London, 28 September 2022 — Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK has today announced that Xim, creators of Lifelight, and PocDoc are the successful companies of the Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst 2022, in partnership with Medtronic, RYSE Asset Management, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and its official charity CW+.
Lifelight and PocDoc will receive support to scale their innovative digital solutions for cardiovascular disease (CVD) care. The companies were selected by a prestigious judging panel at the Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst 2022 Pitchfest, hosted at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) Show at ExCeL, London.
Through a world-first partnership spanning across industries, the Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst aims to transform CVD patient pathways, harnessing the power of data and digital to empower patients to improve their heart health, and to help prevent ill-health.
The initiative provides Lifelight and PocDoc with access to the Novartis Biome UK eco-system, as well as the opportunity to work with NHS partners to set up and deliver a pilot evaluation of the winning innovations. The companies will also have the opportunity of investment up to £3 million provided by RYSE Asset Management, subject to due diligence at RYSE’s discretion.
The companies have been selected because of their potential to remodel patient care pathways for CVD; offering novel approaches to non-invasive lipid testing and at-home blood pressure management.
Marie-Andrée Gamache, President and Managing Director UK & Ireland, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd, comments: “The selected companies of this year’s Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst present a bold opportunity to accelerate faster diagnosis, earlier intervention and prevention of ill-health in CVD. I am looking forward to working with our cross-industry partners to support the scaling of these innovations with the aim of saving lives and overcoming health inequalities.”
Laurence Pearce, CEO and founder, Xim, creators of Lifelight, said: “We are delighted to have been selected to participate in the Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst this year, and look forward to working in close collaboration with Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK through its Biome to bring our solution to patients.”
Steve Roest, CEO and Co-founder, PocDoc, comments: “We are thrilled to be embarking on this journey with Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK and its partner network as organisations that share our passion for supporting the digital transformation in healthcare. The Novartis Biome UK Heart Health Catalyst 2022 was a natural collaboration opportunity for us as we look to scale our solution – something we know will be aided with close collaboration.”
Further information on the winning innovations can be found below:
Lifelight- Lifelight is game changing technology that allows a smartphone or tablet device to measure blood pressure, pulse, breathing rate and oxygen saturations, simply by looking into the device's built-in camera for up to 40 seconds.
- Completely contactless, with no additional hardware or calibration needed, it saves healthcare staff time while improving the patient experience, avoiding the need for healthcare staff to make physical contact with patients and avoid cross-contamination of devices from one patient to another.
- Lifelight, the world's only clinically validated and regulated software vitals solution, overcomes the barriers to remote personal healthcare monitoring for all, allowing every device on the planet to be turned into a self-monitoring healthcare platform.
- PocDoc's mission is very clear and simple - we want to empower patients to improve their health, by making it easier for people to test themselves, or be tested, for major disease markers, starting with cardiovascular disease and a full lipid panel.
- More people will be treated correctly for CVD and this will reduce CVD events.
- This in turn will reduce hospital admissions over any given 12 month period, meaning in-year cost savings and freed up hospital resources, as well as a healthier, more engaged population.
Read more here: https://www.novartis.com/uk-en/news/media-releases/digital-innovators-announced-successful-applicants-novartis-biome-uk-heart-health-catalyst-2022.
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Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. As a leading global medicines company, we strive to use innovative science and digital technologies to create treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world’s top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach more than 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world.
In the UK, we employ approximately 1,500 people to serve healthcare needs across the whole of the UK, as well as supporting the global operations of Novartis. Since 2014, Novartis has invested over £200 million in R&D and is a leading sponsor of clinical trials, in the UK.
For more information, please visit www.novartis.co.uk.
About Novartis BiomeFounded in 2018, the Novartis Biome is a catalyst for impactful collaboration. The Biome brings together Novartis’ deep scientific experience with the expertise of the tech ecosystem to develop and scale digital solutions that improve and extend people’s lives. The Biome allows internal and external teams to co-develop digital solutions alongside specific therapeutic offerings, research activities, and business processes within Novartis. Launched in 2020 striving to test and learn fast, the Novartis Biome UK is located in the heart of London, focusing on scaling innovative solutions for chronic and long-term disease management. To date, the Biome UK has successfully scouted, tested and scaled a digital patient management solution to help tackle the patient backlog called Penguin and successfully launched its first ever Evidence Lab test in a real clinical environment.
For more information, please visit https://www.biome.novartis.com.
About MedtronicBold thinking. Bolder actions. We are Medtronic. Medtronic plc, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is the leading global healthcare technology company that boldly attacks the most challenging health problems facing humanity by searching out and finding solutions. Our Mission — to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life — unites a global team of 90,000+ passionate people across 150 countries. Our technologies and therapies treat 70 health conditions and include cardiac devices, surgical robotics, insulin pumps, surgical tools, patient monitoring systems, and more. Powered by our diverse knowledge, insatiable curiosity, and desire to help all those who need it, we deliver innovative technologies that transform the lives of two people every second, every hour, every day. Expect more from us as we empower insight-driven care, experiences that put people first, and better outcomes for our world. In everything we do, we are engineering the extraordinary.
For more information on Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), please visit http://www.medtronic.com.
About RYSE Asset ManagementRYSE Asset Management (RYSE) is a specialist healthcare investor with a focus on impact. Since 2015, RYSE has been supporting technology companies to achieve accelerated global growth and scale by connecting high-potential healthcare founders with established distribution partners. In 2018/20, RYSE DigitalHealth.London investment programmes translated great ideas into real-world solutions. RYSE partners with founders with clinical experience who know how to serve patients best and with investors that share RYSE’s ambition to transform the future of healthcare, improving quality and access.
For more information, please visit https://www.ryseam.com/en/ and follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ryse-asset-management-llp/.
About Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation TrustChelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the top ranked and top performing hospital trusts in the UK. We employ more than 6,000 staff over our two main hospital sites, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital, and across 12 community-based clinics within North West London. We were rated Outstanding for Well-Led and Use of Resources by the Care Quality Commission.
Both hospitals have major A&E and urgent care departments, treating over 500,000 patients in a typical year. The Trust is one of the largest maternity services in England, delivering over 10,000 babies last year. Our specialist care includes the world-renowned burns service, which is the leading centre in London and the South East; we run Chelsea Children’s Hospital with paediatric inpatient and outpatient services; and our specialist HIV and award-winning sexual health care services.
In partnership with CW+ our hospital charity we build and enhance clinical facilities to create an outstanding care environment for our patients and for our staff.
We are an emerging leader for innovation within the NHS. Our CW Innovation programme is led jointly by the Trust and CW+ and has led to a number of successful projects adopted elsewhere in the NHS.
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