A few weeks ago, I went to check out four Korean medtech startups in central London demonstrating their innovative solutions amid the UK’s growing senior healthcare crisis.
Each startup addressed a challenge in elderly care, including fall prevention (with prevention being called for more generally in the UK health system too), medication adherence, dementia diagnosis, and air quality monitoring.
Initially I couldn’t help but think of the irony that it does seem like we’re now relying on technology to save us, when it may well have had some negative impact on our cognitive health (!) to start with. Nevertheless, the startups were impressive, marking the beginning of a 25-year regeneration project based in East London to tackle the UK’s most urgent national healthcare challenges and revolutionise the NHS.
The demo day was the result of a partnership between Rainmaking, a global innovation firm, Care City, a not-for-profit innovation centre, and Thames Freeport, an economic growth zone benefitting from more than £600 million in investment from public and private sources. Other stakeholders of the initiative include Thurrock Council and the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Havering, which were identified as areas where medtech could play a vital role in mitigating local health and economic challenges.
The adult health and social care accelerator initiative aims to improve and increase job prosperity in the area, alleviate pressure on the NHS (with rising demand, underfunding, and shortages of staff and capacity), and attract international investment.
Now for a look at the startups. The first, Silvia, offers solutions for supporting mental health and cognitive function. The idea is that by empowering individuals with tools to maintain cognitive health, it contributes to a future where ageing does not necessarily mean cognitive decline. Based on things including an online assessment, it can analyse your potential risk for developing dementia, which can help with early detection and prevention of conditions like Alzheimer’s through personalised activity recommendations.
I met Silvia’s CEO Myung Jin Ko (MJ) at the event, and after her getting me to try a quick brain game on the app, to my relief I got 90%. Although my memory more generally makes me think if I did the full assessment it might be different. But that’s the dilemma, would you want to know your risk of cognitive decline? While MJ made it clear they can’t definitively say, but more offer a useful indication, it does seem like having the chance to make some lifestyle changes and try new things to increase the chances of prevention would be worthwhile.
The second, JCF Technology (McKare), is a radar-based solution that predicts and prevents falls, a major concern for the elderly population, reducing emergency visits and hospital admissions and ensuring patient independence. As well as for the elderly, this can also be used for young people, and in hospitals or care facilities.
The next, InHandPlus, uses AI-powered tracking to improve adherence rates by 20-30%, ensuring patients take their medications as prescribed. I’m not sure how I felt about the inbuilt camera in the watch having full view of you at all times (though of course I’m sure data will be protected and the man did point out the close shutter option to me), but what it achieves seemed impressive and extremely useful.
The last, Seven Point One (AlzWin), offers rapid dementia screening, enabling early diagnosis and proactive care, delaying the onset of dementia and reducing long-term care costs.
I’ve since heard the startups have been trialing their products in care homes across the UK these past few weeks, which for some, may sound pretty exciting.