31 May 2019
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18 Jun 2019
Daniel Zamora: Supporting industry-led innovations into the healthcare system
Daniel Zamora, Health Innovation Manchester’s Commercial Programme Manager, explains how his role is supporting companies with healthcare innovations to improve their products, develop pitching skills and access their target market both in the UK and further afield.
I am fortunate enough to interact and support companies of all sizes – from innovative small and medium enterprises (SME) on their journey to market and product adoption to large companies addressing different global markets in healthcare. I’m also the Health 2.0 Manchester chapter lead, a community focused on digital innovations in the delivery of healthcare and health-related technology, which means digital health products and their companies are especially interesting to me.
I was recently invited to the HIMSS | Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki. It was a fantastic experience altogether; starting with amazing hospitality in a city where healthcare innovation is thriving and ambitious, combined with unparalleled organisation from the HIMSS/Health 2.0 team. The conference featured outstanding presentations, patient-centred keynotes, great exhibitors and many opportunities for networking with almost 3000 delegates in attendance, including investors, entrepreneurs, clinicians, developers, CIOs and thought leaders from more than 60 countries.
I had the pleasure to strengthen relations with local organisations such and ORCHA Healthcare, a local company which has grown into a global, trusted company providing health app evaluation and digital health reviews, and Gendius.
It takes commitment, collaboration and hard work for and SME to be global, but with some support, Greater Manchester offers a fantastic platform for Tech companies to establish, grow and think big.
Spotlight on: Gendius
Representatives from Gendius also attended the conference and share how they are supporting people to live well with diabetes.
Gendius, a young and ambitious SME, is committed to supporting people with diabetes to live their life and avoid secondary complications such a foot ulcers or kidney failures via innovative technology.
The company launched the Intellin App earlier his year in the UK and it has now spread to Europe. Intellin is an app-based platform using artificial intelligence and an individual’s clinical history to not only track their diabetes but also predict their risk of developing complications. The platform can help them make decisions to reduce their risk of developing complications by sending specific hints, tips and educational content to live better with diabetes.
As a local SME, Gendius has been supported by HInM’s commercial services throughout their journey, and in Helsinki, after a highly competitive shortlisting process, they were accepted to pitch for investment from European investors at the EC2VC competition and also to demo their product in a session named PATIENTS 2.0: SHARED DECISION-MAKING IN DIABETES.
Chris Genders, Director and Co-Founder of Gendius, said: “In light of its status of one of the most important annual meetings of health & technology in Europe, we were delighted to be selected for both the demo session and the investor pitch at HIMSS 2.0. As a relatively young pre-revenue start up, the opportunity to share the stage with other companies from across the world was priceless.”
He added that the company received feedback from investors present at the conference, including encouragement to accelerate and scale the app rapidly in order to reduce the risk of diabetic complications.
Chris continued: “The invitation to HIMSS 2.0 gave us our first real exposure to the global stage and was a great experience for us. We are grateful to Daniel Zamora and the team at Health Innovation Manchester for both their faith in Gendius, and facilitating our presence and profile at HIMSS 2.0.
“Gendius has secured significant levels of investment over the last three years, from Venture Capitalists, government and individuals. The co-founders feel that the business has reached a level of maturity that allows them to offer the opportunity for others to acquire equity in the company. We will be starting a Crowdcube campaign soon, and invite people to register their (non-binding) interest on the company website.”
