The Healthtech Podcast

This week's Sunday Session - a short, sharp selection of Sunday inspiration featuring some bonus content from previous guests, recent healthtech news, recommendations for events, books, articles and some Q&A from all the comments and feedback. Mentioned this week: Episode 48: The Story of Skin Analytics and Dermatology AI: https://apple.co/2RoxSre Renovos Raise £140k From The Ronald Furlong Fund: https://bit.ly/2FZMRCs The Africa Prize For Engineering Innovation, 23rd January 2020: https://bit.ly/38hifIR Big Brain Revolution, by Dr. Michelle Tempest: https://amzn.to/3ajlqS9 If you want to suggest a guest or appear on the podcast, email James a pitch at james@hs.live or if you want a question answered on one of the Sunday Sessions, send it to that email too or message him on his socials (below). If you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, email us at info@hs.live to ask for our sponsorship brochure. If you want to pitch James a Forbes article or send him a press release, email him at js@somx.co.uk For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

Why do humans ignore their limitations to climb Everest, run multiple ultramarathons to their death? Why do people bring food to funerals? What happens when you measure heart rate variability of French bankers during Brexit? This week, James is joined by David Plans, cofounder and CEO at BioBeats, an artificial intelligence company dedicated to understanding and promoting human wellbeing through preventative mental health. David describes himself as a psychology researcher and entrepreneur - his initial doctoral used AI to create adaptive media systems that imitated and queried the nature of human creativity. He’s given papers and performances at SXSW, International Computer Music Conference, the European Conference on Artificial Life, IRCAM, the Darwin Symposium, and the Computer Arts Society in London. David is also currently pursuing a DPhil in cognitive neuroscience at the Social Cognition Lab, University of Oxford, with Geoff Bird. Interestingly, David's early research focused on computational intelligence approaches to understand and classify emotion in music making, which forced him to examine the psychophysiology of play, flow and stress. Having built technology (apps+sensors) that attempts to measure stress and interoception in neurotypical adults, he is now investigating the influence of interoceptive awareness on stress, as well as aspects of organisational behaviour surrounding empathy and vulnerability. David actually suffered a heart attack in Brussels airport due to a combination of high-stress, malnutrition and lack of physical awareness of his health declining, so is now most interested in whether training interoceptive awareness through digital forms of biofeedback could contribute to better stress resilience and foster empathy. david@biobeats.com | biobeats.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidplans/ For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

The second Sunday Session - a short, sharp selection of Sunday inspiration featuring some bonus content from previous guests, recent healthtech news, recommendations for events, books, articles and some Q&A from all the comments and feedback. This time, James brings you some bonus content from Episode 37 with Dr. Jud Brewer who holds the position of 4th most watched TED talk in 2016, with 12 million views. Jud is founder of MindSciences Inc developing digital therapeutics in the area of addiction, he is Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and associate professor in psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University and research affiliate at MIT. He’s also held research and teaching positions at Yale University and the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness. As an addiction psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for treating addictions, Dr. Jud has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety (Eat Right Now, Unwinding Anxiety and Craving to Quit). James' Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamessomauroo/2020/01/10/kry-expands-further-with-155-million-investment-into-digital-health-platform/ Jud's TED Talk (>12 million views): https://www.ted.com/talks/judson_brewer_a_simple_way_to_break_a_bad_habit?language=en Episode 37: The Story of Jud Brewer, Mindsciences Inc and Mindful Tech 📱: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-37-story-jud-brewer-digital-therapeutics-mindful/id1438968893?i=1000447525669 HS Health-Tech Talks Event, 28 January: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hs-health-tech-talks-growing-a-startup-registration-86471437397 If you want to suggest a guest or appear on the podcast, email James a pitch at james@hs.live or if you want a question answered on one of the Sunday Sessions, send it to that email too or message him on his socials (below). If you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, email us at info@hs.live to ask for our sponsorship brochure. If you want to pitch James a Forbes article or send him a press release, email him at js@somx.co.uk For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

This week, James is joined by Professor Mike Trenell, one of the UK's leading lifestyle medicine researchers in digital health and diabetes having published over 100 peer-reviewed papers. Mike is also a Professor of Metabolism & Lifestyle Medicine at Newcastle University, founding director of the National Health Innovation Observatory and the expert behind the BBC documentary, 'How to Stay Young', where he used his background in weight management, diabetes and nutrition to inform the documentary's studies. Mike is currently imparting his expertise and background as co-founder and chairman of health-tech company Changing Health, a behavioural change platform for Type 2 diabetes management, prevention and weight loss. A load of lessons for entrepreneurs and those interested in health and technology this week, James and Mike discuss elite sport and tech, the value of good mentors shaping you, how we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants in healthtech right now and the changing heath tech landscape through Mike’s time in the sector. mike@changinghealth.com | @miketrenell | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltrenell/ For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

The first Sunday Session episode - a short, sharp selection of Sunday inspiration featuring some bonus content from previous guests, recent healthtech news, recommendations for events, books, articles and some Q&A from all the comments and feedback. This time, James reflects on the podcast's growth to 84 countries through 2019 and previews some podcasts you might've missed over the Christmas period. James also mentions the next HS. Health-Tech Talks Event and tells you about his contributing writing to Forbes and how to get in touch with him to potentially write an article on your startup. 5 things I learned from healthtech podcasting in 2019: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-i-learned-from-healthtech-podcasting-2019-dr-james-somauroo/ HS Health-Tech Talks Event, 28 January: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hs-health-tech-talks-growing-a-startup-registration-86471437397 If you want to suggest a guest or appear on the podcast, email James a pitch at james@hs.live or if you want a question answered on one of the Sunday Sessions, send it to that email too or message him on his socials (below). And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, email us at info@hs.live to ask for our sponsorship brochure. If you want to pitch James a Forbes article or send him a press release, email him at js@somx.co.uk For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

How do you go from investment banking and selling watches to becoming a healthtech entrepreneur? This week, James is joined by Shaun Azam who runs finance, operations and a whole lot more at Sweatcoin, a UK-based healthtech company on a mission to leave a mark on the world by helping every person on the planet be more active. Sweatcoin is a digital currency backed by physical movement - they verify and convert movement into currency. Users can then donate to charity, transfer to other users or spend on products, services, and experiences provided by Sweatcoin vendors and user community. Sweatcoin tackles Present Bias by moving the future benefits of exercise into the here and now - immediately converting movement into a digital currency and changing the perception of physical movement. In Janary 2018 they raised $5.7 million in a seed round led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Greylock Partners, Rubylight, Seedcamp, and SmartHub. Previously, Shaun built a consumer brand in his spare time to a six-figure business, worked in a global investment bank trading government bonds and advised some of the largest companies in the world on corporate strategy. James and Shaun discuss Shaun's hourney and what led him to Sweatcoin, how to escape the city, how to approach networking events to get opportunities in healthtech, how to build a business in public health, (there are B2B models that can work!) and a whole lot more. www.sweatco.in | shaun@sweatco.in | https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunazam/ For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

How do you build an AI company in healthcare? What can AI in radiology actually do? What should it be doing? Are clinicians ever going to be replaced? What does the future look like in healthcare AI? This week, James is joined by Dr. Hugh Harvey, who was a consultant radiologist before entering academia and completing an MD research degree in computational analysis of prostate MR, and winning science writer of the year twice in a row. Hugh worked as a consultant radiologist in the NHS (Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust), and sat on the Royal College of Radiologists committee for medical imaging informatics as well as the AI working group. He now acts as a consultant and advisory board member for AI start-ups in the UK, EU and America within the imaging and healthcare space, as well as sitting on several AI and academic committees including the KSS Academic Health Science Network AI Core Advisory Group. He has co-authored several white papers and reports on AI in healthcare, alongside bodies such as Reform, an independent think-tank, and Health Education England and is an associate editor at Nature: Digital Medicine. He acted as co-chair of the Topol Review, a seminal independent report for the UK Secretary of State for Health into preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future - read my take on the Topol Review for Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamessomauroo/2019/02/11/nhs-announces-workforce-plan-for-genomics-ai-and-digital-medicine/ And Hugh has deep start-up experience both as the lead for regulatory affairs at Babylon (recently valued >$1B) and then the Clinical Director at Kheiron Medical ($22M series A raise), where they developed deep learning software to improve breast cancer screening, and were the first UK company to receive the CE mark for a deep learning application in radiology. Hugh's unique career enables dynamic bridging between the medical, technical and business worlds, with academic, clinical and operational expertise in cognitive digital solutions. He’s a pragmatist, a realist and incredibly refreshing and entertaining on social media @DrHughHarvey | hugh@hardianhealth.com For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

Can you grow a beating heart in a lab? Could you test cardiac drugs on it? Could you transplant it into a human? This week, James is joined by Dr. Kevin Costa, Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer at biotech firm Novoheart, the first company in the world to have developed miniature beating human hearts from stem cells which are being used to change the way drugs are able to be screened for cardiac effects. The company itself has worked on a multi-phase research partnership with Pfizer and has filed IP on its proprietary system which can create healthy as well as sick mini hearts and combines organoid data with AI to screen for drug toxicity and efficacy with an exceptionally high degree of accuracy. As well as his work with Novoheart, Dr. Costa is also the Associate Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. novoheart.com | Kevin.costa@novoheart.com For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

This week, James is joined by Arjun Panesar, founding CEO of Diabetes Digital Media (DDM). Arjun founded Diabetes.co.uk whilst still a student at university in 2003 after his grandfather’s quadruple heart bypass and diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Since then, Arjun has led Diabetes.co.uk to become the world’s largest diabetes support community. He holds a first-class honours degree (MEng) in Computing and Artificial Intelligence from Imperial College, London, with his award-winning Masters research demonstrating the benefit of intelligent systems in improving user experience through collaborative machine learning and data mining. Arjun's focus lies in empowering patients with innovative digital health services that augment traditional healthcare. Today, Arjun leads the development of DDM’s evidence-based digital health solutions which harness the power of big data, machine learning and behaviour change to provide precise and personalised patient care to patients. This is delivered through insurance companies, health agencies, and governments worldwide – including the NHS. This scalable, effective and engaging approach is redefining chronic disease and wellness, with over 1.2 million members across all platforms. Arjun has written a book titled Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare which explores how artificial Intelligence and machine learning can be used to improve patient and population health. Arjun’s book is due for release on 2nd February via Amazon https://amzn.to/2EAHCtv ddm.health | arjun@ddm.health | https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunpanesar/ For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo

This week, James is joined by Jacob Haddad, cofounder of AccuRx, a UK-based startup using clinician-to-patient messaging to bring patients and their healthcare teams together. They make patients healthier and the workforce happier. AccuRx raised £8.8 million in Series A funding in February 2019 and their vision is for anyone involved in a patient's care to easily communicate with everyone else involved in that patient's care, including the patient. Their flagship product, Chain SMS, is used by GP practices to communicate with their patients. Chain SMS is completely free; the focus is on learning and developing ideas for powering communication across the healthcare workforce. It's now used in over 1 in 3 GP practices, all by word of mouth. On this week’s episode, James and Jacob talk around a huge range of useful topics for entrepreneurs: bottom-up field sales in healthtech, pivoting and the importance of testing your assumptions with humility (AccuRx was originally built to solve a problem in antibiotic prescribing), business models in primary care (and tips for selling), innovative ways to get a customer’s attention and Jacob tells us of his key tips in healthtech: minimising time to value with every interaction and building a great experience for end-users. www.accurxcom | jacob@accurx.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobnhaddad/ For more information and content, check out our website www.hs.ventures. You can follow us on Twitter @HSVenture, on Instagram @hs.ventures, on Linkedin at HS. and you can email us at info@hs.live  You can get our host, Dr. James Somauroo, at www.jamessomauroo.com and you can follow him on Twitter @jamessomauroo, on Instagram @j_soms and on Linkedin at james-somauroo