Healthtech Revolution: Funding the Next Generation of Healthcare Innovation

Healthtech is big business, and it’s only getting bigger.

The UK’s healthtech market has been on a steady growth trajectory in recent years. In the UK, investment in healthtech grew from £345 million in 2016 to £3.13 billion in 2021, an increase of nearly 800%, while seven of the UK’s unicorns are healthtech companies. 

From AI adoption in hospital management to digital platforms that support patients, healthtech has the potential to transform our health and wellbeing.

But what’s driving this growth? What does it mean for patients and clinicians? And how can innovative healthtech companies get the funding they need to deliver impactful advancements? 

Let’s find out.

Understanding Healthtech

It’s worth a quick note to define what healthtech is. You may hear the terms healthtech and medtech used in similar contexts. They are closely-related but distinct fields, with differing regulatory requirements, so it pays to be precise about their usage.

Healthtech refers to digital services that help to manage healthcare outside of a hospital or doctor’s surgery. Think of patient apps used to record health data, telemedicine, or wearable health devices, such as cardiac monitors or wrist worn health trackers.

Medtech refers to medical devices and tools used by doctors and clinicians in clinical settings. They are used for the diagnosis or treatment of conditions - imaging machines, surgical tools and implants.

The Healthtech Revolution

The Covid pandemic of 2019 is one key driver of the healthtech acceleration we are seeing today. 

The practical considerations of delivering healthcare in lockdown forced rapid implementation of new technologies and platforms, and stimulated the public appetite to access healthcare using technology - over 28 million people downloaded the NHS app during this time. 

In response, the Department of Health and Social Care published a policy paper for their plan for digital health and social care in June 2022, outlining the UK government’s intention to push for a ‘digitally-enabled health and social care system’. 

These cultural and technological advancements are being built upon by the Labour government voted in in July of this year.

In fact, healthtech featured heavily in Labour’s winning manifesto, which promised to harness AI in diagnostics, build out the NHS App, and invest in data and life sciences, along with other technologies, to enhance patient care.

What Can Healthtech Do For Us?

Healthtech is high on the national agenda, and it’s not difficult to see why.

A significant contributor to the UK economy, employing 154,000 people in 4,465 companies with a combined turnover of £34bn, it has the power to transform how we access healthcare, and our health outcomes.

Healthtech innovations can:

• Improve efficiencies and decrease waiting times.
• Promote quality care, and offer greater customisation to patients.
• Streamline workflows and processes to get more people seen, faster.
• Develop new drugs, new tools and new techniques that can revolutionise how we treat certain conditions.
• Empower people with more data about their condition, and help them better understand and take ownership of their own health.

AI in Healthcare

AI is the next big disruption in just about every industry, and healthcare is no exception. With investment in UK AI startups predicted to reach a record-breaking $4.4 billion by the end of the year, we are already witnessing a rising tide of AI healthcare applications with the potential to revolutionise traditional healthcare delivery in the NHS.

Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics, has made key observations about which areas of the NHS in which AI could potentially have the greatest impact:

• Customised care: AI can work with the growing range of wearable devices and apps, combining this data with health records and cross referencing it with the latest knowledge base from preventive healthcare and clinical medicine to produce tailored objectives for our health. (Already being trialled in NHS social care settings.)
  
  
• Drug development: AI is speeding up many of the key steps required to develop new drugs, dramatically reducing the research and development costs of bringing new drugs to market. It is also streamlining post-market surveillance processes by enabling the efficient collection and analysis of real-world data, to identify adverse drug reactions and other safety concerns.
  

• Productivity and efficiency: AI could help relieve administrative pressure and associated costs, freeing up clinicians’ time for face-to-face interactions; and accelerate task shifting initiatives, helping patients to manage their own care and non-specialist clinical staff tackle more specialised tasks.

Funding for Healthtech Innovations

It’s a great time to be active in healthtech. Nothing is more satisfying than developing innovations with the potential to change the face of healthcare delivery. 

But getting off the ground isn’t easy, and few startups are ready to dive into the competitive landscape of venture capital from the off. 

If you’re at an early stage of your development, the good news is that the UK government invests hundreds of millions of pounds annually into the research and development of innovative businesses. 

Innovation funding is administered through Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, into the development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services with the potential for commercial success.

The Biomedical Catalyst programme offers grants of up to £2 million for projects with innovative solutions to health, and healthcare, challenges.

You could also consider The UK Smart Grants programme, the Government’s flagship innovation programme, offering grants of up to £2 million for game changing ideas with the potential for rapid commercialisation - of which, healthtech is an eligible industry.

Healthcare Innovation Grants

Grant funding can help your healthtech innovation go from a great idea to a thriving business, improving outcomes for thousands of people.

Ready for growth? Take the first step with Grantify.

We’ve helped hundreds of businesses successfully secure over £130M in funding over the past three years. 

Check your eligibility in just 90 seconds.