Consortium launches Children's Health Impact Accelerator
A consortium of experts across the health and life sciences sector are launching the Children’s Health Impact Accelerator to support early-stage innovators building bespoke technology that address the unmet needs within paediatric care.
The Children’s Health Impact Accelerator is a 10-week non-equity start-up programme based in Liverpool and London. It is funded by Innovate UK as part of the Biomedical Catalyst and will be run by start-up builder and early stage investor, Founders Factory, with the support of healthtech consultants Humant and children’s health charity, Thinking of Oscar.
Up to 20 early-stage digital health innovators will be selected for the programme. Founders will have access to vital resources to help develop and test their solutions for children, including finance, access to mentors and expertise across health and life science, product and fundraising, as well as an established network of hospitals, such as Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Areas to be addressed include, but are not limited to; paediatric oncology, neonatal technologies, rare diseases, remote patient monitoring (RPM), respiratory conditions, obesity, preventive measures of care, movement & muscle disorders, and surgical technologies.
Technology has proven its capacity to transform healthcare and in a post-covid world the barrier to entry has lowered, giving patients new ways to access information, manage their care and communicate with doctors and nurses remotely. However, child health technology remains underfunded, with less than 1% of digital health investment going towards paediatric solutions. The Children’s Health Impact Accelerator is addressing this problem by bringing the best-in-breed partners together to provide capital and support to companies in this nascent area.
Henry Lane Fox, Founders Factory CEO, said: “The UK is a centre of excellence for healthtech innovation, with investment rocketing to over £3 billion. Now is the time to bring together the right group of influential players to direct a greater proportion of this capital to world-class innovations that will help ensure future healthy populations. Together we are creating the leading programme in the UK, supporting children’s health innovation and the best launchpad for entrepreneurs tackling tough but incredibly important problems to protect generations to come.”
David Cole, co-founder of Thinking of Oscar, commented: “Children and young people make up 25% of the population, and are 100% of our future. The approaches to care differ depending on the age of the patient - from paediatric to adult to geriatric - and the technologies must mirror this. Children are not small adults and there is a broad heterogeneity across paediatrics with children ranging between 0 and 18. Therefore it cannot be a one-size-fits all approach. We believe there must be greater emphasis on finding new, bespoke ways to improve children’s health that aid the NHS’s strategic direction on the future delivery of health and care to this part of our population. This programme will be a vital stepping-stone for founders who want to develop solutions that tackle the pressing needs of paediatric patients and their families.”
Tom Smith, Humant’s founder added: “There are long-term socioeconomic benefits to addressing child health issues in order to establish a healthier population in the future. However, innovation in paediatric health is not advancing at the same rate as adult healthcare. Entrepreneurs with the vision to transform children’s healthcare through technology need a well-equipped arsenal to bring that vision to fruition and deliver long-term change to the NHS. The Children's Health Impact Accelerator programme brings together subject matter and operational know-how to deliver a full-stack support structure to very early-founding teams building smart solutions that address the unmet needs of paediatric care.”