Medopad has changed its name to Huma and acquired two UK AI and wearable technology businesses, BioBeats and TLT.
Patrick Harrison
The rebrand and acquisitions support the company’s mission to use insights gathered by remote monitoring to help healthcare, life sciences and innovation partners understand, treat and prevent poor health.
By collectively benefiting from the data people individually generate, Huma aims to give knowledge and power to individuals, while saving clinicians time, energy and valuable resources.
Dan Vahdat, founder and CEO of Huma, said: “We’ve been through quite a journey since Medopad started in 2011. Medopad has specialised in remote patient monitoring for patients with rare and chronic diseases. Over time, we’ve realised that health is about more than disease states; it’s about general physical and mental wellbeing going hand-in-hand. That’s why it makes perfect sense for us to evolve what the company stands for, what we offer, and why we do what we do. That’s why from today, Medopad is now Huma. Huma reflects our commitment to working with people, for people. The name Huma says that we’re for all of humanity.
“Every day our bodies generate millions of unrecorded data points, masses of information previously unseen. We believe that this data can open up new insights on people’s health, just as mapping and visualising the genome has done. This previously unseen data represents a category called digital biomarkers, the unique signatures created as we walk, talk and move. Digital biomarkers may help tell us what causes disease, how they progress, and potentially how we can prevent disease. BioBeats and TLT enable our partners to have a more holistic sense of people’s health and wellbeing through better data.”
BioBeats builds validated digital mental health interventions and leading a new approach to wellbeing support through its flagship product, BioBase. The mobile app, paired with biosensors and a wearable device, gathers biometric data (e.g. heart rate variability) and psychometric measures (e.g. mood journaling) to provide users with a personalised wellbeing score. Combining applied research and AI, BioBase aims to improve mental health through tailored insights, biofeedback tools and digital therapeutics for a preventative mental health intervention.
David Plans, BioBeats co-founder and CEO said: “We share a vision with Huma for pioneering preventative health. We want people to go from simply surviving to thriving. By creating clinically-validated products to predict, diagnose and treat mental health disorders, we allow everyone to flourish. We are excited to join Huma to realise our ambition for preventative mental health and wellbeing to people around the world. With Huma’s experience, global partners and innovation capabilities, we look forward to joining the Huma team to help people live longer, fuller lives.”
TLT is a medtech company that pioneers a wrist wearable device for blood pressure monitoring. This sensor utilises light modulation to detect motion, including continuous beat-by-beat flow motion forces that determine arterial blood pressure. Through this new, clinically-validated technology, it provides continuous blood pressure monitoring without a cuff.
Tamir Strauss, Huma’s head of customer solutions & hardware, said: “We were attracted to the patented technology and the innovative approach to monitoring blood pressure, a field that has remained unchanged for nearly 100 years. We saw an opportunity to help create new cardiovascular and other digital biomarkers with the unique dataset the device generates.”
Former UK health secretary Alan Milburn has also been appointed as chairman of the Huma board of directors. He served as a MP for Darlington from 1992 until 2010, including serving as health secretary from 1999 until 2003. Since leaving government, he has focussed on the health sector through a number of global roles. He is chairman of the European Advisory Board at Bridgepoint Capital and chair of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) UK Health Industry Oversight Board. He also serves as chancellor of Lancaster University.
Milburn said: “I’m pleased to work with Huma to help transform the health sector by developing a new understanding of the human body through digital biomarkers. We’re at the very early stages of what could be breakthroughs in how we understand health, diagnose and treat illnesses and Huma could become a true leader in this promising new area for life sciences, innovation partners and healthcare.”
