The Healthtech Podcast

James is joined by Dr. Paul-Peter Tak, Venture Partner at Flagship Pioneering and CEO of Kintai Therapeutics. Over a more than 25-year career in the life sciences, Paul-Peter has created and led multiple companies. From 2011 until 2017, Paul-Peter founded and served as senior vice president and head of the immuno-inflammation therapy area unit at GSK. Under Paul-Peter’s leadership, this unit brought more than 10 new mechanisms of action into the clinic. From 2016 until 2018, Paul-Peter was senior vice president of R&D pipeline, chief immunology officer, development leader, and co-chair of GSK’s scientific review board. He oversaw the creation of a new portfolio of medicines in oncology, with a focus on immuno-oncology, epigenetics, and cell and gene therapy.  Trained as a general internist, rheumatologist, and immunologist, Paul-Peter has held multiple professorships and has published extensively, with more than 550 papers in his name. He served as professor of medicine and chair of the department of clinical immunology and rheumatology at the Academic Medical Centre/University of Amsterdam for twelve years. He is a professor of medicine at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, honorary professor of rheumatology at Ghent University, and honorary senior visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the U.K.  Paul-Peter received his medical degree cum laude from the Free University in Amsterdam and his Ph.D. from Leiden University Medical Center.  https://www.flagshippioneering.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 we one day hack the human brain? That day might be sooner than you think... This week, James is joined by Emil Hewage, Co-Founder and CEO at BIOS. Emil undertook PhD research in computational neuroscience and machine learning at the University of Cambridge and has used this knowledge to pioneer the use of artificial intelligence for interpreting neural data. He began working in startups at age 17 and held engineering and leadership roles across a range of industries from clean energy to advanced medical technologies. He was recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30. BIOS is a leading neural engineering startup, creating the open standard hardware and software interface between the human nervous system and AI. Their team uses applied materials, machine learning, software engineering, neuroscience, and the experience of surgeons and clinicians to solve the complex problems of successfully integrating AI-based treatments into the human body. BIOS has the largest PNS neural data set in the world, performing cutting-edge machine learning research to apply this technology to chronic conditions throughout the body, enabling a new ecosystem in healthcare from delivery to recurrent care. The company was formerly known as Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems (CBAS) and they've recently raised $4.5 million in seed funding. https://www.bios.health/

James is joined by Gary Hughes, CEO and co-founder of Teckro. Gary founded Teckro with his brother, Nigel Hughes, and CTO Jacek Skrzypiec. Teckro uses machine learning to help get drugs and treatments to market quicker and more transparently by speeding up clinical trials - they're working with the top 10 pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world and their platform takes pressure off doctors, nurses and drug developers and ensures treatments get to market quicker. Teckro raised $25million recently in a Series C to bring their total funding to $43 million from top VCs like Founder's Fund and Bill Maris. Their HQ is Limerick, Ireland with an engineering hub in Dublin and an office in Nashville. Teckro now has nearly  12,000 active sites worldwide and on the podcast, James and Gary talk about Teckro's growth, their funding rounds and how to innovate in clinical trials.

James is joined by Andrew Barraclough, VP of design and innovation at GlaxoSmithKline. With thirty years’ experience, Andrew Barraclough is a leading voice at the heart of design and innovation in the healthcare and FMCG sectors. Andrew joined GlaxoSmithKline in 2011, having previously worked Design Business Association, Novartis Consumer Health, Reckitt Benckiser and Pure Realisation, which he founded. As Vice President of design and innovation at GSK, Andrew has continued to push the boundaries of perception of design across 146+ markets for 25+ global brands, including Panadol, Sensodyne, Theraflu and Flonase. Andrew’s mission at GSK is to embed world class design-thinking and culture across all customer touchpoints. Andrew and James talk about the importance of design in healthtech, how to apply design thinking, the value of designers to healthtech startups and all startups need to apply design thinking from day one. https://www.gsk.com/

James is joined by Zoe Blake, CEO of Xenzone. Zoe is on a mission to provide improved access to clinically excellent mental health services across England and beyond via digitised counselling - powered by humans and backed by AI and analytics. Her rich background in technology and leadership, and the personal tragedy of losing her mother - a mental health nurse - to suicide are what drive her to use technology for clinical good. She has built XenZone into the largest digital mental health platform in England, available in its 100th NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area - making its services free for children and young people across more than half of England and making substantial impact to the current NHS landscape. James and Zoe talk about Zoe’s background and her 25 years in tech businesses, her personal experience of mental ill health in her family, why you shouldn’t judge a company by what they raise, how she has scaled Xenzone and how digital could be the answer to the huge demand for mental health services. https://xenzone.com/

This week, James is joined by Vincent Grasso, a surgeon, software architect and medical informaticist. He’s currently Global Practice Lead for IPSoft where he designs Cognitive Health Agents and their integration by leveraging the ‘Amelia' virtual agent. Vincent completed his surgical residency at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Manhattan Program and whilst at Yale University on a fellowship programme, he worked with NASA on Extreme Telemedicine, effectively putting an ER at basecamp of Everest in the 1990s and pioneering the field of telemedicine. Vincent has previously built his own EMR, he’s built startups, he's been mentored by a Wall Street Legend and he's passionate about solving the opioid crisis with technology. James and Vincent talk about all of this and more on this week's episode. 

James is joined by  Eric Mayes, serial nanotechnology entrepreneur and CEO of Endomag.  Eric has 20 years of experience in technology. He was named the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2003’ for his founding role in NanoMagnetics. He is also an advisor to the University of Texas at Austin’s ‘Texas Health Catalyst’ and the European Healthtech Translation Advisory Board (HealthtechTAB).  Eric believes that everyone deserves a better standard of cancer care and so joined Cambridge-based healthtech start-up Endomag as CEO. They manufacture a metallic seed, smaller than a grain of rice, which uses magnetism to help doctors locate breast cancer tumours to be removed. James and Eric chat about Eric's previous companies, his journey to healthtech and discuss some lessons learned in adoption of new innovation across healthtech. http://www.endomagnetics.com/

James is joined by Max Parmentier, founder and CEO of Agetech startup, Birdie. Max has previously scooped $15M from investors including Bill Gates to work on start-up Wambo, an Amazon-esque marketplace that pools medicine procurement so developing countries can get cheaper drugs. He’s pitched at the White House, and worked at the UN; he’s done five years at McKinsey and even helped the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to plan against deforestation — all before he was 30. Birdie recently raised a $7M Series A and digitalises notes taken by care workers during visits which can be more easily shared between professional carers, other health practitioners and family members, helping to coordinate care and keep an older generation out of care homes or hospital beds. But the vision goes much wider and on the podcast, Max talks about tackling the stigma of ageing and normalising support in peoples' homes and James and Max chat about social purpose and meaning in healthtech, how Birdie plans to capture the agetech sector and how to build a truly socially conscious company.

This week James is joined by Andrew Elder, Deputy Managing Partner at Albion VC. Andrew initially practised as a surgeon for six years, specialising in neurosurgery, before joining the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a consultant in 2001. Whilst at BCG he specialised in healthcare strategy, gaining experience with many large, global clients across the full spectrum of healthcare including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, service and care providers, software and telecommunications. Andrew now focuses on medical technologies, digital health and technology-enabled services to the life-science sector, and has served on the boards of companies ranging from diagnostics, imaging and software to pharmaceuticals and biomarkers. He joined Albion Capital in 2005 and became a partner in 2009. He has an MA plus Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery from Cambridge University and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (England). Andrew also oversees the management of the UCL Technology Fund in collaboration with UCLB.  https://www.albion.vc/

James is joined by Tania Boler, the cofounder and CEO of Elvie, a health and lifestyle brand developing smarter technology for women. Elvie takes the best of medical technology and turns it into premium consumer products that women love to use. Together with her co-founder, Alex Asseily (co-founder, Jawbone), she has raised > $50M in investment, most recently their $42M Series B round led by IPGL and supported by Octopus Ventures and Impact Ventures UK.  Their first product, Elvie Trainer, is a category-defining Kegel trainer and is sold in major retailers, including Nordstrom and John Lewis and their latest product is the Elvie Pump, a breast pump that made its debut on the catwalk at London Fashion week. James and Tania talk about her background, coming from UN policy into entrepreneurship, the importance of design in healthtech, how to launch a B2C medical device and the ever growing femtech space in health.