Roundup: New app partnership gives NHS workers flexible access to pay, Your.MD raises €25m to roll out health hubs and more briefs

NHSX DRIVES FORWARD DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF HEALTH CARE

With the aim of creating an environment for innovation to flourish, NHSX has created the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria for health and social care, beta (DTAC).

NHSX will use this criteria to support and assess stakeholders across the ecosystem, forming a baseline assessment criteria that validates the suitability and function of digital health technologies for use by the NHS, social care staff or citizens.

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This criteria will replace the existing Digital Assessment Questionnaire (DAQ) and Digital Assessment Portal (DAP).

The criteria will adhere to the key principles of privacy, security, interoperability, clinical safety, accessibility and inclusion and will be supported by the Guide to Good Practice for Digital and Data-Driven Health Technologies, which will be published in October by the NHS AI Lab.

YOUR.MD RAISES €25M TO ROLL OUT HEALTH HUBS

UK-based health tech startup, Your.MD has raised €25m from the global health and hygiene company, Reckitt Benckiser (RB).

The money will be used to roll out its “health hubs” concept where users can find information about illnesses like cold and flu, sexual health and COVID-19.

The new funding round takes the total raised to €40m, and will also help the company expand its “self-care” app Healthily, which uses AI to help users check their symptoms before deciding to see a doctor.

This is part of the startups broader aim of lessening the strain on the healthcare system.

NEW APP PARTNERSHIP GIVES NHS WORKERS FLEXIBLE ACCESS TO PAY

A new payroll platform enabling NHS employees to access their pay is being rolled out to NHS organisations following a partnership between Earnd and NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS).

The free of charge platform will be available to NHS users via the exisiting MySBSPay app.

The new collaboration aims to help NHS organsiations enhance their employee benefits, whilst reducing reliance on expensive employment agencies.

By offering more flexible and regular payments, NHS trusts can use Earnd to incentivise more healthcare professionals to join their ‘bank’ which is an average of 20% less expensive than paying for temporary agency staff.

Users can view and understand their income in real-time, with the option of accessing earnings through a quick transfer into their bank account. 

 

INHEALTHCARE AND OLYMPUS HELP NHS EXPAND DIAGNOSTIC CAPACITY

To help NHS trusts catch up with procedures that stagnated during the peak of the crisis, manufacturer of optical and precision tech, Olympus and digital health company, Inhealthcare have launched the Digital Education Solution.

Patients awaiting endoscopy procedures are set to benefit from the new partnership that aims to increase NHS diagnostic capacity in the recovery phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

The service aims to improve health outcomes, reduce missed appointments and ease the strain on overstretched hospitals by digitising the patient journey from referral through to post procedure patient feedback.

It also offers personalised support and educational materials for patients and aims to reduce admin work for staff when NHS clinics are operating with limited capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions and an increased paperwork burden due to symptom checking and screening.

NAVENIO TO PROVIDE LOCATION TECH FOR CLEVELAND CLINIC

Healthcare scale-up Navenio, has announced a deal with Cleveland Clinic London to provide infrastructure-free location tech to its new hospital site in central London.

Navenio will provide its technology to Cleveland Clinic London, specifically to improve response times for care-giving teams.

The hospital will be able to provide the right team member to the right patient or colleague, based on where they are in the hospital.

Opening in early 2022, Cleveland Clinic London hospital will see caregivers using the Navenio technology to start providing location data when their shift starts via their smartphone. Navenio is able to register when a user changes ‘region’ within the hospital and synchronise with the hospital’s existing technology to ensure that caregivers deal with the needs of those nearest to them.

The project is being managed in collaboration with Deloitte and IBM, and integrates with vendors such as Ascom and Vocera.

COVID-19 BOOSTS M&A ACTIVITY IN HEALTH TECH SECTOR

A health tech M&A market report on the outbreak of COVID-19 to be published by technology mergers and acquisions advisor, Hampleton Partners stresses the impact of coronavirus on healthcare systems around the world. 

According to the report, the health emergency and the need for social distancing have accelerated the shift to digital, speeding up the implementation and adoption of healthcare apps and telemedicine which has continued to drive M&A volumes across health tech.

The report states that health tech transaction volume is on the rise, with 131 transactions recorded in the first half of 2020. This upward trend, after a significant dip in 2016 and 2017, has taken us back to the peak levels observed five years ago. 

This growth has been driven particularly by high valuations in the healthcare vertical software segment, which saw 88 deals closed in the first half of the year – a 20 per cent increase on the last reporting period.