hate it? Know someone else who might like it? Flick it their way 🙌 😊