#43 🍩 What the Health - SXSW Sydney, Big Tech's moves in AI & Bulk Billed Online Mental Health Treatment Plans for Mental Health Day
Your health tech & innovation TL;DR roundup
Hola amigos,
This week is one of those weeks. There are some seriously horrible things going down. With seemingly senseless innocent lives lost in Israel and Palestine. Our thoughts are with our Israeli and Jewish brothers and sisters, everyone hurting or impacted by these truly unthinkable events - we stand with you 💜
Separately… Suddenly it’s Q4 (say what?!)
And, next week is the first-ever SXSW Sydney Festival 🥳
I’ll be around talking shit on some panel and casting unqualified judgement at the 2023 SXSW Sydney Pitch Finals: Healthcare, Biotech, Future of Medicine, Augmenting Humans 🎉💊
You around too? Hit me up! 👀
Speaking of fun Events…
💻 This one is for all the CTOs and Techies in the crew
Join us AWS & What The Health - Tech Leaders Showcase!
At the Amazon Sydney office, we’ll get learn from tech leaders at some of the hottest and fastest growing healthtech startups including Vow, Sonder and more on how they are building their tech platforms, scaling globally and the opportunities ahead for healthcare & life-sciences startups in Australia!
💡 This will be valuable for:
CTOs
VP Engineering
Founders curious about the tech that builds a successful healthcare/life-sciences startup
Keen?
👉 Sign up here!👈
Know someone who might be? ✨
Send it their way 💌
Now onto the good stuff…
💜 Brought to you with… MedTech Actuator’s Origin Program
🦸♀️ Are you or someone you know a budding healthcare superhero? 🦸♂️
Join MedTech Actuator Origin – to transform your ideas into early-stage startups in MedTech, BioTech, and HealthTech!
Celebrating 10 years, MedTech Actuator’s Origin is offering emerging founders the chance to kick start their journey in healthcare entrepreneurship with a supportive program & pitch comp. The winner will snag a prize pack worth >$20k and fast-tracked entry into the Actuator Accelerator 2024.
Whether you're a researcher, scientist, clinician, or student with an idea; this program is your opportunity to shine!
📅 Apps Close October 20th
Keen? Don’t miss your chance to help change the future of healthcare!👇
💜 And… Hola Health’s New Bulk Billed Telehealth Mental Health Treatment Plans!
This week was World Mental Health Day, and it’s not hard to see endless amounts of people suffering and far from enough easy access to help 💜 That’s why I’m SO excited about Hola Health’s new product…
💰 100% Bulk-billed telehealth Mental Health Treatment Plans! 🧠🧘♀️
You can also nab affordable and accessible telehealth services within 15 minutes of a request 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Want to learn more or give it a try?
Keen to get featured here? Flick us a note
Noteworthy 🗞️
Funding
🌿Eucalyptus raised another $8m in its latest capital raising, banking almost $60m to fuel its overseas expansion plans
🍁 ECS Botanics snagged a $25m deal to supply pharma-grade medicinal cannabis to MediCann Health
💊 Breakthrough Victoria invested
An undisclosed amount into gut gas detection “pill” startup Atmo Biosciences
And Smileyscope, using VR to reduce kids’ fear of needles and other procedures
🦌 Antler bagged a $60m fund for early-stage startups and encourage professionals to join a start-up accelerator program
📱The NHMRC gave $1.2m to a peer-supported digital app for schizophrenia
🤑 Wellnex Life is seeking $12m to fund acquisition of $22m pain relief brand PainAway and it plans to list on the LSX
🛝 VicHealth dished out $15k to 10 startups to explore ideas to improve outdoor spaces and community facilities
🩸Avasa, a NZ-based reconstructive microsurgery startup, raised $1.55m
Newsworthy
🐭 St Vincent's Hospital Sydney might have found the real cause of Alzheimer’s, in a study where they restored the memories of mice
🔢 The ABS released stats on key mental health issues ft. more rising rates of anxiety among young people
💼 Monash Uni’s Tech Precinct is seeing an increase in biotech activity, with significant deals and fresh leases underway
🚶Tend Health, a healthcare provider in NZ, launched an online walk-in primary care service accessible via an app
🌃 Midnight Health took out the Health & Medicine category at Brisbane’s Young Entrepreneur Awards
💡AFR announced its Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Aus in Health:
EMVision Medical Devices snagged top spot for their portable brain imaging device
ANDHealth earnt a spot for their non-equity-taking accelerator model
🧠 ARIA Research won the 2023 Australian Technologies Competition for their non-invasive bionic system that delivers a sense of vision via sound to people who are blind
🏆 Osara Health (previously Cancer Aid) nabbed Rising Star at The Digital Health Hub Foundation and Digital Health Awards in Consumer Wellness at HLTH
US & Beyond the Borders
🧬 The Nobel Prize for Medicine went to the magic and much-deserved mRNA tech behind the COVID-19 vaccine
⌚ WHOOP unveiled their AI-powered coach for their wearable users
👶The FDA discussed possibilities of an artificial womb for premature babies
🧘🏿♀️ Lululemon’s wellbeing report revealed more than 67% of people worldwide say they make wellbeing a top priority, yet 44% feel it’s impossible to achieve
🛒 Instacart, a US grocery delivery company will accept Medicare Advantage and Medicaid for grocery orders
💹 A Deloitte report says women in the US spend Billions more each year on healthcare compared to men
🌭 Sesame unveiled a unique partnership with Costco to give members access to medical care nationwide starting at just US$29 per visit
Thats roughly 20 Costco hot dogs
🧬AstraZeneca found a novel approach in proteogenomics that could change drug discovery and personalised medicines, uncovering links between rare protein-coding genetic variants and nearly 3,000 plasma proteins.
❌ In the latest pharma pivot from digital health…
Biogen closed its digital health unit and pulled out of a study with Apple
☘️ The Bank of Ireland is offering workers paid menopause leave
🏊 Third Space, a luxury health club operator in the UK, landed £88.5M to help with expansion plans
Sick Science
🏋🏾New weight-loss drug mimics exercise
A new type of drug dubbed “exercise mimetics” is helping obese mice to lose weight by convincing the body’s muscles that they are exercising more than they really are. It also increases endurance, helping mice run nearly 50% further than they could before
🦰 Ginger finally gets its first “evidence” of anti-inflammatory properties
Despite being used by many cultures for centuries, new research finally shows the plant may be beneficial for people living with autoimmune diseases, due to its impact on a type of white blood cell
🔨 New Implant could reduce cancer-related deaths by more than 50%
Rice Uni researchers have nabbed $45m to fast-track the development of a sense-and-respond implant technology, HAMMR. This implant, designed for ovarian, pancreatic, and other hard-to-treat cancers, continuously monitors a patient’s cancer and adjusts their immunotherapy dose in real time
🦠 Does the answer to antibiotic resistance lie in a deadly superbug infection?
Aussie researchers uncovered new genetic insights into Golden staph, revealing what makes the bacterium so dangerous when it enters the blood
🤖 AI Updates…
📣 HLTH was on this week in Vegas, meaning millions of announcements:
Microsoft launched its new data & AI tools for healthcare aiming to simplify access to vast medical data, 97% of which remains unused. Fabric, its new platform consolidates data from multiple sources like EHRs, lab systems, and medical devices. They also have Azure AI tools like a generative chatbot and Text Analytics for health.
Google announced its new gen AI search capabilities to try help clinicians quickly access information from different data sources, and save time and energy
💰Amazon announced they would invest up to $4b in Anthropic, a generative AI assistant that could be integrated into Amazon Clinic, One Medical, and Pillpack
👴🏽 JPMorgan’s Chief Exec reckons AI will help people to live to 100, work 3.5 day weeks, and live in a future without cancer
🏥 Mayo Clinic will be among the first to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, combining AI with emails and calendars to improve productivity and reduce admin (praise be!)
🔮 Google DeepMind used AI to predict harmful genetic mutations in humans
⌛A Uni in Finland collaborated with industry and supercomputers for a ground-breaking virtual drug screen, using machine learning to process 1.56 billion drug-like molecules 10 times faster
Startup Stuff 🚀
Founder of a Vic-based scaleup?
30X30 is LaunchVic’s Program to help 30 Victorian scaleups reach unicorn status by 2030 through up-skilling HR, Operations and Finance leads. The 4-month program will pair leads with mentors from existing unicorn ventures such as Canva, Atlassian and SEEK - More info
Women-led life sciences company looking for funding?
Springboard's Life Sciences Innovation Program is tailored for women-led life sciences companies. It offers funding, networking opportunities, and connections to experts and strategic partners, supporting product development and expansion - Apply here
Impact-driven founder?
The Startup Network and Giant Leap’s Impact Pitch Night is your chance to share your startup with the Aussie community and win support. Connect with industry leaders, innovators, investors, and pitch your venture to a panel of experts - More here
Biotech innovator seeking specialised facilities?
Jumar Bioincubator, Aus's newest biotech incubator, will open its doors in Melbourne offering affordable lab and office space, along with practical support, to nurture your ventures - Reach out
Know an Org upporting youth mental health?
Born This Way Foundation and Cotton On Foundation are dedicating up to $1.5m in grants to fund free accessible, community-informed resources to support youth mental health - Make a nomination
Looking for support for deep tech businesses?
Cicada Innovations is offering entrepreneurial programs and support for founders and innovators, so you can turn ground-breaking science and technology into an impactful deep-tech business, faster - Check it out
Running a digital business in Vic?
Make your voice heard in the Victorian Digital Technology Sector Survey, which helps the government understand the challenges and opportunities currently facing digital technology businesses - Have your say
Want to shape the direction of Genomics?
You can express your interest in becoming a member of the next expert advisory panel. Members with genomics-related expertise will advise the gov on the priorities for the $500m mission - Submit an application
Events💥
17th Oct: MedTech Actuator Origin Japan Pitch Night
15th - 22nd Oct: SXSW Sydney
18th - 19th Oct: Victorian Healthcare Week (Mel)
19th Oct: Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards
25th Oct: AI in Health Readiness Forum (Syd)
25th Oct: Herbert Smith Freehills VC Masterclass (Mel)
30th Oct: AusBioInvest 2023
30th Oct: MDPP Presents: MedTech Mondays
30th - 31st Oct: MEDTECH 23 Annual Conference
7th Nov: Cicada HealthTech Hub: Protecting IP (Syd)
16th Nov: Startup to Scaleup Summit (Syd)
22nd - 23rd Nov: AI.Care 2023: Advancing Data-Driven Healthcare
Consumable Content 💎
🎙️Build it. They’ll Come: Kismet - former soldier Mark Woodland built healthtech startup Kismet to help NDIS participants & reduce overcharging. And why raising funds is a yucky startup job!
“Serially successful entrepreneur Mark Woodland, co-created and built the Kismet platform to provide digital tools to help NDIS participants easily link up with approved providers, hopefully reducing fraud and overcharging & improving compliance along the way”
🎥 Vital Signs: Mark Cuban is Making Life-Saving Drugs Affordable
Jacob and Nikhil talk Mark Cuban on his pharmaceutical startup, The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company - on why he entered the health industry, what’s broken in healthcare, competing on price, staying curious, and the future of AI
📊Rock Health’s take on Q3 2023: amid reduced funding, U.S. digital health startups pivoted towards disease treatment, nonclinical workflows, and value-based care, focusing on high-cost therapeutic areas and adopting a cautious growth strategy
👩🔬 Viswa Colluru, Founder & CEO of Enveda Biosciences; wrote a very cool thing on The Chemical Code: An Opportunity Bigger Than the Genetic Code
Talking about the limitations of viewing biology solely through the lens of genetics, the importance of chemistry to life than genetics, and how we need to develop new tools to map the chemical code of life - which could allow us to better understand diseases and develop better treatments.
Finally… the real state of healthcare as a business 😅 🥲
Thanks to Hannah, Dave, Jo, Makenzie, Kate & Robi for sharing fun things that made this drop
💡Got thoughts on this?
Or something to include next time?
Hit reply or reach out to emily@whatthehealth.io to let us know!
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Ok lovers - see you soon
👋 Emily,
Jas & team WTH
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