Yahoo Finance Government awards £9m to breakthrough digital health technologies
Patients across the UK will benefit from £9m worth of digital health technologies, such as AI, machine learning and hand-held devices.
Innovate UK announced this week that technology projects addressing key challenges in health care have been given a funding boost through the government’s Digital Health Technology Catalyst.
The catalyst, delivered by UK Research and Innovation, aims to accelerate the development of digital health innovation to ensure the UK remains at the leading-edge of innovative healthcare.
Software firm OpusVL received funding for a hand-held device that allows clinicians to observe patients digitally, and can send automatic alerts to specialists or consultants if patients are identified as “at risk”.
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Red Star Consulting received funding for its work applying machine learning to analyse clinical notes recorded in the electronic health record of diabetes patients, in order to predict the risk of heart attacks or death.
Medtech company Mind over Matter has been funded to trial low-cost portable brain imaging technology alongside the Wessex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). This aims to test patients’ individual risk of developing dementia, in a non-invasive manner and at least a decade before any clinical symptoms would appear.
It could help reduce the chance irreversible neuronal death, the UK’s innovation agency said.
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Seattle-based Snoozeal has received funding for a device that treats obstructive sleep apnea, while AI company Ufonia will deploy voice technology to call patients and assess their health status against specific criteria.
Ian Campbell, interim executive chair of Innovate UK, said: “The UK is a world leader in health innovation, and the projects for which we have announced funding [this week] showcase the very best of British know-how.
“Using breakthrough technologies such as AI and machine learning, and deploying apps and hand-held devices, outcomes for patients can be immeasurably improved.”
