Tag: #medtech

€7 million investment for Irish MedTech company Medihive

Medihive, Ireland’s award-winning health technology platform, which includes Webdoctor.ie, has secured an investment from ResMed, an international leader in digital health and cloud-connected medical device innovation, as well as existing shareholders including VentureWave Capital. The investment now values the business at €62 million.

Medihive is a software company built to transform medical processes that don’t work so patients can benefit from healthcare that does work. The business provides sophisticated software and clinical solutions to the healthcare, pharmacy and insurance industries, as well as direct to consumers and corporates via www.webdoctor.ie. The company combines digital and clinical knowhow to bring clients and their end users high-quality virtual care on a global scale.

The €7 million investment announced today will be used to further increase the international growth of the business, drive investment and innovation in R&D and accelerate healthcare software developments. The company currently employs 130 people and it is expected this number will now increase by a further 42 employees over the next two years.

ResMed, whose cloud-connected medical devices transform care for people with sleep apnea, COPD and other chronic diseases, enabling people to live healthier lives, has been working with Medihive since 2019 and now joins as an investor. ResMed Germany led deal negotiations on behalf of the organisation. As a result of their investment, ResMed will now take a seat on the board to work with the team to accelerate the growth of the business.

Meanwhile existing shareholders in Medihive have invested additional capital into the business. This follows the €3 million investment in August 2021 by VentureWave Capital, the private equity firm that focuses on entrepreneurial companies that make a positive social impact, are in vital sectors and address UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the time of VentureWave Capital’s €3 million in August 2021, the business was valued at €48 million. Today’s investment now values the company at €62 million, a significant 29% increase.

Noel McSweeney, Chairman of Medihive, said: “The investment from ResMed alongside the increased support from current shareholders demonstrates our shared passion for medical technology advancement and will allow Medihive and Webdoctor.ie to further expand and develop our services while continuing to provide transformative digital healthcare solutions.”

Katrin Pucknat, President of ResMed Germany, said: “At ResMed our mission is to change 250 million lives in 2025 in out-of-hospital care settings, and today’s announcement fits perfectly with that goal. Our work to date with Medihive has transformed the lives of our patients by making their care pathway less disjointed and allowing them to get diagnosed for sleep apnea outside of a hospital setting. ResMed places significant importance on innovation and this investment will enable both organisations to continue to be at the forefront of developments in healthcare technology. We look forward to supporting the team at Medihive as part of their board and believe this relationship will create new opportunities for us both while continuing to transform the healthcare industry.”

David Crimmins, CEO of Medihive, said: “Medihive builds solutions to deliver positive patient outcomes by removing friction from their care journeys. This investment now comes at a pivotal moment for Medihive. Over the last two and a half years demand for our services has surged as organisations realised they can achieve better patient outcomes by blending smart health technology with their traditional health infrastructures. This investment will enable us to continue meeting this demand while also allowing us to scale and expand our services in the continually evolving telehealth market both in Ireland and internationally. It’s an exciting time for Medihive and we’re really looking forward to working with ResMed and our current shareholders to continue to make advances and improvements in digital healthcare for patients and professionals in the industry alike.”

Alan Foy, Chairman and Managing Partner VentureWave Capital, said: “We are delighted to once again invest in Medihive alongside ResMed, a key strategic investor. As a successful Irish health technology business that’s making an impact on delivering digital health and patient outcomes, this investment demonstrates our continued support and confidence in Medihive’s business goals, global impact and strategic  ambitions.”

MedTech engineers help non-profit group develop emergency ventilator for use in the developing world. #MedTech #BostonScientific

Boston Scientific engineers have helped the Covid Response Team non-profit group develop an emergency ventilator that is targeted for use in the developing world as countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is the latest member of the Irish Medtech Association to be spotlighted as part of its ongoing #MedtechGoodNews campaign.

Boston Scientific employees are also involved with a project called E-vent, which is focused on designing, fabricating and assembling a manual resuscitator that could potentially provide longer-term ventilation for patients.

Sinead Keogh, Director of the Irish Medtech Association said;

“The support for this not-for-profit initiative by Boston Scientific shows how Irish Medtech Association members are responding to needs of developing parts of the world and their populations that live there during the pandemic. The acute and ongoing shortage of ventilators in low income countries is humanitarian disaster and requires an urgent response. The Irish medtech sector, as a global leader, has made an important impact in its response to COVID-19. The Irish Medtech Association will continue to highlight how medtech leaders in Ireland are assisting the frontline fight against COVID-19 here, and across the world”.

Vice President Operations at Boston Scientific in Galway, James Lyons, said;

“We couldn’t be prouder of our teams at our Galway, Cork and Clonmel facilities and how they have responded to the needs of others during this crisis.  From volunteering to make PPE for local frontline workers, to helping others develop emergency medtech equipment for developing countries, our 5,000+ Irish employees have made an exceptional contribution to local, national and even international Covid-19 response efforts.”

Irish Medtech Association puts spotlight on app helping doctors tackle Covid-19. #MedTech #ACORRD #Covid-19

The Irish Medtech Association, the Ibec group that represents the medtech sector, is putting a spotlight on the Irish medtech community’s critical role in helping healthcare professionals work safely and treat patients affected by COVID-19 as well as support Ireland’s reopening.

 

Acting Director of the Irish Medtech Association, Nessa Fennelly said “We are proud of how our sector has made an impact in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From Cork and Galway, to Athlone and Dublin, this is a national effort. In the coming weeks, the Irish Medtech Association will be offering insights of how medtech leaders in Ireland are assisting the frontline fight against COVID-19 here, and across the world. Ireland’s medtech community has stepped-up to the challenge in the face of unprecedented need to deliver diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment, respiratory support equipment and digital health solutions to tackle COVID-19.”

Fennelly added, “This week, to start our Medtech Good News campaign, we are delighted to focus on digital health. Digital health solutions are an exciting area of innovation that are playing an increasingly important role since the start of the pandemic by offering vital insights and supporting remote care. A fantastic example of how these technologies are at the vanguard of combating COVID-19 is the ACORRD clinical support tool developed by S3 Connected Health, with the support of consultants from the Royal College of Surgeons. This medical technology helps clinicians using a web-based application on their smartphone, to track disease progression, assist in the early identification of patient deterioration, and provide timely advice to the care team.”

 

Commenting on the Assessment of COVID-19 Risk of Respiratory Deterioration (ACORRD) tool, President of S3 Connected Health and Chair of the Irish Medtech Digital Health Working Group, Jim O’Donoghue said “ACORRD has had a real impact in the fight against COVID-19. By building on our existing Affinial platform we managed to accelerate development and bring ACORRD from concept to deployment in just ten days after receiving a rapid response on a derogation from the Health Products Regulatory Authority. We are proud to see ACORRD already in use in major Dublin hospitals, as well in a pilot programme in Northern Ireland. We are grateful to our frontline healthcare workers for their tireless efforts to protect us from the virus, and we’re honoured to play a part.”

Irish Med-Tech Launches COVID-19 Triage Solution to Free Up GP Time and Protect Patients. #Flow #FullHealthMedical

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing challenges faced by GPs across the country, Irish med-tech, Full Health Medical, has developed a new clinically-driven patient empowerment solution, “Flow”, to create  a safer and more efficient manner for GPs to treat patients and to free up procedural and administration time by up to 75%

Full Health Medical is a software platform designed and driven by doctors to streamline patient care, freeing up doctor’s time and resources and facilitating preventative medicine. Over the past three weeks, the company’s technology has been repurposed to help specifically with the COVID-19 pandemic. Flow now has a triage element that enables doctors and other healthcare professionals to complete COVID-19 screening before they proceed in assessing patients coming to them with other conditions.

Flow – How it works in brief:

  • Flow is set up on the GPs IT system
  • Prior to consultation, the GP will send a password & login to the patient, with a link which will direct them to the relevant section of the platform
  • For example, the COVID-19 section will assist the GP in asking the patient a series of questions
  • Based on the answers, the GP can make a determination on whether or not a face to face consultation is safe or if it should take place by video, or over the phone
  • Following the consultation, a personalised report is automatically generated by the software and communicates the GP’s assessment to the patient, along with next steps and other health guidance

Dr Ann Shortt, Emergency Medicine consultant, GP and Co-founder of Full Health Medical, who is currently working with COVID-19 patients in Mayo General Hospital, spoke of their innovation,

“We’ve accelerated our own telehealth capabilities since the pandemic started and now more than ever Full Health Medical’s comprehensive patient-centric tool kit can bring real and quantifiable benefits to both patients and doctors in primary care.

While GPs around the country have increased their use of video calls in order to service their patients, the volume of work involved and the challenges brought about by social distancing to every day practice has highlighted an obvious need for a more extensive patient communications tool that goes beyond just video calls.

We have already had expressions of interest from over 100 GPs and while the new product is free to GPs for April, the ongoing cost is being kept at just €22 per month per physician for the duration of the pandemic”.

Flow uses smart data analytics to enable GPs to deliver streamlined medical services to patients. The consultation system enables instant generation of personalised, evidence-based medical reports which explain, in easily understandable language, which tests were performed and what actions the patient needs to undertake with minimal clerical input from the GP at the point of care. In a nutshell, Flow process satisfies the modern medical patient’s need for information whilst drastically reducing medical professional resource time, activities and costs.

Dr Anne Marie McGinley of the Weir Family Practice in Bandon Cork, will be using the system for most GP consultations for the remainder of the pandemic and sees a long-term role for the software also,

“The COVID-19 component of the product allows patients to list their symptoms and risk factors prior to a virtual consultation via the platform with their GP.  A personalised report is automatically generated by the software and communicates the GP’s assessment to the patient along with next steps.  Using Full Health Medical’s platform, GPs can screen patients digitally before conducting face-to-face assessments, both saving them time and reducing the spread of COVID-19.”

Dr Brian Higgins, a Galway-based GP, says that while the whole world is rightly focused on COVID-19, GPs still have patients with serious health conditions to manage,

“In our practice, we have been using Full Health Medical’s existing technology successfully for the past three years and see its obvious potential for expansion to manage a broader patient population”.

 

Dr Shortt went on to say,

“The Irish health system is overburdened and under resourced. Accessing healthcare is difficult and understanding it is even more of a challenge, but some of these challenges can be solved with efficient smart technology.

We believe that many of healthcare’s issues are rooted in communication, not medicine. Too often, patients leave the surgery with incomplete or poorly understood knowledge. With our system, each patient is given a unique login and password to the GP portal we provide for each practice when the report is ready, they are automatically mailed a link to access

This new software mitigates against the COVID-19 risk. It will also make it much easier for people to understand the medical data presented which increases the likelihood of behavioural change to ultimately, help avoid chronic diseases in the long run.”

Experts in automation and connected factories gather in Galway – Ibec Medtech and Engineering #MedTech #Ibec

Ibec Medtech and Engineering, the Ibec group which represents the sectors, is today holding its Manufacturing the Future Conference in Galway, where experts in the fields of automation, connected factories and the Internet of Things shall gather. The conference takes place against the backdrop of the publication of the group’s report ‘The race to embrace digital manufacturing: Lessons from Ireland’s journey’ (see attached). The report revealed that six in ten business leaders intend to invest in connected factories and the Internet of Things and more than two thirds of those surveyed are already implementing automation.

Irish Medtech Association Senior Executive Adrienne McDonnell said, “All around the world smart technologies are changing the way people live and work. Similarly, the rapid evolution of production, information and operating technology is slowly transforming manufacturing. Making strategic choices about digitalisation of manufacturing will differentiate Irish operations and overall global competitiveness.

This conference will support leaders to make better decisions on areas like advanced technologies, sustainability and leaner and greener manufacturing. Along with benchmarking, best practice sharing is key for businesses to effectively embrace advanced manufacturing. We’re excited to have experts from world-class businesses like DePuy Synthes, Boston Scientific and Siemens sharing their insights today.

“Smart factories are transforming manufacturing and four out of five member companies surveyed said that automation of manufacturing was critical to their success. While eight out of ten expect digitalisation to lead to increased resource efficiency, one of the greatest barriers to advanced manufacturing is integrating new technologies according to half of respondents. One of the keys to tackling this challenge is employee engagement and upskilling with seven in ten manufacturing leaders saying that further training of employees is critical.

  “We would like to thank our sponsors for their support, Platinum Sponsors Siemens and Boston Scientific; Gold Sponsor, Stryker; Silver Sponsors, Accenture,Caragh Precision, DePuy Synthes, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Irish Manufacturing Research, Irish Medtech Skillnet, and LBS Partners”.

For more information on ‘Manufacturing the Future Conference’ please visitwww.manufacturingthefuture.ie

 

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Padhraic McGinn, Senior Operations Director Europe, Nypro Healthcare
  • Adrienne McDonnell, Irish Medtech Association Senior Executive
  • Dr David Moloney, Principal Engineer and CTO,IntelMovidius
  • Joe Portley, Vice President of Global Engineering Services at Wright Medical
  • Martin McVicar, CEO, Combi-lift
  • Colm Jordan, Recycling Communications and Government Relations Global Manager, Indorama Ventures
  • Prof Richard Keegan, Adjunct Professor, Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin
  • Orlaith Lawler, Site Director, Beckman Coulter Clare
  • Vivian Farrell, CEO, Modular Automation
  • Peter Docker, Co-Founder WhyNot Unlimited
  • Cathal O’Reilly, Senior Director – Enterprise Excellence, Teleflex Incorporated