Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London on remote patient monitoring

First posted on our sister title, Digital Health Age. 

Within the healthtech sector, start-ups offer perhaps the most exciting range of products and solutions designed to improve the health and wellbeing of populations.

Launched in 2017 as a competitive grant, the Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London is designed to help start-ups with innovative healthcare technologies scale-up their product and advance their business. The competition gives three start-ups the chance to win a share of £50,000 alongside support from Pfizer to help the companies grow and reach more patients and healthcare providers faster.

Last year, digital health companies Cera, Give Vision and Echo won the competition and have since went onto expand their businesses through initiatives such as funding rounds,  marketing and growth support and specialist consulting.

Now, the 2018 edition of the Hub has just concluded its pitch event during which 10 shortlisted candidates presented to the Pfizer team about the benefits of their products or services to healthcare in the UK.

Digital Health Age had the chance to sit down with Dr Hamish Graham, Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London Manager, as well as two of the finalists, to talk about the event as well as innovation within the NHS.

In the second of a series of articles surrounding the Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London, Medopad’s Alex Gilbert, Partnerships, sits down with Digital Health Age reporter Reece Armstrong to discuss how remote patient monitoring is impacting patient care in the UK.

1: Could you tell me about the service Medopad offers?

We are a digital health company combining remote patient monitoring, self-management exercises and patient information tools in one modular platform, which we have used to solve problems across many different therapeutic areas for hospitals, pharmaceuticals and even entire governments!

2: Do you think patients get lost during treatment pathways or feel as if they’re stuck in the system?

Yes, through our work with leading clinicians and their patients across both UK and international healthcare systems, we have noticed an increasing amount of patient frustration due to the lack of healthcare resource aiding them in the improvement of their health. This could be attributed to larger, ageing populations placing rapidly growing demands on healthcare systems that are increasingly cost-constrained. We are hopeful that through the intelligent application of digital health tools that are both powerful as well as effortless to use, we can empower the patient to engage and take control of their care.

3: How beneficial is Medopad for healthcare professionals?

Since beginning our work within remote patient monitoring, we have always worked directly with clinical teams to address their specific issues regarding patient care. We have connected clinical teams to rare disease cohorts remotely in order to limit unneeded hospital visits, to those with chronic conditions to enable continuous care, and even to those with acute ailments to aid in earlier post-op discharge. In essence, we hope to use Medopad to continuously inform and connect clinical teams to their patients, empowering them with more information to aid in decision-making.

4: How does Medopad utilise data to assist with things such as population health?

Although we are, as an industry, only beginning to scratch the surface of digital population health, our team have worked with multiple international governments to help them address both healthy populations as well as those with chronic conditions. Usually, our solution plays the role of informant and manager in these situations, allowing individuals to self-manage and maintain their health, whilst enabling them to self-check for the likelihood of certain diseases using simple questionnaires. Working alongside the local health economy, we are beginning to use data compliantly generated by these individuals to gain insight into the progression of disease and, hopefully in the future, enable predictive analytics informing patients and care teams of incidents yet to come.

5: What’s the most difficult thing about gaining market traction within the UK healthcare market and how important are initiatives such as the Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London?

The UK health system continually delivers value to all of us across the country, impacting the lives of all of us either directly or through higher-level change. Although we are all are hungry to innovate and facilitate care for patients everywhere, managing and navigating a system as large and complex as the NHS is difficult for any company (large or small), and we believe the only way forward is through collaboration across the stakeholder ecosystem. Initiatives such as the Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London are directly driven forces of collaboration, bringing together those with a passion for healthcare innovation to solve real-world problems now. Initiatives such as these are vital, as they drive mutual focus whilst utilising hard-earned experience to aid in navigation. We have to work in tandem to drive real change and improvement, and we are thankful to Pfizer for being a pioneering force in bringing us all together.