#51 🍩 What the Health - Dr Karl Deepfakes, Longevity is where the money is mate & Mental Health ain't great

Your health tech & innovation TL;DR roundup

May 28, 2024

Hola amigos,

Sorry it’s been a second. We (actually just me, Emily) got bitten by the COVID bug and dropped balls. But, we’re back!

Thanks to the help of our epic team.

TLDR on fun activities you missed…

💜🦁🌴 WTH in the wild

We had some epic founders’ dinners in Sydney & Melbourne ft. our friends AWS Startups & Zendesk…

And had a blast at the Digital Health Festival with 6000 other legends
(also known as covid incubation central)

Oh, and in April we had a sick event ft 110 friends at Jumar Bioincubator & CSL

🏆It's one of Aus's greatest business success stories (not to mention, biotech). But how did they do it? 👀💰🧬 READ on👉

🚨Missed these meetups? Keen for the next one?

Make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter 😊 🍩 💌

More coming soon…

Noteworthy 🗞️

Pre warning: lots to catch up on today so strap in…

Funding

🚀 Superpower announced its US$4m pre-seed, aiming to create a proactive, personalised health system to help people live past 100 and reach their peak potential

🪁 Kite Therapy secured $750k pre-seed to support families with children on the autism spectrum through affordable early intervention programs

🤑 Kashcade, an Aussie Startup lending platform snagged $23m to make R&D loan funding easily accessible

🧠 Orygen secured $6.4m from the Vic Gov for MOST, its digital mental health service

💡Neo-Bionica nabbed $5m from Breakthrough Vic to advance its medical manufacturing technology

💼 Five V Capital acquired Habit Health, a workplace wellbeing provider, for >$200m

☀️ LuminaX announced their new cohort of 11 health startups

📚 Outread, an AI platform to help you digest info from summarised research articles snaged $700k

🩸Femtek, a women’s wearable raised a $1m seed to help give women better data about their menstrual cycle

🫀 CoraMetix, creators of next-gen polymeric heart valves using advanced 3D printing tech snagged $500k

👵🏻 PlanCare, a self-manage care platform topped up its seed round to $2.5m

🔬 The CSIRO allocated $20m to supporting startups & SMBs with greater access to vital research development & growth

🧘‍♀️ Foremind nabbed $400k follow-on for its mobile-friendly worker wellbeing platform

💉 Curtin University received $4.5m to advance health research for cancer and chronic disease

Newsworthy

💊 The Aussie Gov is banning compounded Ozempic and Mounjaro from Oct 1 to protect against unsafe replicas

⚖️ This ban may significantly impact VC-backed Eucalyptus. But CEO Tim Doyle warns that the decision will leave hundreds of thousands of patients without medication, with figures likely even higher now

🛡️MediSecure, one of Aus’s e-script providers, was hit by a major cyber attack

☎️ Lifeline experienced its busiest ever day in April - further confirming the real rising rates of distress

🔬The Garvan Institute & Illumina partner on a $27m TenK10K project to map human cells & unlock personalized medicine treatments for complex diseases

🦻🏻 Cochlear finally completed its acquisition of Danish competitor Oticon Medical's cochlear implant business, after a year of negotiation with competition regulators

🍎 The Cost of living is taking a toll on Aussies’ health: with more people undernourished, stressed and overworking

🔬Cicada Innovations officially opened its new HealthTech Hub in Western Sydney

🏖️ Sydney's Northern Beaches ranks as the highest region in the nation for wellbeing

Wait… You’re telling me deciding where to get your acai bowl from isn’t stressful? 🙃

🧑‍🔬Jumar Bioincubator, Melbourne’s new biotech incubator at CSL named its first 16 residents

🏆 Mindset Health nabbed the AFR’s best place to work in health

🏙️ Gurner Group proposed a $1.7B development for a ‘wellness city’ in Melbourne, optimised for anti-aging, longevity, and well-being

🚺 Ovum, pioneers Australia's first-ever longitudinal AI women's data set, focusing on closing the gender data gap in healthcare

💊 AI-generated Dr Karl deepfakes are being used by scammers to sell pills to Aussies

🕵️‍♂️ Telstra is rumoured to be putting Telstra Health division up for review, 2 years after absorbing GP patient management software MedicalDirector

🏥 All Aussie states and Territories now have virtual EDs, at least in development…

Gov Goss

🎒 It's Fed Budget time – let's look at the TLDR;

🏥Medicare’s getting an extra $2.8 bn over 5 years:
$882.2m to cut hospital admissions and speed up discharges for older Aussies
$895.6m for Medicare items, better primary care, and nuclear medicine support
$631.1m to boost vaccine access, including for COVID-19 and shingles
$227m for 29 new Medicare Urgent Care Clinics
🏚️ Aged care is scoring $2.2 bn:
$1.2bn for digital systems
$531.4m for 24,100 more Home Care Packages
$110.9m to beef up regulatory capabilities
$87.2m to attract and keep workers.
$37m to cut My Aged Care wait times.
💊 Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) updates will cost $3.4 bn over 5 years for new treatments
🧠 Mental health services get $888.1m over eight years for digital services, multidisciplinary care, and community service expansion
♿ Disability support gets $468.7m for NDIS upgrades and $253.6m for a new disability employment program
On more of a 🤔 note, the budg only mentioned startups once….

💉The “Health Research for a Future Made in Australia” package dropped with a total investment of $1.89 bn into a “once in a generation transformation of health and medical research in Aus”.

Ft.
$1.4b for new research via the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF):
New 10-Year Low Survival Cancers Mission
New 10-Year Reducing Health Inequities Mission
Continuing existing streams of MRFF funding
More research into 3 health priorities:
Women’s health
Chronic pain
Alcohol and other drug treatment
$411m to support 229 researchers to tackle the nation’s greatest health challenges, through the NHMRC
$62m to support 26 clinical trials from around Australia, through the MRFF
$18.8m to progress the National One Stop Shop for clinical trials and health research

(HOORAH)

💰NSW Health settled its largest underpayment class action outcome for junior doctors alleging underpayment between 2014 and 2020

More than 20,000 claimants will be eligible for the $230 million share this year if approved by the Supreme Court of NSW

🧠 Mental Health Australia’s chair Matt Berriman resigned due to frustration with the Albanese government's lack of action on mental health issues

US & Beyond the Borders

🧠 Neuralink's first human patient, revealed that 85% of the implant's wires have detached

🔬 Biotech and healthcare startups are dominating U.S. Series A funding so far in 2024, securing 53% of the total $5.6 billion raised

Did we not tell you health & bio is where its at?

🦠 A WHO report reveals that COVID-19 erased nearly a decade of progress in global life expectancy, dropping it by ~1.8 years

🚴‍♂️ Peloton shares hit a record low after CEO Barry McCarthy announced his resignation and a major restructuring plan to cut the global workforce by 15%

📡 MEASAT and Mudah Healthtech partnered to offer telehealth services via satellite broadband hoping to provide digital healthcare to 1m rural Malaysians

💍 Oura’s smart ring has a new feature “the Symptom Radar” to try detect early signs of physiological strain

🤰GE HealthCare unveiled a Voice-Activated AI Ultrasound for Women's Health

📱Roche introduced an AI-powered diabetes tracker to predict blood sugar levels

🏃 The US wellness market is on fire and fuelled by Younger generations. Already worth $480B+, with Millennials and Gen Z are spending the most.

⏳An anti-aging stem cell treatment is gaining traction amongst Hollywood A-listers - but does this annual $32.6K treatment really work?

🥤Hydration hype is proving electrolytes is lucrative, with 52% hydration category growth last year and the global sports drink market set to reach $59B by 2032

🐄 A Cow was hacked with human DNA to produce milk with human insulin…

Talk about a interesting health moooovement

Sick Science

🤯 Doctors combined a heart pump & pig kidney transplant in a new world-first
54-year-old New Jersey woman has received a genetically engineered pig kidney. The surgery, carried out at NYU Langone Health, also involved transplanting the pig’s thymus gland to help prevent rejection

🔋Using your body to generate electricity?
Researchers at Tianjin University of Technology developed a battery that uses your body's oxygen to generate electricity via a implantable sodium—oxygen battery. Which could power pacemakers and other tech without needing replacements

👽The Next Generation of Cancer Drugs will be made in… SPACE?
Injectable immunotherapy drugs can be made, in theory, but gravity prevents them from crystallising correctly. And a startup thinks the solution could be ‘right above us’

👂 Gene Therapy Restores Hearing in a World-First Trial
A UK toddler has had her hearing restored through a gene therapy trial. After a 16-minute surgery, Opal Sandy, born with auditory neuropathy, can now hear almost perfectly. Her parents are thrilled as Opal’s favourite new hobby is slamming cutlery on the table…

🤖 AI Updates…

🤖AI Funding booms - but is Australia being left out?

💬 OpenAI secured a deal to access real-time content from Reddit's data API to improve ChatGPT’s precision and context awareness with up-to-date public discourse – now including insights from conspiracy theorists and incels.

🌐 The WHO launched S.A.R.A.H., A Smart AI Resource Assistant for Health, using generative AI to provide empathetic, real-time health information in multiple languages.

🤦‍♂️ Google's new AI-generated summaries are under fire for citing questionable sources and spreading misinformation.

🌟 Brainomix's e-Lung AI software got FDA clearance, marking a major step in AI-driven lung imaging technology.

🩺 The Australasian Institute of Digital Health released a report on Australian AI Workforce Insights 2024. Dr. Sarah Anderson provided some key questions clinicians should ask before using an AI tool:

Does it help make a diagnosis or identify a test result?
What does it do, does it address a need?
Do I upload, or does it upload patient information?
Do I have consent?
How accurate and reliable is it?
Does it consider bias and the Australian context?

👩‍💻 237 million medication errors are made each year in England. This new AI new tool, “DrugGPT” could help doctors prescribe & act as a safety net

📰 News Corp and OpenAI sign a multi-year global partnership to integrate premium journalism into AI products

🫀Columbia biomedical engineers used AI to create BeatProfiler, a new tool to study and diagnose heart function at the cellular level

🩻 Cedars-Sinai developed a new method ft. AI to assess cardiovascular disease risk during a routine chest CT scan without contrast dye

🧫 Seed Health’s gut health company built on direct-to-consumer synbiotics, is investing its profits into an AI platform to unlock breakthroughs in microbiome science

💉Clarapath & Mayo Clinic partner to modernise pathology labs with robotics & AI

Get the rest here!

Startup Stuff 🚀

Have an idea for Dementia and Cognitive Decline?

The CUREator+ Dementia and Cognitive Decline incubator program, in partnership with Brandon BioCatalyst, ANDHealth, and Dementia Australia, is now open for funding applications! Companies can receive up to $5m per project - More here

Big Idea for future innovations made in Aus?

Up to $5m in grants are available through the Industry Growth Program to help innovative startups & high-growth SMEs commercialise their ideas - More here

QLD Biomedical Business looking for funding?

The Queensland Biomedical Business Attraction Program offers up to $250k per project to local biomedical businesses, covering up to 1/3 of the costs of providing services to national or international clients - More here

Aussie company keen to head abroad?

ANDHealth invites Aussie digital and connected health companies to join them in the UK and the Netherlands for exclusive networking and growth opportunities this June. Meet key decision-makers, industry experts, and explore new markets in London and Amsterdam - More here

Need $50k to get your life-saving medtech product to market?

The MedTech Growth Program is offering matched funding of up to $50,000 to Victorian medtech startups and scaleups developing medical devices and diagnostic tools. This program can equip you with the resources and expertise you need to bring your innovation to market faster - More here

Ambitious Pre-Series A founder looking for help?

The Startmate Accelerator is a 12-week program to help you nail the foundations and smash scale. Ft. access to vetted mentors, growth operators and close-knit network of founders/peers - Apply here

Researcher looking to bring your idea to life?

Turn your world-changing biotech or deep tech idea into reality with Blackbird’s Foundry program. In an eight-week intensive course, you’ll hone your concept and get it off the ground. And, there’s a sweet $15k cash prize up for grabs

WA New Industries Fund: Innovation Booster Grant

The WA Government's Innovation Booster Grant (IBG) $25.8 million New Industries Fund gives WA startups and small businesses a cash injection to hire experts, access resources, and launch their innovative projects

NSW-based SME?

The NSW Gov committed $11m over 4 years to selected Publicly Funded Research Organisations (PFROs) to develop activities that enable better translation of world-class research into business performance. Get access to cutting-edge knowledge, facilities, and training to transform your business with brilliant minds

🌎 The Department of Health & Aged Care opened funding for $12.6m to support international clinical trials in Australia and evidence-based healthcare

🚨💸🔬GRANT ALERT: $6m in grants are OPEN to grow international collaboration to enhance Australia’s standing as a science and technology leader.

Events💥

Wed 29th May: Three lessons in bringing Digital and AI into healthcare (online)

Tue 4th June: HealthTech Hub Masterclass: What are the Fundamental Aspects of Business Communications for Health Innovators? (Syd)

Tue 4th Jun: HealthTech Hub Masterclass: How can I make my health tech innovation a business success? (Syd)

12th-14th Jun: ARCS Annual - The Future Of Medicine: The confluence of devices, drugs and data Conference (Syd)

Thu 13th June: MQ Health Seminar Series – A brief history of sleep medicine (online)

17th-20th Jun: HLTH Europe (Amsterdam)

17th-21st Jun: Tropical Innovation Festival (Cairns)

Tue 18th June: BioForum – Journey from Australia to Global Pharmaceutical Markets: Leveraging European Engagement (online)

Fri 28th June: 2024 Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre Gala Dinner (Syd)

Thu 1st Aug: HealthTech Forum, Driving Patient-Centred Innovation (Syd)

5th - 7th Aug: Health Innovation Community Conference (Bris)

29-30th Aug: Something Tech Australia’s digital, innovation & Tech festival (Bris)

Consumable Content 💎

🎙️The Heart of Healthcare: Healthcare’s Hidden Growth Engine - Patients

Susannah Fox author of Rebel Health, reveals how patients and caregivers are driving innovation that the traditional system can't, or won't, deliver.

💰Raising funds can be tough, but understanding common pitfalls can make a big difference. This post by healthcare investor veterans Halle Tecco & Nikhil Krishnan dives into mistakes to avoid when pitching angels

📘Nerd out to medical futurist Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD new Ebook ‘100 Questions And Answers About Generative AI In Healthcare’

🎥 Andrew Huberman's Sydney Q&A session.

Mariah from the WTH team was there, and he mentioned that his largest audience by proportion is from Sydney. Seeing Bondi Beach packed at 5am with surfers, walkers, and runners, he thought, "Yeah, this makes sense."

🎧 Vital Signs: Benching Head of Strategy Malay Gandhi on the Future of Life Sciences Software and The Evolution of Digital Health

Malay Gandhi shares his early digital health ideas, forward-thinking perspectives on life sciences & real-world evidence, and the secrets behind Benchling's software success - all with his signature expertise & enthusiasm!