DigitalHealth.London has today announced the first cohort of its accelerator programme.
Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the year long programme will provide the cohort of 32 SME digital health businesses with in-depth knowledge of the NHS. A team of skilled NHS Digital Health Navigators will work alongside the SMEs, helping them engage with healthcare experts whilst responding to the needs of the market.
Jenny Thomas, the accelerator programme’s director, commented: “We’re delighted to welcome our very first Accelerator cohort and look forward to working with them closely over the next year. This is a completely new and innovative programme – the first of its kind in London – that works by engaging with businesses, the NHS and wider healthcare sector, to close the gap between product development and the uptake of new solutions within hospitals and other healthcare settings.”
Companies in the cohort include diabetes tracking tool MumoActive, appointment management tool DrDoctor, and Sense.ly, a digital nurse app which uses artificial intelligence to guide patients through their health query.
“With ever-increasing pressures on health and care services, our ambition is to speed up the adoption of innovations at scale, ensuring that greater numbers of patients benefit from emerging new technology, more rapidly,” Thomas continued.
The accelerator programme launch event, where the 32 chosen firms will be officially announced, takes place today at the Digital Catapult on Euston Road, London. The event it by invitation only.
Professor Keith McNeil, chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said: “Digital innovation has the power to directly enhance patient care, improve the sustainability of our systems and transform the way people access NHS services and manage their own health. We are already seeing the benefits to patients and NHS staff as we harness the potential of smart technology and we are investing hundreds of millions to move faster in realising such benefits across the entire health and social care system.”