#76 🍩 A $439M fund & Wearables at the Whitehouse
Whats happening in health tech & innovation?
Hello friends,
Coming at you today surrounded by boxes (SOS) with a small update coming soon… 👀
💜 Big thanks to the +100 people who joined us and our friends Vanta at lunch last week for our Scaling that Works: Moving Past the Pilot Phase in Healthtech sesh
To learn practical tips and hard-earned insights with the incredible Marc Hermann, Co-Founder of Everlab & Pauline Soo, General Manager @ Instant Scripts
Big thanks again to our mates Vanta for making it possible 🫶🏻
Let’s jump into your Friday morning fun healthtech tidbits…
🍩 TODAY’S ISSUE
Newsworthy
Sick Science
AI Updates
Startup Stuff
Events
Cool Content
Brought to you with … 💜 Vanta
Confidence to scale: Vanta success stories in healthcare compliance and automationFind out how Vanta helps growing healthcare companies like Modern Health, US Med-Equip, and Healthie streamline & automate compliance.
💜 Heidi Health
You’re invited!
Heidi’s heading across Aus for a series of evenings full of honest conversations, big ideas, & good company - & we’d love for you to join us.
Whether you're a GP, specialist, nurse, allied health professional, or just curious (or even sceptical!) about where AI in healthcare is heading, this night is for you.
Spots are limited, so if you’re keen to come along, register now!
Want to get featured here in front of >9600 health-loving legends?
Shoot us a note for ad placement & partnership opportunities.
Noteworthy 🗞️
US & Beyond Borders
🇺🇸 The White House & CMS announced a Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative with 60 major healthcare and technology companies ft. Amazon, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft AI, Anthropic, Hippocratic AI, Zocdoc, Oura, Oracle & more- to improve electronic health record interoperability, patient access, and digital health tools
🏥 America’s biggest health insurers, incl. UnitedHealth, Elevance, & Centene, are losing $Bs as rising medical costs, tighter government funding, & regulatory crackdowns expose their heavy dependence on public programs
🔐 Meta was found liable for using Flo Health users’ reproductive data for targeted ads, violating California privacy laws in a case that could cost up to $190B
🧬 Trump slashed 000s of Ms in cancer research funding, pausing NIH grants, cutting DoD & CDC programs, & halting clinical trials, leaving the U.S. Cancer Moonshot in disarray…..& it’s all in an effort to purge “woke” science
📱 The EU now classifies health apps & app stores as medical devices, requiring them, incl. platforms like Apple & Google, to meet strict medical device regulations
🌍In Africa - LeapFrog fully exited Goodlife Pharmacy to CFAO Healthcare after scaling from 19 to 150 stores, marking the largest PE-led pharmacy exit in Sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa
🥤 PepsiCo launched Prebiotic Cola with 3g of fibre & cane sugar, doubling down on gut health after acquiring Poppi
🧬 Bryan Johnson said he might shut down Blueprint to focus on his “Don’t Die” religion, then reversed course, announcing he’ll stay all in and hire a new CEO & CTO
Funding
💸 Brandon Capital closed its 6th fund at A$439M to back emerging biomedical tech, with support from the WA Gov & $150M from Aus’s NRF
💰 Breakthrough Vic & Monash Uni invested $2.25M into 3 health startups: Myostellar, Fyton Bio, & Remagine Labs, marking the launch of Monash’s $15M pre-seed fund
🌍 HeraMED raised $1.98M to expand its digital maternity platform HeraCARE across the US, Aus, & Europe, & partnered with RMIT to develop AI tools for predicting preterm birth
📱 Sahha.ai raised $1.2M to scale its API that turns wearable & health data into real-time insights
Newsworthy
👶 VitalTrace, launched a world-first labour monitoring device that wirelessly tracks a baby’s oxygen levels in real time during birth
And they’re planning to raise $30M to commercialise its childbirth monitoring device & expand into the US
😴 ResMed beat earnings forecasts with $8B in annual sleep device sales, posting a 37% profit jump despite trade tariff threats under President Trump
📨 Telstra Health & Consultmed partnered to embed eReferral capability into MedicalDirector Clinical, letting 20k+ GPs send, track, & manage referrals without leaving their workflow
🏥 UNSW completed construction of its $600M Health Translation Hub, bringing researchers, clinicians, & students together and set to open in Nov
🩸 Cancer survivors in Aus can now donate blood & plasma 1 year after finishing treatment, down from 5, if in remission, under new Red Cross guidelines, excl. those with blood cancers
🏥 Ramsay Health Care will shut down nearly all 20 of its psychology clinics as demand drops
👶 AIHW reports Aussies are having fewer babies later in life, with rising caesarean & stillbirth rates, & fewer births among teens
👶 John Howard & the Coalition call to reinstate the baby bonus after Aus’s fertility rate hit a 17-year low
🤰 A new proposal could drop private birth costs to $500 under midwife-led care, as health funds pitch it to fix Aus’s maternity system crisis
🤖 AI Updates
💼 OpenEvidence raised $210M at a $3.5B valuation & launched DeepConsult™, the first AI agent built for physicians, as 40% of U.S. doctors now use its platform daily
🩺 Anthropic signed the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem pledge to use its AI tools to improve healthcare interoperability & patient access to data across the U.S. system
🤖 OpenAI to release GPT-5 in August
🇺🇸 The White House released its AI Action Plan, a 90+ policy roadmap, pushing a “try-first” culture in healthcare with FDA sandboxes, clinical simulations, & tax incentives to accelerate AI adoption
💸 Ambience raised $243M led by Oak HC/FT & a16z to scale its ambient AI platform for clinical documentation & workflow
🧠 Elsevier’s 2025 Clinician of the Future report found that 48% of clinicians now use AI at work, nearly double from last year
📝 Doximity launched a free ambient scribe tool for clinicians, aiming to win over smaller practices priced out of costly AI scribes
Sick Science
🩺 Can an AI sidekick catch your doctor’s mistakes?
Researchers from OpenAI & Penda Health partnered to deploy an LLM tool called AI Consult across nearly 40kprimary‑care visits in 15 Nairobi clinics between Jan- Apr 2025. They found clinicians using AI Consult had 16% fewer diagnostic errors & 13% fewer treatment errors compared to peers without the tool; in visits with high‑severity “red” alerts, the reductions rose to 31% & 18%, respectively. AI Consult runs in the background of the electronic health record, flagging potential issues via a color-coded (green/yellow/red) system for the clinician’s review, without altering clinician control.
📱 Can Apple Watch improve asthma in underserved communities?
In a 12-month RCT of 901 Medicaid-insured adults, researchers tested a digital asthma self-management program built with Apple & Elevance Health. Participants using the app, paired with a wearable & symptom tracking, had significantly better asthma control, especially those with poorly controlled asthma at the start (ACT score +4.6 vs +1.8). The trial shows consumer tech can move the needle for low-income populations when deliberately designed and studied at scale.
🦠 Can your gut feel bacteria and tell your brain to stop eating?
In a Nature study, researchers discovered a sensory circuit in mice where colonic cells detect bacterial flagellin using TLR5 receptors on PYY-labelled neuropod cells. This triggers PYY release, activating the vagus nerve to suppress feeding, without involving the immune system, metabolism, or microbiome. Mice missing TLR5 in these cells ate larger meals and gained more weight, revealing a direct “neurobiotic sense” linking gut microbes to brain-driven behaviour.
Startup Stuff 🚀
Got a stem cell therapy ready for the next step?
The MRFF’s Stem Cell Therapies Grant is a pool of up to $31.5M to back early-stage clinical trials of novel stem cell treatments & research that builds community trust in these therapies - More here
Looking to crack the US digital health market?
ANDHealth is taking EOI’s for its 2025 international delegation to HLTH US in Las Vegas (19–22 Oct), with an SF pre-program (15–17 Oct) packed with investor meetings, site visits, & expert sessions - More here
Looking for commercialisation pathways at UNSW?
Barker Street Ventures (UNSW’s early-stage venture fund & commercialisation platform) connects industry partners & investors with breakthrough tech incl. medtech, biotech, & AI, originating from UNSW’s deep‑tech research ecosystem - More here
Working on a game-changer for dementia or aged care?
The MRFF Dementia, Ageing & Aged Care Mission has an open funding round, with $24.3M on the table for projects that help Aussies age better. This includes research to boost preventive health uptake in Indigenous, rural, & CALD communities, & to improve the adoption of high-quality care for older Aussies.- More here
Got global medtech ambitions?
MTPConnect’s Trade Mission to The MedTech Conference 2025 is open for apps to join the Aus delegation in San Diego, including a 2-day commercial visit program beforehand for site visits, networking, investor insights, & US market briefings. - More here
Want to level up your health startup know-how?
The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program is offering a free 3-day Business Fundamentals bootcamp for budding healthtech entrepreneurs. It covers how to form a company, navigate regulations, get funding-ready & build your team – all taught by industry experts in law, finance, sales & - More here
Ready to transform your lab from chaos to credibility?
Zero to Quality empowers life science researchers & small startups to implement a professional, ISO-aligned Quality Management System without needing specialist hires or consultants. It’s a structured online training, ready-made templates, expert support, audits, & certification - More here
Got a women’s health research idea ready to go?
The Foundation for Women’s Health is accepting Letters of Intent for projects tackling critical gaps across the female life course. Focus areas this year include mental health in teen girls, uterine cancer, CVD in pregnancy, vaccine uptake, autoimmune disease, & fibroids – More here
Building the next big healthtech startup in Australia?
LX is a leading accelerator backing 10 Aussie health startups with up to $200k in funding, plus hands-on support, expert coaching, & access to 300+ clinicians, investors, & operators – More here
Got a Health Care Innovation Idea?
CSIRO’s Innovate to Grow program is open for Aussie SMEs looking to turn their health care ideas into R&D projects. This free 8-week course provides guidance, expert feedback, & funding pathways to bring your innovation to life - More here
Events💥
9 - 13th Aug: MEDINFO2025 (Taiwan)
14th Aug: Heidi Health Roadshow (Syd)
18 - 20th Aug: HIC 2025 (Melb)
21st Aug: Heidi Health Roadshow (Melb)
27th Aug: MedTech on the Hill 2025 (Canberra)
28th Aug: Heidi Health Roadshow (Perth)
2nd Sept: Healthy People, Healthy Planet (Melb)
2nd Sept: Women's Health & Wellbeing Summit (Syd)
3rd Sept: Heidi Health Roadshow (Bris)
16 - 17th Sept: HIKM 2025, Empowering Health: AI Innovations (online)
16 - 18th Sept: Australian Public Health Conference 2025 (Wollongong)
5 - 8th Oct: The MedTech Conference (San Diego)
13 - 16th Oct: RACMA Embracing the Future (Perth)
15 - 16th Oct: Westmead Research & Innovation Conference 2025 (Syd)
19 - 22nd Oct: HLTH (Las Vegas)
21 - 24th Oct: Aus Biotech 2025 (Melb)
Cool Content
🎙️Lex Fridman Podcast #475: Demis Hassabis, Future of AI, Simulating Reality, Physics and Video Games:
Demis Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind and Nobel Prize winner for his groundbreaking work in protein structure prediction using AI.
📖 Anthony Vennare lists 12 trends shaping the future of fitness
💡Got Feedback? Something to include next time? Keen to get in touch?
We want to make this worthy of your time & the best possible.
💌 Hit reply or reach out to emily@whatthehealth.io to let us know
Have an epic weekend
👋 Emily,
Mariah & team WTH
With thanks to our partners 💜
Want to get featured here in front of >9600 health-loving legends?
Shoot us a note for ad placement & partnership opportunities.