Innovating in the healthtech ecosystem

As you board a train to Kent from London St Pancras, health and tech loom large. The Bioresearch centre, the Francis Crick Institute is on one side, the huge new Google building on the other. An hour later, you’re in another emerging tech cluster at Discovery Park in Sandwich, where innovative businesses are harnessing data and AI to tackle fundamental health challenges, writes David Lee.

“It’s exciting that the new Thanet Parkway rail link is bringing these two clusters even closer together,” says Jane Kennedy, Chief Business Officer at Discovery Park. “Global funding for healthtech is rising exponentially; healthtech companies raised $51.3 billion in 2021, a 280% increase on 2016. There are huge opportunities to use data and AI for tech-enabled healthcare solutions. My role at Discovery Park is to catalyse innovation and create a knowledge economy community, creating a breeding-ground for brilliant Healthtech ideas.” 

Supporting business growth

Kennedy says strategic partners are vital to delivering that vision, including Barclays, which has one of its Eagle Labs to support business growth at Discovery Park, and Canterbury Christ Church University, which plans to create a Data Lab there.

“We’re bringing together universities, the NHS and companies new and old [there are 160+ businesses at Discovery Park] and putting a support system in place to make things happen,” Kennedy explains. “The Barclays Eagle Lab supports start-ups, particularly those focused on tech innovation, and links around 800 Healthtech businesses across the UK.

“Eagle Labs runs investor readiness programmes and has a Demo Directory, so firms can create pitch videos and match them to investors. It’s a ‘speed dating’ investment opportunity to project our companies and raise their profile. Growing tech businesses can work in their business in our recently refurbished lab space and on their business in the Barclays Eagle lab.”

Delivering innovation

Kennedy says Discovery Park has big ambitions to deliver the innovation the world needs.

“Innovators are tapping into people’s increasing predisposition to use devices to record health data,” Kennedy says.

“The NHS in its current state cannot cope and will move more from healthcare to sick care as individuals take more responsibility to look after themselves. Part of the Healthtech challenge is getting people to share their data in the same way as they give blood – to support the greater good. There’s still work to be done on that.”

Professor Mohamed Abdel-Maguid, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and Professor of Smart Systems at Canterbury Christ Church University, explains how he sees the university slotting into the innovation ecosystem at Discovery Park: “Innovation is not a solo game. It thrives in collaborative environments like Discovery Park, where partners work together to create value chains. Without such clusters, our ability to conceive novel ideas and transform them into economic and social benefits is compromised. At Canterbury Christ Church University, we recognise the critical role of partnerships in driving innovation and fostering a vibrant ecosystem of discovery and progress.

“Working collaboratively helps address the barriers businesses face in accessing talent and resources. We hope the Data Lab will help small businesses exploit brilliant ideas, by collecting and curating local data and making it accessible to the business community.

“We will wrap this around skills development, as we increasingly embed digital and data/AI native skills throughout the region’s workforce.”

Prof Abdel-Maguid describes the Data Lab as a “big vision, rather than a big bang”. He explains: “We will begin with a small base at Discovery Park, connecting businesses with students and research capability to create a transdisciplinary environment for data-driven innovation. It’s about thinking global and acting local; how can we think about global challenges while acting to benefit the local and regional community? Our big vision recognises that AI will change the workplace and helps prepare people for it. How do we use AI to unlock human potential? This requires a different mindset.

“The combination of data and AI presents an opportunity for truly personalised and integrated care services. AI can analyse vast amounts of health data, identifying patterns and anomalies to predict outcomes. This technology also has the potential to radically improve resource productivity, support more accurate and timely decision-making, and democratise access to digital technologies. By shifting towards user and community-centric care, we can move away from a provider-centric model and ensure that everyone has access to the care they need.”

Jane Kennedy summarises the role of Discovery Park in realising the ambition: “We are an enabler. We create serendipity. We bring people together who would never normally meet. We provide platforms for the trailblazers, the dreamers and the big thinkers and look where the possibilities lie.”

CASE STUDY 1

SCITEGRITY was created by two former Pfizer employees to allow the pharma industry easy access to global information about regulation.

“Our entire company and solutions are built on data and technology,” says Joe Bradley, one of its co-founders.

Scitegrity uses advanced algorithms and “highly curated and proprietary” data to automatically check millions of chemicals (both common and completely novel), assessing whether they are regulated in 30 different countries – “to a level of accuracy far beyond what a human could achieve”. Weekly data updates ensure constant relevance.

Bradley adds: “In addition, we have encoded the chemical space of all known drugs of abuse, and can run Drug Abuse Potential assessments for novel chemicals before they enter clinical trials - a requirement of the regulators.”

Being at a “large, diverse and multi-tenanted site” like Discovery Park is vital, says Bradley, with Pfizer’s presence as a major anchor tenant allowing the Park to grow and thrive, attracting investment and new tenants.

In the next five years, Scitegrity plans to diversify into other related areas of chemical regulation, of greater interest to that outside pharma. “We believe our technology could be transformative for improving and simplifying compliance to chemical regulations,” Bradley says. “This includes areas such as dangerous and hazardous chemical regulations. Being able to talk to the right people in the right companies is imperative to this and being in Discovery Park, with its networking opportunities, both onsite and beyond, is an important part of this.”

CASE STUDY 2

Age Care Technologies, founded in 2018 by former hospital consultant Ian Philp, uses decades of research data from across 50 countries to identify 56 threats to older people’s independence, wellbeing, and health. Using digital technologies, it then develops methods to help older people report concerns and connect them to sources of support.

The company aims to reach 100 million older people globally by 2030, adding an average one extra quality year of life per older person and saving the global economy $46 trillion by reducing the need for long-term care and support.

“It’s a huge goal, but we know the methodology works and we know we can get it to older people at scale,” Philp says. “Two-thirds of the most significant threats to older people’s independence, wellbeing and health are not reported. The No 1 under-reported concern is loneliness. By identifying those threats, we can develop methods to help older people report their concerns and connect them to sources of support. Also, aggregating data across populations gives a view of older people’s real needs and helps policymakers.”

The company won the inaugural 2021 United Nations WSIS Prize for Innovation for Healthy Ageing. Philp was gob smacked, but has put semi-retirement on hold to try to achieve that “huge goal” – from Discovery Park.

“The entrepreneur and business support ecosystem here creates a perfect environment for business growth,” Philp says. “Ease of connection with universities, the NHS, and Government agencies provides a platform for evidence-based Healthtech product development and demonstration of impact. The Pfizer legacy is an important factor in the ongoing development of the health sciences sector.

“More widely, the UK has a global reputation for Healthtech innovation – with enormous potential for growth in global markets through creating and exploiting Healthtech intellectual property.