On the eve of World Health Day, a ground-breaking new accelerator programme is launching for businesses using technology to tackle the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
The ‘HS.’ programme will build and scale healthcare technology businesses and help larger organisations drive healthcare innovation at a corporate level, positioning the UK at the forefront of innovation in global healthcare.
More than $23billion has been invested in healthcare start-ups globally over the past seven years.
However, few accelerator programmes are in place to sustainably launch and scale these healthtech businesses – and even fewer are able to offer their members deep insights and guidance on how to successfully bring healthcare technologies to market.
HS. will fill this gap, with a programme built around the needs of healthtech start-ups and an unparalleled team of healthcare experts and mentors.
The accelerator aims to bring the most talented individuals and most innovative companies together to work on solutions for the world’s largest healthcare problems.
“We’re approaching a pivotal moment in something that affects every one of us, every day: our health,” said HS. CEO and co-founder Dr. Alex Young.
“Healthcare is on the cusp of radical transformation and for the first time we will soon begin taking charge of our own health data.
“The HS. programme will harness the potential that change holds, and bring together brilliant minds with a singular focus: solving the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges with technology.
“Impact comes from scale, and we want to build UK health companies that scale internationally – to impact patients around the world and make the UK a hub of excellence for healthtech.”
Dr. Young is a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon by training. His latest company, Virti, is an immersive video training platform based in Silicon Valley and London.
Dr. James Somauroo, his co-founder and CPO, has most recently led the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator.
The £3.4m project is in partnership with NHS organisations, healthcare charities, MedCity and the EU Regional Development Fund, providing market access to the NHS for high-potential healthcare businesses.
The HS. co-founders are joined by a seasoned group of clinical experts, start-up advisors and mentors from the likes of Healthcare UK, MedCity, the BMJ, Department for International Trade, Johnson & Johnson and Philips.
For entrepreneurs and scale-ups, the HS. programme will place an emphasis on guiding and developing them as individuals and as businesses.
It will equip them with deep insights on how to achieve ‘product-patient fit’, matching them with clinical experts and patient groups even in their early stages.
At an event on 6th April hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine in London HS. will also reveal its first cohort of entrepreneurs – 30 talented individuals across 13 companies, who were chosen from over 1,000 applicants after a rigorous selection process that focused on ‘talent and traction, before idea’.
The first HS. cohort includes Bioregenerative Technologies, which regenerates musculoskeletal tissues without surgery and Feebris, an AI-powered mobile health platform for diagnosis and monitoring of children and the elderly.
Dr. Somauroo, co-founder and CPO, said: “The HS. founding team have broken down the traditional model of accelerator programmes, and rebuilt it specifically for building, scaling and innovating in healthcare while putting patients first.
“With our first cohort of businesses on board and the programme now open to corporate partners, we look forward to guiding their journey in tackling some of the world’s biggest healthcare problems with technology.”
Entrepreneurs, scale-ups and corporates interested in joining the HS. programme can find out more by visiting www.hs.live.